High in the Allegheny Mountains, next to a small stream that feeds the Juniata River can be found a pair of butternut trees. Butternut, or White Walnut are increasingly rare and difficult to find, and though the larger of our two trees is well over a hundred years old, the hardscrabble existence in the mountains means that they don't produce a great deal of nuts every year. In fact, a gallon bucket each year is considered a "bumper crop". But the color they make...the sheer brilliance of the red-brown shade produced by our butternuts cannot help but evoke pictures of CS troops covered in Georgia mud. There is nothing quite like it. Now, after fifteen years of collection we have at last used our stockpile of butternuts (with a little black walnut thrown in for good measure) to dye wool yarn and have it woven into a superb jean cloth. Dyed by hand by us and woven on a tan cotton warp by Family Heirloom Weavers, our butternut jeancloth is available by the yard or for your kit or finished jacket, trousers, or frock coat. Below you can order the yardage you would like, or if you want it used for your kit or finished garment simply add the flat fee below for jackets and trousers or frock to upgrade your item to use our butternut jean! NOTE: Due to unavoidable variations in the hand dyeing process there are color changes visible every couple of yards in the jean. So orders for larger pieces will have several of these changes. (See photo with arrow to note this effect.) When cutting out individual jackets and trousers you will likely be able to avoid these changes, or you can choose to lean into the variation and embrace the true homespun nature of yarn-dyed jeancloth! This is not planned to be a continuous product. The last time we offered butternut jeancloth was in the summer of 2007, and it will likely take us this many years to offer it again. So if you have ever wanted a truly unique fabric for your CS impression, don't wait to get yours!
