Fulled Loden

[Toddy]

The folks at Yorkshire fabrics are absolutely sound. They aren't cheap, but they don't sell carp. They are approachable though, and you can phone and ask for advice and what they might have to hand. They don't put every fabric on their website, but they do have a good stock and they do have smaller pieces. Last time I contacted them they rooted right through what they had to find me a particular shade and weight of linen for an urgent commission. The fabric arrived the next day too.

I have bought wool and linen from Herts (known in reenactor's fayres as Ali the Trader). His wools are good, much the same as those from Bernard Hunt and Anne Laverick. The basic standard wool that's sold for kirtles, etc., is sound, it's good, it's well made and it's very reasonably priced, but it's not truly windproof. You can wash it and see if you're lucky and it'll felt down a bit, but you risk the 'woolly brick' if it goes too far.
Thing is though, all of these sellers all have 'assorted' bolts of cloth that just might be an overrun from a factory, that's an awful lot better quality. It's just your luck. It is very much worth your while to contact them and ask.

Sometimes it's worth accepting that a thicker outer layer, with a thinner wool flannel inner one, is a better option than struggling to find exactly the fabric you want though.

It works for Swanndri, and it works for Himself's 'hoodies'. He's just in, he's been out for a walk through the woods and down to the river this morning. His choice today was a double layered wool bushshirt, and he's home warm and dry. It's still -1.9˚C here, and it was a fair bit colder earlier. Damp too though because it's still misty and we had fog all day yesterday. The wool doesn't mind, it works well in our climate

 

[Nomad]

Not entirely sure what I'm after, to be honest, or maybe things have widened since I started looking. The thing that kicked it off was remembering seeing a few metres of what was described as Loden (in a dark green) on eBay a few years ago. I procrastinated, finally decided to buy it, and found it had gone. Fast forward to now, and I wanted to look into wool fabrics, somewhat prompted by the McCall's M5252 pattern thing, with a view to maybe making a cold weather jacket for day-to-day use (rather than something specifically bushy). I figured on something with a medium thick wool lining and a windproof cotton shell.

This seems to have evolved into an attempt to find out about wool fabrics in general, with a view to seeing what particular types might be suitable for other uses (like that tweed potentially making a nice wool shirt). I do have some olive army blankets that I reckon are wool, but they're a bit thick for what I had in mind for the winter jacket (and they're marginal for size, and don't quite match each other in colour or thickness).

The two references I have in terms of garments are a Swanny Ranger and a Bush Shirt. The Ranger has almost no wind resistance, but is still reasonably warm in still conditions when worn as a jumper over a cotton 5.11 shirt. The Bush Shirt as good wind resistance, but isn't really what I'd wear to the office or for popping down the shops (and there are some aspects of the design that I'd rather were different). It's the later Bush Shirt with the mixed fibre lining, which seems to have no wind resistance, but the main fabric is good. The outer on the Bush Shirt strikes me as more like what Loden or similar fulled woven wools should be like, and that's what I'd like to get for a medium weight. I realise that a lining doesn't need to be wind resistant, but I think I'd rather just home in on a particular fabric and get used to working with it; and something wind resistant offers the option of making a garment just from that fabric with no shell.

I've been doing similar searching for cottons, although that extends into heavier stuff for thinks like bags and ground cloths.

At first, I was balking at some of the prices. Having been more used to trawling eBay for stuff that's around £6-8 a meter, fabrics like Ventile seemed prohibitively expensive, especially for a clothing beginner. However, having seen some of the rubbish masquerading as 'canvas', and realising that quite a lot of time goes into making a garment, the cost of the fabric has become less of a factor. There's no point in putting hours into something made from fabric that's unsuitable. While there may be deals to be had in factory overruns and the like, there are potential issues with reliability of supply and choice of colour. If I make something from a fabric, like it, want to make something else only to find it's gone, I'm back to square one. For the cost savings to be had, the time spent in trying to source something similar, and the delays in waiting for samples, could well come second to paying the higher cost of buying the right colour of a known fabric from a stable supply.

This is all assuming my sewing skills are up to the task, of course. At the moment, I wouldn't attempt to make something from 60-70 quid's worth of fabric, but if the windproof top based on McCall's M5252 works out with the medium weight cotton at £8 a meter, then I think I'd be more willing to spend the larger amounts of cash. It might not be 'cheap', but it's a relatively small proportion if I were to put a value on my time. Ultimately, with all of my craft activities, I lean towards finding good materials and settling on them - you get used to how to work them, and that leads to being able to design better, more functional stuff because you know how they'll behave when you want to make particular shapes.

 

[Toddy]

I have to agree.

I think I would then advise that if you want to try wool, then buy some of the reenactors wool. It comes in a wide range of colours, it comes in standard types and weights, and it is very reasonably priced. Bernard Hunt has the bolts dyed to order for him, and I think Anne Laverick does too. Not sure about Herts fabrics, just know that they sell nice stuff and I've always been really pleased with the fabrics I have from him.

If you're prepared to wait a little while, then there's a reenactors Market down at Warwick in the middle of March.
https://www.reenactorsmarket.co.uk

https://www.reenactorsmarket.co.uk/traders.html

I've driven down and back home in a day before now.