Craftsmanship

Traditional skills passed down through generations are a
large part of what sets us apart from other textile manufacturers, and those
time-honoured techniques result in our exquisite craftsmanship.

In our Scottish mills, as many as 33 people are involved in
creating a single scarf, rug or stole and between 32 and 37 might touch a
jumper or cardigan before it's ready to be worn and loved. Far from
contemporary fast fashion, our fine craftsmanship delivers elegant, timeless
designs you can enjoy for a lifetime.

Dyeing

At Johnston of Elgin, our on-site dyehouse enables us to work with small batches and create beautiful melange shades and bespoke colours. It also allows us to achieve the highest environmental protection standards in this area and gives us control over the final quality of the dyeing process. We have more than 7000 colours in our repertoire, and our dyehouse team continues to create new recipes every season. 

Carding & Spinning

Carding is an age-old process that has changed so little that one of the carding machines bought by James Johnston in 1867 still worked satisfactorily until 1994, 127 years later. In the carding process, fibres are fed into a machine with fine wire rollers that separate, straighten, and align them. The fibres go through a two-step carding process, rotating midway to ensure uniformity. At the end, the fine webbing is cut into ribbons and condensed into twistless rovings. These rovings are weak and need spinning to strengthen them into yarn.

Spinning involves three stages: spinning, winding, and twisting. Rovings from the carding machine are placed onto bobbins and spun in opposite directions to create uniform width and weight. The yarn is then wound onto cones, with sensors removing any irregularities. Next, the strands are twisted to thicken the yarn, determining its ply.

Weaving

The fabric's weave refers to the intricate interlacing pattern formed by the warp and weft yarns. This weave structure is pivotal, dictating the fabric's qualities, like its drape and overall performance. Our weaving process utilizes two primary loom types: Dobby and Jacquard. With Dobby looms, warp threads follow predetermined sequences, creating fabrics with diverse weave patterns, ranging from simple to complex designs like checks and stripes. Our Jacquard looms offer even greater versatility by enabling the production of intricate patterns, as each warp thread can be individually controlled. This level of control allows for endless design possibilities.

Knitting

We make our knitwear at our own mill in Hawick, Scotland. Eastfield Mill has been a textile manufacturing centre for more than 140 years, now creating our unique range of knitted garments using innovative technology and traditional, often hand-finished, methods. Each piece is handled with care and washed in soft Scottish water to maintain its delicate hand feel.

Finishing

Many of our products are finished by hand at our weaving and knitting mills. We add the finishing touches to a number of our blankets and capes at our dedicated sewing facility, Makers Croft, near our Elgin weaving mill. This includes our signature blanket stitch finish, achieved using repurposed century-old Singer sewing machines originally crafted in Scotland.