Skittish about Republican and awfully dour material (8)
I believe the answer is:
corduroy
'material' is the definition.
(I know that corduroy is a type of material)
'skittish about republican and awfully dour' is the wordplay.
'skittish' becomes 'coy' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'about' indicates putting letters inside.
'republican' becomes 'r' (abbreviation).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'awfully' indicates an anagram.
'dour' is an anagram of 'duro'.
'r'+'duro'='rduro'
'coy' placed around 'rduro' is 'CORDUROY'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for corduroy that I've seen before include "Ribbed cotton fabric" , "Fabric -- cry 'odour' (anag)" , "Material" , "stuff in bags" , "Heavy ribbed fabric" .)