From raw wool to Orb stamped fabric, Harris Tweed today blends island craftsmanship with careful modernisation. Mills refine colour and yarn; independent weavers hand-weave at home; finishing teams perfect the handle—every stage still rooted in the Outer Hebrides, certified for authenticity.
Trusted family retail stores on Harris and Inverness, serving Harris Tweed® customers worldwide.
Handwoven and sourced directly from the Outer Hebrides; no imitations, guaranteed origin and quality.
A tweed protected by an Act of Parliament; ensuring authenticity, origin and strict standards.
Trusted family retail stores on Harris and Inverness, serving Harris Tweed® customers worldwide.
Handwoven and sourced directly from the Outer Hebrides; no imitations, guaranteed origin and quality.
A tweed protected by an Act of Parliament; ensuring authenticity, origin and strict standards.
Trusted family retail stores on Harris and Inverness, serving Harris Tweed® customers worldwide.
Handwoven and sourced directly from the Outer Hebrides; no imitations, guaranteed origin and quality.
A tweed protected by an Act of Parliament; ensuring authenticity, origin and strict standards.
Producing Harris Tweed in its early days was an admirable artisanal endeavour; also one that was labour-intensive and slow. Sheep were hand sheared, natural dyeing incorporated plants and lichen, carding and spinning by hand, weaving on manual looms, and waulking the cloth by hand or foot. Every length of tweed bore not just the colours of the land but the imprint of many hands and voices. The result of all this labour was a length of Harris Tweed that was pure luxury in its authenticity and untouched by industrialization. Such a process may seem onerous now, but it produced a textile of unparalleled character, a tribute to the crofters’ devotion and craftsmanship.
The origins of Harris Tweed® are deeply rooted in the crofting communities of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Crofters raised traditional native sheep and each Summer they gathered in the sheep from the moors and sheared them by hand. Neighbours and families gathered together in this communal harvesting of wool. This event showcased their self‑sufficient heritage, sharing skills and equipment whilst it reinforced social bonds. The wool began it's journey from hill to cloth with patience and care.
Raw fleeces were all hand-dyed using natural dyes. Cast iron pots boiled on the peat fires whilst lichens, roots, and other local plants were added to create earthy pigment baths for the damp wool. This was submerged into the botanical soup and soaked up the rugged tones of the Hebrides. This ancestral dyeing process made each batch unique and imparted the tweed with its deep, landscape‑inspired hues.
Once the fleece was dyed villagers scoured the wool in water, easing out field dust and excess lanolin with gentle soap, a traditional washing process which removed impurities from the fibres. After rinsing, the wool was spread out on grass or heather to air dry – a natural gentle method that prepared it perfectly for the next stage of processing.
The dried, dyed wool fibres were ready to be blended and carded together. Women manually brushed the fleeces on Carding paddles (wooden paddles studded with wire teeth) combing aligned the strands, separating them into a light, fluffy web. By mixing fibres of different coloured batches, this old‑fashioned carding deepened the tweed’s final colour palette and ensured even yarn preparation.
At the spinning wheel the spinner’s foot would keep the treadle steady as fingers drafted fibre to a fine, even stream; twists running down the length, strengthening the wool into vibrant yarn. Carded wool slowly becoming thread, gradually winding onto the Bobbins. Hanks were wound, washed and hung to set the twist, ready for the warp and weft. A quiet rhythm would pervade the room: simple tools, refined judgement, ingredients beginning to take shape as the iconic tweed.
With the wool carded and teased, the threads were arranged for the loom. The yarns were carefully wound by hand onto beams in parallel strands. Artisans arranged the warp yarn by stretching it across peg frames or warping mills forming long hanks of ordered threads. This traditional warping ensured each piece of cloth would have the correct thread count and pattern structure.
Before the weaving could begin, each new set of warp threads needed to be tied into the loom. The weaver meticulously hand-knotted the fresh warp ends to the tails of the previous cloth’s warp unless there was a pattern change, thus requiring the boards and heddles (part of the loom that holds and guides the warp threads) to be threaded in a different sequence. This painstaking work is a fundamental part of the weaving as it sets the pattern design.
In the beginning, a small wooden loom, a “Beart Bheag” wove the cloth. Using only hand and foot power, the heddles raised to form a "shed," a narrow opening through which the shuttle is thrown through by hand, while the opposite hand operated the beater to press the weft threads into the tweed. This created the cloth thread by thread. Later, a larger loom “Beart Mhor” was introduced which had a “Flying Shuttle”. This system propelled the shuttle by pulling a cord, eliminating the weavers’ need to manually throw the shuttle. This boosted productivity just at the time market demand was rising rapidly.
When a weaving is freshly complete, the tweed feels tough, hard and greasy due to the excess lanolin, so it must be softened and thickened by a process known as “Waulking”. Women gathered around a grooved wooden board, hand soaking the cloth and rhythmically beating it, often singing to keep a consistent pace. The cloth gradually shrank, softened and thickened, fibres locking into a dense, water-resistant cloth. Six women took two hours to complete the waulking, but filled with singing and laughter, this tradition was as much community as technique. When the waulking was finished, the tweed had to be thoroughly washed and rinsed, removing soap and excess water, ready for the next step.
Once fully washed, the tweed was carefully dried. Proper drying was vital to ensure the tweed retained its character and texture as a sturdy, high-quality fabric. On breezy days the women spread the fabric across washing lines or over stone walls; in rough weather they hung it up near the hearth, turning it slowly as the moisture left. Controlled drying set the fabric’s final dimensions and firmness; the width typically two inches narrower after the waulking process.
For a finished tweed, a final inspection for flaws was conducted before stamping with the famous orb mark. Every finished piece contained the islands’ story in its threads – a testament to pure new wool, locally dyed and woven by hand entirely in the Outer Hebrides.
Today’s Harris Tweed production has been streamlined compared with the painstaking older process, however still strictly adhering to the key rule: all production must be done in the Outer Hebrides with the weaving by hand at the weaver’s croft. Today, the wool is dyed, carded and spun in mills on the Outer Hebrides. The weaving has evolved from traditional hand looms to more efficient pedal driven models such as the Hattersley and the Bonus Griffiths looms, a vital improvement for the industry’s growth and survival. Modern Harris Tweed is a beloved craft which has been cleverly optimised, and this has secured its future in a global dynamic market, without losing the authenticity customers expect.
The wool is gathered from both local flocks and Scottish mainland suppliers, ensuring a signature mix of fleeces: Scottish blackface sheep, cheviot sheep and a crossbreed of the two. Weavers, crofters and locals often participate in community round-ups to collect the raw fleece. These wools – still 100% pure new wool – provide the rich, natural fibre that defines Harris Tweed’s quality. Modern commercial dyes are sourced in pigment form and applied in a ratio, based on the colour requirements.
Harris Tweed employs a “truly dyed in the wool” method, meaning the raw wool is dyed prior to spinning as opposed to dying spun yarn. At the mill, the unspun wool is scoured and dyed before any yarn is made. Gentle, low-impact dyes penetrate the fibres fully. Different dyed proportions of wool are thoroughly blended to achieve the tweed’s characteristics island-inspired hues. This careful pre-spinning dyeing preserves colourfastness and the cloth’s natural unique character.
After dyeing, the wool fibres are precisely blended and carded. Technicians weigh and mix different coloured fleeces according to exact recipes, achieving each tweed shade. The blended wool is fed into large carding machines, gently teasing and aligning the fibres. These modern “cards” produce a continuous web of wool – fluffy slivers that are ready for spinning. This mechanized process speeds production whilst maintaining the yarn’s strength and integrity.
The prepared wool slivers are spun into yarn using powerful spinning machines. A precise twist is added to each thread to give it maximum strength and consistency. The spun yarn is wound onto bobbins and cones which create the long warp (vertical) and weft (horizontal) threads required for weaving. Modern spinning ensures a uniform, robust yarn that upholds the tweed’s quality while meeting higher production demands.
Today’s warping is a skilled, machine-assisted task. Collections of yarn threads are selected and wound in parallel on large beams. Each beam holds the ordered warp yarn for the cloth and extra yarn is supplied for the weft. These beams are delivered to the weavers’ homes, ensuring precise thread order and tension. Accurate warping guarantees that the fabric will have the correct pattern geometry and density on the loom.
Despite modernisation elsewhere, the islands hand-weaving tradition remains unchanged. Weavers receive the bobbins and warp beams, tie the new threads to their previous cloth’s tail-ends, and sit at their pedal driven looms to weave by hand. Electrical motors are still not permitted at the loom – each length of fabric is woven purely by foot and skill. This blend of time-honoured technique, with modern yarn, keeps heritage and craftsmanship intact.
Once woven, the tweed returns to the mill for meticulous finishing. Expert finishers examine every yard for flaws and make any needed corrections. The tweed is washed (shrunk): a process to remove excess oils, impurities and ensures the cloth binds together achieving a softer feel, before being dried and steamed under tension to straighten. Finally, the surface is cropped to the required nap height and further inspected for any additional impurities. These steps ensure the cloth meets Harris Tweed’s standards, with each finished piece durable and consistent.
The final step is official certification by the Harris Tweed Authority. The inspector reviews the completed cloth, and if it passes, the famous Orb Mark label is ironed onto the back of the cloth. This stamping of authenticity certifies that the tweed was made and handwoven by islanders in the Outer Hebrides with pure new wool. It is the official seal that every piece of Harris Tweed is genuine and island born.
Shop our Craft Packs to jump-start your Harris Tweed adventure. Perfect for quilting, crafting, or small projects. Whether you’re an experienced maker or just getting started, these packs give you the authentic material to bring your ideas to life, one patch of iconic cloth at a time.
