We have finally convinced my father-in-law to allow us to outfit him in un-bifurcated splendour for this year's Burn's Night supper. We have not yet purchased his kilt (I still don't feel up to a traditional tartan kilt for an adult), but we received a generous gift from bunchdescendent and his lovely wife Chris at the Pleasanton Highland Games this month. It was a thrift store tweed jacket, that was apparently bought for 50 cents.

My mother-in-law is an avid garage sale and thrift store shopper, so when she found out the jacket was free to us, and originally only 50 cents, she was impressed. Given that she has been a bit negative about her son's kilt wearing in the past and pretty strongly opposed to her husband wearing a kilt, it was good to get her approval at last! She has actually begun to get almost enthusiastic about choosing a kilt for him.

Alright, enough preamble. As most of you know, I do photo "travelogues" of my projects, so here goes....

First, the original jacket, roughly marked in chalk (just regular school chalkboard white chalk) for the eventual sporran cutaway.



There are big flap pockets on this jacket. They have to go. But don't throw away those pockets! They'll be useful later. One option is to just cut them down and put them back on after removing the bottom of the jacket. That was my first intention, but it turned out not to be practical for 2 reasons (to be revealed when we get there).



Gently seam ripping the pockets off.



One of the pockets had an additional hidden pocket (made out of the same material as the liner) which also was removed. Note the strip of protective liner fabric under the pocket flap. Originally this was not a problem, but now that I have decided not to replace the pockets, I will have to remove this.



With the pockets out of the way, I can now boldly chop off the bottom of the jacket. My cautious husband was shocked at how casually I did this-he thought I should be measuring a few dozen more times before irrevocably removing the bottom of the jacket. I figured, shucks, this jacket only cost $0, so what if I screw it up! And by the way, isn't that a dreadful button?



Much more to come, but a warning as well....I'm not finished yet, and given my work schedule, I may or may not finish this week, so be patient.

Be well,