I thought I had a picture from Saturday night, but apparently I had another beer, and didn't get a picture

Anyway, I've got the USAK Casual Kilt package. When I got my first kilt, I ordered it, Clark Tartan, from Rocky and Kelly, and got the kit to go with it. Plain black flashes, cream colored hose, leather Rob Roy style sporran with a chain belt, and a kilt belt as well. Great package all together.

I've been wearing it mostly with older combat boots, or hiking boots, a nice t-shirt of golf shirt, and an old, black canvas ammo pouch as a sporran, so I wouldn't mess up the nice leather one.

This past Saturday night, we went to sort of an engagement part. I say sort of because it was more of a stock the bar party for a couple that were getting married but already had a house together. Anyway, I wanted to dress it up a bit for the party. I wore an off-white button down shirt, with thin charcoal grey pinstripes to give it some depth. I wore the nice sporran and chain belt, mostly because I don't have a leather sporran belt yet, and then came down to the feet.

I'm comfortable in combat boots, because I wear them daily for work, so I took a nice pair, and polished them up to a mirror shine. However, I wasn't happy with the look of the cream hose coming up out of them. I don't have the cash to drop on a lot of kilt hose, which are more expensive than I'd thought by the way, so I was stuck with the cream hose, and needed a way to make them look a little better.

I scrounged around my sock drawer, and found a nice pair of mid calf dress socks, in a dark blue/charcoal grey mix, that had the toes and heels worn thin, and almost holed. Idea time!!

I took the old dress socks, and cut the feet off of them. I pulled on my cream hose, the cut off socks, and my boots. I pulled up the cut off socks until the cut end was just inside the top of my boots, and the top of them was just at the top of my calf muscle. I buckled my flashes on, just above the sock top, then folded the hose top down all the way so the turn was at the top of the flash. Then folded the textured part of the hose top back up to display it. This ended up looking like I was wearing blue/grey hose, with a cream topper. The double fold, and it being on top of the flash strap and the sock, made it look thick, just like a topper should.

I actually got a compliment or two on it, and this from people who started off the evening looking askance at the wierdo in the skirt The folks who had seen me in the kilt before were the ones who noticed the new hose style. I guess being slightly prepared, they were able to look past the kilt

Anyway, I thought I'd share a penny pinching/stretching idea to make your hose go farther adn with more outfits. Just use old socks


Casey