MacArthur Tartan and Marton Mills

[MacHummel]

My experience with MM wool in both Jura and Bute has been good I love the finish on the tthem they are crisp which is nice for setting pleats. I am alergic to wool but i seem to have very little reaction to the MM stuff maybe because of the finish on them . Their is a kilting selvage' its mostly the PV that has a frayed selvage but I have got some in lately that has a kilting selvage.

[Barb T]

Marton Mills 14 and 16 oz tartan does have a kilting selvedge, but it's more conspicuously "selvedgey" than Lochcarron's or Dalgliesh's.

Traditionally, a selvedge is made at the edge of a woven piece simply by making sure that the warp thread goes under the edge thread on one pass and over the edge thread on the return. This means that the "self edge" looks exactly like the rest of the fabric. Modern looms, however, do what's called a turned selvedge. Each weft thread is actually separate and is returned only about 1/2" before being cut off. This makes the selvedge double in terms of thread density with respect to the rest of the fabric. How the edge looks depends on how well this is done. Part of this hinges on what stripe is placed as the very edge. A light stripe is a particularly bad choice, because it doesn't look white because of the doubled edge threads (that was the issue, if you remember, with the XMarks tartan run - what some referred to as a "bleeding" selvedge). Sometimes the turned selvedge is a bit wavy as well, because of the extra threads. And it will always feel stiffer than the rest of the fabric.

As far as I am aware, Dalgliesh still makes a traditional selvedge. Lochcarron used to make a traditional selvedge, but everything I've gotten from them in the past couple years has had a turned selvedge. One of the things I liked so much about the Bicentennial tartan that I did a swap for with MacWage is that it is one of the old Lochcarron tartans with the traditional selvedge. It's absolutely perfect.

Anyway, I think that Lochcarron does a better job on their turned selvedges than Marton Mills does, but, as I said before, I'm pretty picky. It's definitely acceptable as a kilting selvedge.

Cheers,

Barb

[Barb T]

Barb- I might wait and keep saving and go with DC Dalgliesh cloth. You posted some information about them in another thread,
http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...ight=Dalgliesh

is that information still good? Thanks for the advice.

This information is still accurate, although it's possible that prices have risen a little. So, figure 18 British pounds/yard for a custom weave, single width. That's about 150 British pounds for the tartan for an 8 yard kilt plus shipping. So, figure under $400 for the tartan. I think that's not bad for a custom weave (especially given the current exchange rate!!).

B