altering a sport coat to a kilt jacket

[puddlemuddle]

Has anyone done this? I am watching some very inexpensive ones on ebay right now, and was going tot take them to my local tailor to have it altered and shortened to wear with the kilt.
Is there a pattern out there that they would need, they are VERY good in what they do, would they be able to look at my argyle and copy that?
Thanks!
Chad

[Downix]

there's a dozen or so threads on it in the DIY section.

[Southern Breeze]

There's one stickied in the DIY section.

[jrmiller]

I find that my sport jacket looks just fine "as is" with my kilt. If you really want traditional,go buy traditional. If you are go to mix your metaphors, no one in the viewing world is gonna care whether or not your sport jacket is a few inches shorter.

[cavscout]

The stickied thread is a great resource. In addition to that one AlanH's site is an invaluable resource

http://www.geocities.com/alanhsails/...lt_jacket.html

When I had mine done, I took a print out of the process on Alan's site with the following pictures to the alteration shop and went through the the process with them in extreme detail. I stressed that the sporran cut away on the front was the most critical characteristic and had to be a smooth radius (no sharp corners along the curve). I don't have a pic of my jacket but I'm very pleased with how well she did.

Here are the other pics I used to communicate what I wanted:

http://www.oconeeleatherworks.com/jacket.doc

http://www.oconeeleatherworks.com/jacket2.doc

And this recap of the process used by David, another one of our members:

http://www.oconeeleatherworks.com/JacketMod.doc

Hope those help.

[Panache]

Here are two my lovely wife did that include photos

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/c...726/index.html

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/j...001/index.html

David Dalglish has done some top notch conversions as well

Cheers

Jamie

[The Barry]

Wow, some of those look really amazing..

I really wish that I was a DIY'er

[cavscout]

Don't let that stop you from trying this. I'm no where near proficient enough to handle this project but there came a time where I needed a kilt jacket for semi-formal occasions but couldn't shell out the money for an actual Crail jacket. I also did not want the gauntlet cuffs and epaulets so it would have a more contemporary look.

With a jacket from your closet or a good thrift store find and a good alteration shop you can get into a nice kilt cut jacket for a fraction of the cost of a Crail, Argyle, Braemar or even a PC.

[Panache]

...With a jacket from your closet or a good thrift store find and a good alteration shop you can get into a nice kilt cut jacket for a fraction of the cost of a Crail, Argyle, Braemar or even a PC.

My favorite tweed kilt jacket was purchased new at Ross for somewhere between $20-30. I had it altered by a tailor for $90 including tip. Now compare $120 to the price of a new tweed crail jacket Almost 1/3 the price.

If I had just needed the jacket shortened and the sporran cut away added (no pocket flaps or epaulets for a simpler jacket) it would have been about $45 for the alteration.

$65 for a brand new kilt jacket is hard to beat!

Now if you are lucky and get a good thrift store find you can get that price to under $50!

The big key to a jacket conversion is to find the right jacket.

It is crucial!

The right jacket will lend itself to becoming a kilt jacket with little effort and the results will be great.

The wrong jacket will take far more time, effort, and money to alter and the results still won't be exactly what you want.

Cheers

Jamie

[Phogfan86]

But what's a wrong jacket? I mean, I know tweed can hide a lot of flaws, but does that mean, say, a black or blue wool blazer isn't a good candidate?

I looked at the alanhsails page, and it talks about the importance of the right jacket, too, but all I know is, like I said, tweed is good, and that you're money ahead if you have patch pockets that can be easily removed and not slash pockets on the front.

Beyond that, what else makes a jack a not-so-great candidate?