Well, I came across a fabric deal I could not pass up. A very nice 2/2 weave twill in grey with a black pinstripe. I'm going with slightly smaller aprons, 1" reveals, and a 3" pleat depth. There's a few challenges facing me with this one. First, the nature of the pinstripes. They run the length of the fabric. I'm therefore taking a leaf out of the FHCAG's book, and sewing pieces selvedge to selvedge. This means that several pleats will have to be adjusted to hide joins. Second, I've no pattern for a jacket. I've searched, but not found anything to my liking. So I'm examining an old suit jacket of mine for basic construction methods, but I'm actually going to be designing the whole jacket from scratch. Exciting, but a little scary too. Another challenge I can see, but am not entirely sure what to do about yet, is how to make sure that I line up the pinstripes on the jacket and the kilt. And of course, the one problem that I won't really be able to do anything about, the fabric is 100% cotton, so I need to make sure I shrink the hell out of it. (not to mention the wrinkle factor that cotton has)

My first thoughts on the jacket:

One of the things I don't like about PC's, Argylls, and Crails is how they hang loose. I have always preferred a closed suit jacket. So I'm designing a kilt jacket that is meant to be worn closed. Straight sleeves. Four button closure. (similar to what one might see on a double breasted jacket) I'm toying with the notion of trimming the bottom of the jacket with bias tape, but I don't know if that will fly or not. I like the idea somewhat, but I'm afraid it might look tacky. I'm also not too sure about shoulder padding. I've always hated it, but will the jacket look right without it?

First thoughts on the kilt:

Pockets. After talking with Steve Ashton when he was down here, I very much like the idea of pockets in this kilt. I'm thinking of doing one rear pocket, and two side pockets, hidden in the apron pleats (like Steve does on his kilts- man, that is such a cool idea, I wish I'd got there first.) The idea here is to make a sporran unnecessary.