Gallery
Cutting Off
Ready Rolled
Full Inspection
Darning
On the Shelf
Darning & Finishing
Your tartan has been woven. But it's still far from ready. There are two important things still to do before the fabric is ready for you, our VIP customer.
We need to check and darn the tartan, correcting any imperfections. Then we need to wash and press it, to arrive in pristine condition.
Checking & Darning
Every inch of your fabric is now examined on a light table, looking out for even the tiniest imperfections. Any stray threads are carefully snipped away. If a thread has broken during the weaving process it is mended, with individual threads hand-darned. With many years of experience, our eagle-eyed darners are fastidious in their dedication to ensuring that no tartan leaves their hands until perfect.
Washing & Pressing
Your tartan is now almost ready. But before we can send it to you it must of course be thoroughly cleaned to remove any impurities. This process of washing and scouring both ensures that your tartan arrives in spotless condition. And it also slightly softens the yarn, bestowing on your tartan the tough but soft character that is our hallmark.
And now the cloth must be straightened and pressed. This task is most arduous with our double width fabrics, whose vast weight when wet must be hoisted onto tenterhooks (from which comes the expression). From there it is straightened, dried, and smoothed out in a sandwich blower press, to leave it in perfect condition.
The Final Quality Control Check
In most companies, packing comes low in the pecking order. But at D.C. Dalgliesh it is done by the boss. He insists on checking over every single yard of material before personally wrapping it for dispatch. We consider it perhaps the most crucial stage of all. Because it's the ultimate assurance that the tartan we send our valued customers will always be as perfect as humanly possible.
