Donegal - limited supply vintage roll

While trawling the fabric shops of London’s Soho, I recently chanced upon a great find - a bolt of Donegal tweed in just the right colour to match matt’s series 5 jacket!

The original tweed had been sourced at W Bills, and was a hand-woven half-width cloth. There was two bolts in stock when I first went in, and these quickly sold out.

At the time I made enquiries about getting it rewoven, which was something W Bills was keen on doing, but the weavers could not reorder the same yarns, so their attempts were less than inspiring.

Later, when W Bills was sold to Harrisons, I had a meeting with them to discuss ongoing restocking of legacy Doctor Who cloths, and the Donegal was one of those we talked about.

Ultimately they produced a reweave, which overall was a visual match, but used a thicker yarn and had a notable red fleck which detracted from the simple duo-colour of the original.

The cloth I have stumbled across is woven from a yarn of a thickness between the screen-used and rewoven tweeds.

It has some very minor flecks, but in a light colour that do not distract too much from the overall look of the fabric.

I have made up a couple of jackets now in this new option, and it has proved very popular.

Personally I would recommend this cover over the current W Bill reweave, as it is closer to the original screen-used fabric.

I’ll make this new cloth the subject of a Fabric Friday very soon, so you can see a comparison between this and the two W Bill weaves.

If you are interested in a bespoke made Donegal jacket which stocks last, please mail me at tennantcoat@me.com 
and I can send you details.

Rewoven Donegal tweed - side-by-side

Last week on Fabric Friday I showed you the recently rewoven Donegal Tweed now on offer from Harrisons (the company who bought out W Bills).

I showed had although it was not totally perfect, I think it passed the distance test.

I mentioned that I was working on making a tweed jacket out of this new cloth, and would show you the results alongside my own jacket made from the screen-used fabric.

Well, true to my word here are some shots to show the two side-by-side.

The first thing I should mention is my jacket (on the left) is a chest 42, and the new jacket (on the right) is only a chest 35! So this is a like-for-like on the fabric only - the cut of the jackets will look a little different compared to each other.

The next Donegal I have to make will be a chest 44 - so from one end of the scale to the other.

Overall I think the reweave compares well, with the visual read of the fabric very close to the original.

The new fabric has a warmer shade to it, compared to the screen-used cloth, which is greener.

Getting closer, its only now the red flecks start to show up, but they are not to frequent for it to notice too dominantly.

You can’t get around that they are there, but frankly compared to a lot of other cloths I have sourced, this is by far the least intrusive available.

It’s nice to be making this jacket again, as I haven’t made one for several years.
The cut is a classic lounge jacket shape, and the cloth is a joy to work with.

I hope to be making more in the future.

Fabric Friday - Donegal tweed: REWEAVE!

This week I’m bringing back Fabric Friday!

First up is the reweaving of an old favourite.

Matt Smith’s main tweed jacket for his first season was made from a hand-woven Donegal fabric sourced at W Bills.

At the time there were two bolts of the cloth available, and both of these were used to make a number of jackets for use throughout series five.

The tweed had been woven sometime in 2007, so by the time it was used it was already a few years old.

Only 36 inches wide, the fabric quickly sold out once its notoriety as being a Doctor Who cloth became known, alongside the Shetland tweed which was used for A Christmas Carol onwards.

Unlike the Shetland tweed, which has since been rewoven no less than three times, the Donegal proved to be more troublesome.

Woven from only two colours of yarn (unlike the six used on the Shetland) finding a match for both was not as easy as it sounds. If one yarn is off, then half the design isn’t right.

When I returned to W Bills to discuss the restocking of the Donegal, I was shown some samples the weavers had produced using the available yarns. None were remotely acceptable, either being too light or too dark or simply combining to produce the wrong colour.

Ultimately W Bills gave up the quest to restock, so it fell by the wayside and has remained unavailable since.

However, once Harrisons took over W Bills, they were much more proactive at maintaining stocks of popular fabrics, and took on board the interest in the Shetland tweed, which has since been rewoven. This comes under the WEAVE 3 that I covered on a previous Fabric Friday.

I took the opportunity to talk to them about the Cashmere for Matt’s frock coat, which they researched but were unable to come up with a satisfactory result.

I also gave them a swatch of the original Donegal, and using that they have now produced a rewoven fabric, abet a close but not perfect match.

These images are directly scanned from fabric. They have then been colour-matched back to the material to give the best visual representation of the fabric.

First impressions is that the fabric is the best I have seen to date - and it is first impressions that count.

I have seen others which are close, but either use yarns that are far too thin or too thick or have an excessive number of nepps (the lumps on the yarn that give it character) in contrasting colours such as red, blue or green.

That said, this new cloth does have a few coloured nepps, but nowhere near as many as I have seen on alternative cloths.

The two yarns used are a very good match to the light coffee and dark chocolate colours in the original, though they are a little on the thick side.

I think the cloth passes the test for its overall appearance and feel, though at extreme close-up it maybe falls down a bit.

All this taken into account, I have investing in a length to see how it turns out as a jacket.

It’s nice to have the fabric available again after so many years of being out of stock.

Fabric Friday - Donegal tweed

This week on Fabric Friday I’m bringing you the second of the jacket fabrics from Matt Smith’s wardrobe.

After shooting a handful of episodes with a single vintage Harris tweed, the costume department produced a number of jackets for Matt to wear, all made from Donegal tweed sourced from W Bills in London.

The hand-woven fabric was made on foot operated looms, and so was only a half-width 36 inches wide.

The weave is very simple: a light coffee colour in one direction in a plain or hopscotch weave with a dark chocolate colour in the other direction.
The lighter of the two colours has a flecking in the same shade, which gives the fabric the slightly corse appearance.

I have seen a number of very similar Donegal style fabrics, but their flecking has been in other colours such as red or green. These can ruin the appearance of the fabric.

With the very nature of the weave the fabric is reversible and looks the same from both sides, though it does need to be orientated consistently.

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.

Tweedaggon

I’ve had a very busy week - been having a very busy couple of months come to that.
October has been manic for US clients wanting something for Halloween, and now I have a rush for the 50th Official Celebration - all on top of my usual bits and pieces I do.

It’s funny sometimes how I don’t get asked to make a particular garment for ages, then I get a run of orders and find myself under a mountain of cloth.

This month is seems to be tweed!

If you’re waiting on a jacket from me - it’s likely yours is one of those shown above!

Donegal discovery

I’m on a bit of a roll - no pun intended.

After securing the very last piece of the Cashmere from the season 7b Frock Coat (see left), I have now managed to track down a piece of genuine Donegal tweed a-la the series five jacket.

The original tweed jackets worn in series five were cut from two rolls of half-width hand woven Donegal tweed from W Bills in London and sold for around £40 a metre.

Once the supply had been exhausted, the weavers tried to match the fabric, but could not source the original yarn.
Since there are only two colours in the weave it meant the finished result would have been wildly out, so no attempt has been made to recreate this fabric.

What I have found pre-dates the original weave and uses the correct colours, abet a different dyeing batch, but it is essentially exactly the same stuff.

Just like the screen used, this is half-width and hand woven - so a top quality fabric!

I have a good dozen metres, so enough to make three jackets (4 metres is needed for an average jacket up to chest 44 or so).

I am happy to sell this by the metre or as made up jackets, just like the Donegal I made a couple of years back (see right).

If you are interested in a the Donegal fabric by the metre or as a made-up bespoke jacket, please mail me at tennantcoat@me.com 
and I can send you details.