Finding the right tartans for Maggie’s has been quite a journey. What began with a few provincial patterns led us to Scottish mills, a generous expert here in British Columbia, and more tartan choices than we ever imagined.
We’ve learned that choosing a tartan isn’t simply a matter of picking a plaid. There’s the cloth, the colours, the history, and one surprisingly important question: how much of that lovely pattern will actually fit on a golf club headcover?
Our first discoveries were provincial tartans. We loved the idea that the colours could tell a story about a province’s landscape and history. A little piece of home, right there in your golf bag.
But the polyester-viscose fabric we first found wasn’t quite what we wanted for Maggie’s. We were looking for a different quality and feel, along with a wider selection of clan tartans.
It was time to look to Scotland.
We soon discovered that the world of tartan is enormous. The Scottish Register of Tartans records thousands of designs, from clan and district tartans to patterns created for businesses, organizations, and individuals.
Wonderful possibilities. Rather a lot of decisions.
Fortunately, our search brought us to Gordon Kirkbright.
Based here in British Columbia, Gordon had decades of experience in tartan weaving and design. After running Fraser & Kirkbright Weaving Co., he established GK Textiles to continue importing fabrics from Scottish mills.
Gordon became our supplier, but he also became our guide to a subject in which there is always something more to learn.
His work included five tartans used in the first season of Outlander, as well as two corporate tartans he designed for our own customers. It was exciting to discover that a completely new tartan could become part of someone’s story, too.
With Gordon’s help, we began to understand what makes a tartan work particularly well for our headcovers.
Scottish tartan cloth comes in different weights, but weight is only part of the picture. Every tartan has a “sett,” the repeating arrangement of lines and colours that creates its pattern.
A large sett might look magnificent in a kilt, but on a headcover, much of the design could disappear around the sides. A smaller sett lets more of the tartan’s character show.
In other words, we want you to see your tartan, not just one small corner of it.
The more we learned, the more a custom approach made sense for Maggie’s.
A family name might lead to several choices, including Ancient, Modern, Hunting, or Weathered versions. Beyond clan tartans, there are district and regional designs, and tartans created especially for organizations and businesses.
Rather than limit ourselves to a small, fixed selection, we wanted to help customers find something with a personal connection.
When a customer requests a particular tartan, we check whether we can source suitable cloth from Scotland. Availability depends on what the mills are producing, and some older or rarer designs can be difficult to find.
Setting up a new weave requires a commitment to purchase 25 to 30 yards of fabric from the mill. That makes sense if you’re making kilts, which can use several yards apiece.
For headcovers? Let’s just say we’d need rather a lot of golf bags.
When Gordon passed away unexpectedly in 2024, we lost someone whose knowledge and guidance had meant a great deal to our little business. We also wondered whether we would be able to continue Maggie’s without him.
Thankfully, we found Burnett’s & Struth Scottish Regalia in Ontario, who import tartan cloth from Scotland. Through them, we have been able to keep sourcing fabric and making headcovers for our customers.
Now there’s a new chapter ahead.
Burnett’s & Struth have told us that changes are coming to their tartan offering in 2027. We’re looking forward to learning more and sharing what those changes will mean for Maggie’s custom customers.
Our search for the right tartans continues. That’s part of the pleasure: finding beautiful cloth, discovering the stories behind it, and turning it into something you can take out on the course.
Perhaps the next tartan we look for will be yours.