Thank you everyone for your kind words, I'm glad you like it. I actually really enjoyed making it and it was the first waistcoat I've ever made! I usually buy sewing patterns to help me out as the directions help explain a few things, (even if I decide to do things slightly differently) And YouTube has some videos that helps make things clear too. Proffessor Pincushion has some great demo's.

@ MacIllfhilidh, I highly recommend google sketchup for all my sewing projects, it's a computer aided design program, but it's so easy, and it's free! It helps because it allows you to play about with the pattern and figure out yardage before you buy. it took me just over a week in my spare time to make, I don't know how many hours that was though. I bought 1.3 meters. I had hoped to be able to make 2 waistcoats, 1 kilt length and one normal length, and a tie. But because I was using what I call the 'A Block' of the tartan to go in the middle of the centre front it meant there was only so many places the panels could be cut from. As it turns out 1.3 meters wasn't quite enough for all that i'd hoped for. originally I'd planned on having the panels at right angles to eachother on the fabric, however, I discovered that this would mean that on one panel the grain lines would be horizontal and on the other they would be vertical. like on this one:

http://www.scotweb.co.uk/products/bias-cut-waistcoat/

I thought to myself I'd rather make one waistcoat perfectly that have two done wrong, so unfortunately I do have a lot of wasteage. but I did get enough for my tie and I'm sure there'll be something else I can make.