My DIY Kilt and Jacket

**JimB** · 30th October 06, 07:28 AM

Hi folks!
I promised a pictures of my new kilt and jacket and here it is...
The kilt is cotton/poly with just a tad of lycra (10%). I made the pleats very deep, five inches in fact, and this beast ate up 11 yards of fabric.
For the record I will never go that deep with a pleat again, but it does have the nicest swing

I don't really remember how many pleats but I think there are somewhere around 22-25. The aprons are 20 inch with just about 1 inch of flair at the bottom. I would change this too and make it almost 2 inches.
No belts on this one. I chose to use velcro only.

The jacket is a second hand tweed one that I found for $10 and converted myself. Between the two, the jacket was by far the easiest. I used the jacket flaps for epaulettes and made patch pockets to cover where the flaps were. This made the pockets at the right height.

I made the flashes out of ribbon, using the little loop like Alan showed.

Many thanks to those in this forum who helped with ideas or by example.
And a special thanks to Barb

I have the material for two more kilts already, and I'm half way through another jacket conversion... this time in black.
Thanks for looking!

**JimB** · 30th October 06, 07:34 AM

Oh, I should add that this picture was taken on the way to church on Sunday.
All comments were very favorable . Many were shocked that I did it myself.

The ladies expecially liked it. One lady said "now there's a man after my heart!"

(ah.. the power of the kilt

)

**cavscout** · 30th October 06, 07:39 AM

It looks like you tailore dthe jacket to have more of an Eton Tux coat style instead of an Argyle jacket. I like that. The whole outfit works well together. Nice Job!

**Panache** · 30th October 06, 07:48 AM

JimB

The jacket and kilt look quite nice indeed, good job. You do need to post a second picture though showing the kilt's pleats.

The whole outfit is very smart (I like the tartan tie that gives a dash of color to the gray ensemble).

Well done.

Cheers

**nixphotography** · 30th October 06, 08:43 AM

Great looking kilt! Did you make it out of Barb's book?

Brett Nix

**O'Neille** · 30th October 06, 09:14 AM

I like the color scheme. Very nice look. O'Neille

**JimB** · 30th October 06, 09:33 AM

Thanks for all the comments

I did make it out of Barbs book, for the most part that is. Like I said, I didn't use belts. I decided to use velcro instead because I figured no one would every see it anyway. I also didn't use canvas all around to stiffen like she says. I just didn't want to add any more weight to the back. I did add it to the aprons though.
I also stitched in each pleat to make sure that the pleats held their shape. I'm glad I did because this material doesn't hold a pleat well. The good news is that it doesn't hold a wrinkle well either. I sat on it for quite a while in church and it didn't wrinkle hardly at all.

I will try to post some pictures of the pleats later. This photo was primarily to send to my mother who lives on the other coast.