Pinning A Fly Plaid

[CelebrityMan]

Greetings,

I wish to add a Fly Plaid for more formal occasions. I acquired one matching my kilt tartan, and a thistle motif brooch to go with it.

Now the question comes: how does one pin or otherwise affix the Fly Plaid over the left shoulder without damaging the material the FP is made of OR the material in the Prince Charlie coatee?

The pin back on the thistle motif brooch (which was ordered at the same time and also from ScotWeb) appears to me to be much, much too heavy gauge to actually use it to pin through the FP and the PC. The gauge is such it will leave massive marks/holes.

A clerk in our local Scottish shop advised using safety pins (which are of much lighter gauge) to pin the brooch and FP.

What does anyone else do? As you all know, the PCs are spendy items and I don't relish the thought of ruining one by pinning a brooch to it if there are creative ways to preserve the integrity of the cloth.

Your input will be appreciated.

[davidg]

It sounds as if you have a heavier guage Pipers Plaid Brooch rather than the lighter brooch suitable for fly plaids

If so you could simple pin the brooch to the plaid and use a safety pin to anchor the plaid to the jacket. If the fly plaid is light enough you may even be able to get away without pinning it to the jacket

A couple of comments though. A fly plaid is not usually recommended for wear with a PC and is more appropriately worn with a doublet. Second, a smaller brooch looks far better with a fly plaid and is not expensive to purchase

[piperdbh]

If you have epaulettes on your PC, slide the plaid under the epaulette, and then pin the brooch through the fly plaid only. The friction created by the epaulette should hold the plaid in place. If it slips a bit, the safety pin already suggested will solve the problem.