Choosing the right fabric or design for you

Whether you're choosing the right fabric for a product, or selecting a length of fabric itself, arrowing down the choices from thousands of fabrics can be a daunting task. But we offer you several ways to help you find the perfect fabric for your project. Here are some tips:

1. Determine your requirements: Before you start browsing fabrics, it's important to determine what you need the fabric for. Consider factors like the type of product or project you're working on, then consider the fabric's durability, texture, and colour, and any other requirements you may have.

2. Use filters: We let you to filter your search results by factors like colour, fabric type, pattern, price, and more - with even more options to select tartans. Using filters can help you quickly narrow down your options and find fabrics that meet your specific requirements.

3. Order swatches: If you're having trouble deciding between several fabrics, consider ordering swatches. For almost all fabrics other than those woven to order, we offer swatches for a small fee, which allows you to see and feel the fabric before committing to a larger purchase.

We supply a very wide range of fabrics, so we can’t answer every question here. If in doubt, our customer service team is trained to advise on every need, so please just ask! Meanwhile, here are some broad pointers.

Tartans & other Patterns

Our range of choices may seem a bit overwhelming. But we've got your back! Regardless of your level or expertise or particular need, we can probably help. To find right tartan for you, we suggest browsing our extensive libary of tartan information. For tweeds we also provide lots of guidance on tweed materials and patterns and more. 

Fabric Materials

This depends mostly on your use. For garments, most people prefer natural fibres, such as wool or silk. But for homewares such as tablewares an easily washable artificial fibre might be better.

Garments like kilts should normally always be in Pure New Wool. But we also offer polyviscose and other man-made fabrics, which may be preferred for either hypoallergenic qualities or ease of cleaning.

Fabric Weight

Tartan accessories and garments (with the exception of kilts) are mostly made in lighter weight tartans, or perhaps even in tartan silks. This is largely a matter of taste. A woollen tie, for example, could be made in anything from a featherweight 8oz fabric up to a heavy weight 16oz. But such a heavy wool would be rare for a woman’s skirt. In general, lighter fabrics are smoother, and heavier can be more coarse, so you may wish to bear this in mind when choosing items such as scarves that sit against the skin.

Tartan for a traditional kilt is most popular in Medium Weight wool (e.g. 13oz) but most traditional in Heavy Weight (e.g. 16oz or even 18oz ‘Regimental’). Medium weight gives a good balance of warmth, crease-retention, durability, swing, and ease of wear. With heavier fabrics you gain greater durability, creasing, and swing, but it is literally a heavy garment. If you live in a very hot climate, you might prefer a Light Weight fabric; this is cooler to wear, but is likely to need more regular pressing of the creasing at the rear, and may not swing quite so impressively when moving.