About the fabric....

How much denim gets sold in this country? I mean, how many millions of yards? I can't even guess.... but go down to Joanne's fabric and you'll pay 8 - 12 bucks a yard for denim. Is denim worn world-wide? Yes. Millions upon millions of yards of denim gets woven every years.....probably over a billion yards.

How about canvas, is that worn world-wide?

How about cotton/polyester twill? How many millions of yards of cotton/poly twill gets made into Dockers pants?

THAT is why denim, cotton/poly twill and suchlike costs $8 - 12 a yard.

Are the Scottish woolen mills ripping us off? Remember, how many wool kilts get made, worldwide, every year? What, maybe 10,000? 50,000? Let's go totally hog-wild and guess that world-wide, there are 100,000... 11, 13 and 16 ounce wool kilts made worldwide every year...not including those for the British military.

That's a lot of kilts! If each of those kilts has four yards of double-width material in them, that's 400,000 yards of tartan. FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND YARDS! Whoooiiieeee!

But wait, how many tartans are there? Um, a quick perusal of www.kiltstore.coms tartan finder reveals that there are over 8,000 different tartans. Let's say that most of those are variants that don't get used much and really the core of kiltmaking...aside from Royal Stewart and Black Watch is about 2,000 tartans. That's reasonable.

So that 400,000 yards of tartan is divided by 2,000. In other words, in a year, the averge tartan is produced in a quantity around 200 yards.

Whoooooaaaaaaaahhhhhh.... two hundred yards?

'cause, see every single one of those two hundred yards has to be set up and run by hand, one at a time, and every single one of them is different. It's not like loading up a loom for "indigo blue denim" for the eighteen-thousandth time. You know, House of Edgar probably only do runs of 40 -50 yards at a time. If they do more than that, they have to keep it around too long.

So, why doesn't tartan cost the same as cotton poly twill or denim?

Answer: because the market for wool tartan is TINY compared to cotton/polyester twill or blue denim.

Next up....you know, the Scottish Mills aren't the only places that make wool cloth. If we look at the First World, then that should give you an idea what the going market it. I mean, there are Italian mills and Canadian Mills and so on.


OK, so first off, go look at the prices for Fraser and Kirkbright. What do their 10.5 ounce wools cost? Answer: $40 a yard....Canadian dollars, which is about $32 in USA dollars. Compare that to the 10.5 ounce Marton Mills wool/poly blend, it's same price. Compare it to the Scottish 10-11 ounce 100% wools, and it's 2/3rd the price, but it's for darned sure not $8 a yard.

OK, how about Pendleton Woolen Mills in the USA?

Look here http://www.pendleton-usa.com/jump.js...ProductID=1042

That's 52 x 74 inch throw. It's $70 . Basically, that's a piece of cloth that's essentially double-width and two yards long...not worsted, mind you, but lambswool. The price is right in there with what the Scottish Mills charge for lambswool.

How about Pendelton wool Fabric?

http://www.pendleton-usa.com/jump.js...2C6%2C42%2C152

That's their "lightweight" fabric. You'll notice that it's $48 a yard.
Here's their heavyweight fabric.

http://www.pendleton-usa.com/jump.js...2C6%2C42%2C153

Son of a gun, but that's $64 a yard.



OK, how about some Italian Mills?

Linea Natural, top-quality Italian wool for Men's suits and slacks...$150 a yard.

http://www.thebensolgroup.com/Italian_Wool.htm

The flat-out truth is that the really inexpensive cloth all comes from Aisa...China, Pakistan, India. A few things come from Central America. It costs more to ship wool to Pakistan than it costs to shear the blinkin' sheep!

http://www.stockmangrassfarmer.net/c...age.cgi?id=650

When kilts and kilt-wearing becomes as commonplace as blue jeans or Dockers, and when the Pakistani's and Indians and Chinese see a market for really high-end wool, then they'll probably make it, and you'll see it for $12 a yard, because the guy that is running that loom makes four dollars a day. Until then, you're NOT getting ripped off. It's just market reality.