disappoinment with Cthulu tartan

[Paul Henry]

I've hestitated before posting this , but I felt as information to others it was important

I got a length of tartan before Christmas after rather drawn out telephone conversations chasing delivery times from Dalgleish, but I was very happy to finally get it!

Now that I've started to make the kilt I find some flaws which make me question the quality control.
This looks like a repaired broken thread, but it is fairly heavy and clumsy , it's not the end of the world as it will be in the fold of a pleat, so bearable


long thread ends, all on the same(wrong)side at least but they should have been trimmed in the finishing, so again bearable


But this is the one which annoyed me most, the selvedge is very uneven along most of the cloth,but with steam, pressing and pulling and easing I can make it better, but I shouldn't have to, neither should any other kiltmaker.


I suppose I am disappointed more than annoyed, all the previous cloth I have had from them has been very good, and this frankly isn't up to their usual standard. There isn't much that can be done about this, it was a special run, with special colours, and to be fair the actual cloth feels fine, but , to me, it has certainly taken the shine off a great project.

[Dale Seago]

Wow. Not encouraging.

[Ryan Ross]

Not at all.

[madmacs]

I believe there was a post recently questioning their selvedge edge (on the scotweb forum?)

I guess I'll be sticking with strome...

[ForresterModern]

Disappointing indeed, particularly for a custom weave, from which you have every right to expect better. That selvedge looks as if certain thread colors have shrunk somehow in transit. Also, it may be the lighting, but your second picture almost looks as if there is a puddle like area of irregular discoloration in the center of the large green block to the right in the picture. Is that real or just the lighting, and if real are there others like it in the rest of the tartan?

[denmcdough]

Over a year ago I placed an order with Dalgliesh, special weave of 24 yards, through my kilt maker, Wallace Catanach, and I was not quite pleased with the way the material had a pucker appearance to it. Wally did his best to steam it out, which helped a bit, but by no means did it solve the problem.

My first kilt with Dalgliesh material was very nice. Has their quality control gone to pot??? They've always had a wonderful reputation. I hope that has not made them go soft!

[artificer]

I noticed some irregularity in the selvedge of my kilt (which I just received over the weekend- pix to follow shortly), but didn't see any of the other issues. Perhaps Matt cleaned them up in construction.

That is very frustrating indeed, given the scope of the project and the fact that we can probably never have these exact colours done again.

:cthulhusmiley:

[Ryan Ross]

I noticed some irregularity in the selvedge of my kilt (which I just received over the weekend- pix to follow shortly), but didn't see any of the other issues. Perhaps Matt cleaned them up in construction.

That is very frustrating indeed, given the scope of the project and the fact that we can probably never have these exact colours done again.

:cthulhusmiley:

That stinks. I guess I didn't pick my kilt over too carefully, but an irregular selvage never popped out at me. I'll have to take a closer look.

...but none the less, those pictures better be forthcoming very shortly. :cthulhusmiley:

[ForresterModern]

Over a year ago I placed an order with Dalgliesh, special weave of 24 yards, through my kilt maker, Wallace Catanach, and I was not quite pleased with the way the material had a pucker appearance to it. Wally did his best to steam it out, which helped a bit, but by no means did it solve the problem.

My first kilt with Dalgliesh material was very nice. Has their quality control gone to pot??? They've always had a wonderful reputation. I hope that has not made them go soft!

In the last three years I have had kilts made from 4 custom weaves from Dalgleish, 3 heavyweight and one mediumweight, and all have immaculate material surface finishes and straight practically imperceptible selvedges. That is why this and another recent thread on similar topic do indeed cause me some concern. Before this I would have had absolutely no reservations about recommending their fabric as being equal, and in some ways superior, to any other tartan weaver on the market. But I have seen better selvedges on standard production runs from some large corporate weavers of significantly lesser reputation and cost, albeit not special custom weaves. I guess I should consider myself lucky to have not had any problems with Dalgleish fabric (cannot say the same about the one length of F&K Maple Leaf I got a couple years ago), and doubly lucky that I do not anticipate needing to order any further Dalgleish custom weaves in the foreseeable future. My sympathies go out to any who may have recieved what they consider less than expected quality from their special weaves, as that kind of takes a bit away from the "special" nature of the tartan.

jeff

[M. A. C. Newsome]

I don't know what to say about the big, thick thread in the first photo. Hopefully it was just an irregularity in that one part of the weave. I haven't noticed anything like that in any of the lengths of this tartan I have worked with yet.

Regarding the knots where threads were joined, I find this is fairly typical of Dalgliesh cloth, and I believe just comes down to the vintage equipment and weaving techniques. Although you don't typically see this on cloth woven on the more modern looms at the larger mills, this sort of thing is in fact why we speak of a "right" and "wrong" side of the fabric.

Any knots where the threads had to be joined are always to be found on the same (wrong) side of the fabric, so that they do not show in the finished garment. This is why the twill lines in your kilt are supposed to run up and to the right when you are wearing it. Because this is the "face" of the cloth.

So knots like that have never bothered me. They are always on the inside of the kilt, and I actually like seeing them, as I know then that I am working with a length of cloth woven on old looms, woven by individual operators rather than churned out on a computerized machine.

Lastly, on the selvage, that particular picture does look a bit more irregular than I ordinarily see! Although I will say that a bit of irregularity in a traditional selvage like that is to be expected. The only perfectly straight selvages I have ever seen have been modern tuck selvages, and to me it is a case of being "too perfect." Plus you have the downside of the thick tucked edge. I'd rather have a bit of irregularity in the line, myself.

However, as I said, that particular photo looks particularly bad. Is this just a worst example section, Paul, or is the whole length like that? As this is double width cloth, I wonder if it is worse on one side than the other?

I have a few more lengths of this tartan on the table to make kilts from yet, and I shall have to take a careful look....