putting it on improperly

[OC Richard]

These days people are rather puzzled by the amount of military kit I have got - they are obviously unaware of how cheap and plentiful Army (and other forces) surplus was back in the 1960's and 70's. It lasts better than most modern stuff.

Exactly. From 1970 to 1975 I was in an informal backpacking club some friends started at school. At that time the "army surplus stores" (as we call them) were chock-full of everything. As you say it was cheap and plentiful and enabled us to get fully kitted out on a very low budget.

We all wore the boots we called "Vietnam boots", durable, lightweight, and comfortable, made of green canvas with leather reinforcements and rubber sole. Likewise our trousers and shirts were ex-army things, camouflage, very comfortable and with big pockets all over. (We had to remove the badges of course.) Water bottles, backpacks, anything you needed was there in the shop for a few dollars.

[Pleater]

It's for me.

I wear a plain black kilt as part of my morris kit, but in high summer it is rather warm, so the white one will be cooler to change into once the dancing is finished. The fabric is fairly light and we do get some gusty winds so by embellishing the lower 10 inches of each pleat it should stabilise it, and I might put in an internal tape a couple of inches below the lower edge of the fell to keep the pleats from flying too freely.

Anne the Pleater

I suppose it is good in a way, I have over half the white kilt just getting to the press and admire stage and I decided to put it around myself.
I feel my eyebrows rise, grab my tape measure and put it against the kilt, then put it around me - still not back to 26 inches (haah hahr) but I am too small for my kilt!!

It means that my usual formula for pleats will either have to be altered either to pleats showing under one inch or, where possible, deeper pleats. It also means taking all the stitches out but at least the folds have been done once so it will be faster to do the second time.

Anne the Pleater

[MacKenzie]

We all wore the boots we called "Vietnam boots".

Jungle boots.

And, yes, a lot of my early backpacking gear was military surplus.

[MacKenzie]

Your point is well taken about pleating a camo pattern ruining what the camo is intended to do.

IIRC Steve made a kilt in the old Desert Battle Dress* camo and it turned out really well.

* AKA Six Color Desert or Chocolate Chip camo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert...rt_Pattern.jpg

[SF Jeff]

We all wore the boots we called "Vietnam boots", durable, lightweight, and comfortable, made of green canvas with leather reinforcements and rubber sole.

Don't forget the drain holes. And on the underside of the tongue were instructions on how to avoid "jungle rot." I had a pair in high school that I bought at an army surplus store for about $10 I think.

[Pleater]

IIRC Steve made a kilt in the old Desert Battle Dress* camo and it turned out really well.

* AKA Six Color Desert or Chocolate Chip camo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert...rt_Pattern.jpg

Round here that would be 'stand out like a sore thumb' pattern.

Anne the Pleater

[jsrnephdoc]

Round here that would be 'stand out like a sore thumb' pattern.

Anne the Pleater

I have a son who spent his military time in the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division (my feeble understanding is that the last time they "deployed in anger" into hostile territory by parachute was to save a Med School on the Caribbean Island of Grenada). But he did spend 15 months in a "Forward Operating Base" in Afghanistan (the photo essay of the desert camo being worn by General Petraeus reminded me of him). My son is still fond of wearing some of that stuff 20 years later. He's grown up to be a skilled linguist. He travels the world and often I don't even know what continent he's on. One of his favorite ways to travel is to teach English to students in Spanish-speaking countries.

Two years ago, he told me his next expedition would be to Poland. "Poland?" I asked. "They don't speak Spanish in Poland."

He was gone for about 9 months. When he returned to the US, his first stop was in Montana, to see me. He was wearing military camouflaged fatigues when I met him at the Bozeman, MT Airport. Bozeman is home to Montana State University. On our way from the airport to my home, we stopped at an Organic Foods market that's staffed primarily by MSU students. The checkout counter was "manned" (womaned?) by an attractive female student who spoke with an Eastern European accent. I had paid no attention to the insignia on my son's fatigues, but the staffer took one look at him and LEAPT out from next to the transaction terminal to embrace him. SHE had recognized her own flag, and that was my first "reveal" that he'd just gone THROUGH rather than TO Poland, because Poland was as close to Ukraine as one could fly on a commercial airliner. He'd spent those 9 months in Ukraine, training Colombian military volunteers.