Getting two buttons on the jacket is fairly easy. While many of the commercial kilt jackets out there have a very "aggressive" cutout, they don't really have to be quite so dramatic. As was shown earlier, they can be fairly conservative. A lot of cutouts I see on converted jackets are actually much larger and more sweeping than what will be on a purpose-built kilt jacket. I think we often overestimate how much room is needed. I've done it too! I'm trying to track down all the pics of me in the first couple of jackets I did so I can delete them from existence. I'm down to two kilt jackets because I threw out the first ones I did because I just wasn't happy with them.
I've used this pic a dozen times, but I haven't uploaded anything new to Photobucket in months, so it's the best one I have on hand. I kept two buttons on a two button jacket by making my cutout as minimalistic as I was comfortable with. I used a 16" pizza tray to outline this one, giving it an 8" radius. I could have gotten away with a little less and nobody would have really noticed, but that would have complicated the construction. I couldn't find anything around the house with a 14" diameter, exept for the wheels on my utility trailer.
I've also seen some that kept the same shape the original hem had, or very close to it, but simply moved it up a few inches. It's a bit more of a "contemporary" look than traditional, but entirely workable.
Basically, if you want to keep two buttons, find a jacket that has buttons at or near a suitable location for you, and keep your cutout a little on the conservative side. All it has to do is clear the sporran--not maintain 6" from the sporran.
As long as YOU like the jacket, it's perfectly fine no matter how you do it.
The grass is greener on the other side of the fence...and it's usually greenest right above the septic tank.
Allen
Originally Posted by Farlander
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