Tailor or seamstress to alter a Saxon coat to kilt coat

[Doc MacBean]

Here's a side-by-side comparison to make these points more clear:



How to avoid these pitfalls?

Firstly, the best possible thing is to hand the tailor a properly-made kilt jacket to follow. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but in this case having the real thing in hand is worth a thousand pictures.

Second, a really proper job can't be done unless a Saxon jacket is acquired with certain features.

It's possible to find Saxon jackets with the lower pockets both higher and further back, where kilt jackets have them.

Another approach is to find a Saxon jacket with lower patch pockets which can be cleanly removed. These will provide plenty of fabric from which to make a pair of Highland-style pocket flaps which can be attached in the proper places. These can be mere dummy pockets, or if you're willing to put in more work you can put in working pockets.

BTW it was common for Victorian tweed kilt jackets to have patch pockets, so it might be a matter of downsizing and relocating the original patch pockets if you want to recreate that look.

Now we come to the issue of button stance, that is, where the jacket buttons and the length of the lapels. Saxon jackets can be found that button higher (3-button or 4-button styles) and these can readily be converted into the recently-popular style of kilt jacket that has a straight 3-button or 4-button front.

And it's possible to change the lapel length of ordinary Saxon jackets simply by pressing them and adding a new buttonhole in the new, higher, spot.

The main problem now is doing the cutaway, the rounded sweep of the lower front to accomodate the sporran.

There's generally a lower buttonhole that's right where you want the cutaway to happen! The odd-looking conversions above have avoided this buttonhole by doing a drastic sudden cutaway. As we have seen, proper kilt jackets have an elegant sweeping cutaway.
I've seen conversions where this unnecessary buttonhole has been sewn shut, and sometimes it's done so neatly that you only see that ex-buttonhole if you look for it. (Which I do )

About the vents, kilt jackets generally have two side-vents and Saxon jackets generally have a single central vent. The easiest solution is to get rid of the vent by sewing it up during the process of shortening the jacket.

BTW conversions generally employ "slash" cuffs due to them taking far less fabric than "gauntlet" cuffs. There should be plenty of fabric from the shortening of the jacket bottom to make a fine pair of slash cuffs, and a pair of epaulettes.

I should mention that I have first-hand experience with doing a conversion, because my first kilt jacket was a brown tweed one I converted from a charity-shop $5 Saxon sportcoat. It had the patch pockets I mentioned. Somehow I had enough fabric to make a convincing pair of gauntlet cuffs. This would have been around 1976. I had two kilts at the time, both made by my grandmother (who had never seen a kilt) and I wanted a jacket to complete my outfit.

I don't have a single photo of that jacket! But I have a photo of another conversion I did around the same time, a military-style doublet made from a charity shop Saxon suit in heavy dark blue wool. I needed the suit's trousers to get the fabric required for all the flaps as well as the cuffs, epaulets, and shells. The kilt was made by my grandmother, and I made the plaid. (I was in the process of making a feather bonnet when I won an art contest and spent the prize money on a real Scottish-made one.)

Thanks!!! This is so helpful and thorough! My first Kilt jacket was a Saxon coat conversion done nearly 20 years ago by a friend who was prof of fashion design. She was guided by the instructions in J. Charles Thompson's So You're Going to Wear the Kilt 3rd ed. At Grandfather Mountain I met a fellow who was wearing a linen coat and vest that had been converted. It seemed like a wonderful idea to have such a coat to wear during the hot days at summer games. Again thanks for the effort you put into this and the thoroughness with which it was done.

[OC Richard]

Thanks!!! This is so helpful and thorough!

...a linen coat and vest that had been converted. It seemed like a wonderful idea to have such a coat to wear during the hot days at summer games.

You're welcome!

Personally I don't wear any sort of jacket on hot days.

If a bit of dressiness is needed, a waistcoat serves, and is far cooler than a jacket.

BTW I suppose that if you have a kilt jacket made you can choose whatever fabric you want.