PV Kilts-Another love story..

[Bugbear]

Celery! That's information you don't hear every day.

[The Wizard of BC]

True P/V will have a firm, smooth feel in your hand. The yarns are twisted tight and the weave is tight. Very similar to a Worsted Wool Kilt.

Acrylic is usually woven from crimped fibers and will have a "fuzzy" look to its surface. It will feel "squishy" if you squeeze it between your fingers. Sort is like polar fleece.

A quick way to tell the weight of the fabric in a Kilt is to weigh it.
A Full 16oz Wool Kilt will weigh just over 4lbs.
A 13 oz Wool Kilt weighs just over 3.25 lbs.

I just weighed a 12oz P/V Kilt in Holyrood Tartan. The Kilt has a 46" Hip, a 40" waist and is 22" from top of waistband to hem. It weighs 2.92lbs.

This will give you a good ballpark idea of fabric weights.

[DWFII]

It kind of surprises me that there isn't a 16 ounce PV being produced. I'd be interested in a PV kilt if it was 16 ounce. where I live we get a fair amount of wind during the day and I suspect that a 12 or 13 ounce fabric would be too fly away for my tastes.

I know some of the kiltmakers that post to this forum are eager to get their hands on a genuine 16 ounce PV...I'm waiting for the day when I hear from them that they have a source.

[The Wizard of BC]

I've spoken to weavers in an attempt to persuade one to start weaving P/V in heavier weights. No one seems willing.

I asked Gordon of Fraser & Kirkbright to make up a short run of full 13oz P/V in Blackwatch and it was really nice fabric. But the cost to do it was outrageous for 1 extra ounce per yard.

Right now the only company with the capability to even try would be Marton Mills. They just don't seem to want to go through the hassle of stocking even more fabric.

The truth of the matter is we, the Kilt world, are just too small. We are not even the largest user of the P/V that Marton Mills does produce.

Please remember that Rocky is the largest user of P/V in all of N. America.
I'm probably second with Pete McHummel. And even though I am using what I think is a lot of Tartan fabric both Pete and I together don't equal what Rocky uses. That's it folks. Just the three of us.

The world is having a love affair with the inexpensive Acrylic Kilts right now. Those of us who use high quality fabrics and make Kilts in N. America simply can't compete with $50.00 mass produced stuff. Heck, just the fabric alone for an 8 yard P/V Kilt costs more than that.

So, until all the Kilt wearers of the world create a demand that overwhelms the three of us and we have more folks starting up business to fill the void, heavy weight P/V will have to wait

[MacHummel]

I will second Steves comments simply because he has made this point over and over along with Rocky not all PV is the same, all of us the have gone after the white whale of 16oz PV have been sadly disappoint in the quality. So be mindful of you purchase when it comes to "PV" we are not just here to sell but to educate ask!!!! .

[RockyR]

to COMBINE what Pete and Steve said...

We've gone after the White Whale (LOVE the refference BTW, Pete) of HIGH QUALITY 165 oz PV fabric. Mills in Pakistan produce it, but the quality of the fabric is low, so we don't use it for our kilts. The weave is a very open weave and it's very course compared to MM PV fabric. It almost feels like 'carhardt material', but more on the "1970's polyester" side.

I'm not 100% sure we're the only ones using MM PV fabric, but there aren't MANY more if any. The only other one that came up off the top of my head was Neokilt.