Montrose-ish Doublet

[usonian]

Whenever I see questions about patterns for jackets (kilt or otherwise) online, responses are often some variation of "Men's dress jackets aren't something that can be made from any old pattern, they must be finely tailored and use time-honored construction techniques including chest padding and hair canvas shaping, handed down as closely guarded tradecraft from master Tailor to apprentice etc. etc," but I've seen some fine examples of the (now out of print) Simplicity 5029 kilt jacket pattern here, and I recently completed this garment using Simplicity 2333 as a baseline. (Credit to my friend E____ who suggested it.)

It's actually a costume pattern with two double-breasted frock coat variations; I omitted the skirt portion of the frock, lengthened the bodice a little bit, added epaulets, changed the cuffs and the collar, and I think it worked quite well. The basic shell of the jacket fits much better than you'd expect for a costume. the result is basically a Montrose style doublet except for a couple of details:

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The first, most obvious thing is that I made this as part of an outfit for a steampunk festival, so it is unorthodox in color and material; you can see that the waxed canvas I used does not drape as smoothly on the arms as a suiting weight wool would... and in these photos I've got the facings buttoned back on themselves instead of having it buttoned in typical double-breasted fashion. Second, the front panels are not as wide as they are in most photos I see of Montrose doublets, where the top buttons are nearly to the shoulders. In my case I actually wound up moving the buttons a little closer to the middle to accommodate the 5 pounds I gained over the course of the project. They do still angle outward towards the shoulders from bottom to top, but when buttoned open the jacket hangs in such a way they they look almost straight. But it would be easy enough to draft new pieces for the fronts by just extending them an extra few inches.

Anyway - kilt jackets can certainly be made by mere mortals! With some more tweaking of the front panels and more traditional materials/colors, I don't think most people would be able to pick it out of a line up.

Edit: For those interested, I did a write up of the construction process with some photos at https://gripandword.com/blog/2016/05...k-kilt-jacket/

[bdkilted]

Very nice looking. I wish I was that talented with a needle and thread.

[Llama]

Gorgeous. Simply gorgeous.

[Alan H]

"formal" I dunno, but I think your jacket looks great.

[usonian]

Thanks everyone!

Yeah, this particular garment was never intended to be worn in a formal context, but I wanted to transplant the formal style to a steampunk context. I posted it here because fellow DIYers occasionally post looking for doublet patterns, and Simplicity 2333 makes a pretty good start. Extend the front panels a few more inches and use more traditional materials and findings, and you're basically there. I figure anyone obsessed with traditional construction probably already knows how to draft a jacket like this for themselves (or has budgeted the discretionary income to just buy one) but this makes a perfectly serviceable garment if you're looking for a fun/interesting project.

[nightowl12020]

Very nice! I have that pattern but hadn't gotten around to using it for anything yet. Perhaps I'll borrow your idea at some point when I can add it to my project list. with my own twists of course. I also do Steampunk and just about anything else to do with costuming that catches my fancy. Well done.

[Lady Grey]

Just a bit in love with this and have the perfect crash test dummy to try it out on.
Terrific work and thanks for the links.