Fabric Friday - Shetland tweed

This week on Fabric Friday, I turn my attentions to the Shetland tweed used to make the jacket first seen in A Christmas Carol.

The jacket was a smarter, more tailored cut compared to the Harris tweed and Donegal versions seen in series five.

The elbow patches were dropped - though this seems to have been an oversight since they reappear in the very next episode.

The tweed used came from W Bills and has been likened to a plaid, though it is not truly defined as such.

The fabric has a distinct orientation, with bold vertical stripes of darker brown mixed with a lighter beige colour.

These images are directly scanned from fabric that was part of the bolt that was cut to make Matt’s screen-worn jackets. They have then been colour-matched back to the material to give the best visual representation of the fabric.

The only discernible pattern repeat horizontally are some narrow orange stripes, which are at irregular spacings, alternating between 35mm and 45mm.

This can make the fabric a bit awkward to use when pattern matching, as the true pattern repeat is effectively 75mm.

Woven in 100% pure Scottish wool to a full width of 54 inches wide, it comes from the island of Shetland off the coats of Scotland.

According to one of my favourite vintage tailoring books, Textile For Tailors, the Shetland tweed is woven in a twill, or common twill.

This creates the distinctive diagonal banding in the stripes.