Daywear Jacket Style Question

[Bugbear]

My old Scottish-born pipe instructor used to say, "Don't button your kilt jacket unless you want to look like a farmer."

I am a farmer, on a very small scale, and I do not button the kilt jacket.

[puffer]

Sorry Puffer we are going to disagree here. You are wearing the kilt and as such, the "proper Way" is to have your jacket unbuttoned of that there is no question. To wear the kilt jacket as you describe you end up "neither fish nor fowl" and you are doing kilt wearing a dis service. If you wish to wear your jacket buttoned, then wear trousers.

Jock, I appreciate your "take", but, if I appeared @ a BoD meeting, County Council meeting, State Advisory Consul meeting, etc. wearing my KILT ( as I do) with out a vest, @ my jacket unbuttoned, my "p&^*ted peers would not "accept" it. Remember, I wear a kilt to replace the wearing of p^&*ts not as a 'statement". I dress to the socially" accepted standards of my peers, except I wear a KILT.

"Fish nor Fowl" & doing a "dis service to the kilt ?? Perhaps in some eyes, but not in the eyes of my peers.& that is my BOTTOM LINE.

Respectively, PUFFER

[Bugbear]

Don't worry, I am going to wear the kilt jackets open. I like them with a waistcoat, too. I'm not that far out of whack with the traditional, just a little bit.

I wouldn't wear the kilt and jacket if the jacket being unbuttoned was such a big issue with the Mucky Mucks. I'm sure they would laugh at me no matter what I wore.

[Jock Scot]

Jock, I appreciate your "take", but, if I appeared @ a BoD meeting, County Council meeting, State Advisory Consul meeting, etc. wearing my KILT ( as I do) with out a vest, @ my jacket unbuttoned, my "p&^*ted peers would not "accept" it. Remember, I wear a kilt to replace the wearing of p^&*ts not as a 'statement". I dress to the socially" accepted standards of my peers, except I wear a KILT.

"Fish nor Fowl" & doing a "dis service to the kilt ?? Perhaps in some eyes, but not in the eyes of my peers.& that is my BOTTOM LINE.

Respectively, PUFFER

Sorry Puffer ,in my opinion your peers are wearing their suits according to convention, you should wear your kilt and jacket according to kilt convention,I really don't see the problem. Apart from being fired I suppose! Honestly, the "fish or fowl"description still applies.The kilt is perfectly acceptable to be worn, correctly, in front of Her Majesty the Queen, Presidents,Generals,dustmen,farmers,tycoons and uncle Tom Cobley and all. To wear the kilt improperly does you and them a dis service. Sorry.

[Bugbear]

Speaking of fish, I apologize for flopping back and forth on the design of the jacket of which I am experimenting. I have found a very slight adjustment to the end of the roll of the lapel that seems to set things right if there were three buttons on the jacket. The roll of the lapel needs a bit of work anyway because it looks like it was pressed at some point.

Anyway, I think the game is back on with this design. Comparing it to my other kilt jacket, then to a regular suit jacket bottom, I can safely say that it does have a cut away. I'm happy because I like the back pleating and darts.

* Sigh * I did want to grow up to be a clothing designer and maker when I was a littel kid. My father was extremely opposed to that though. Guess I'm just exploring that dream a little.

[puffer]

Sorry Puffer ,in my opinion your peers are wearing their suits according to convention, you should wear your kilt and jacket according to kilt convention,I really don't see the problem. Apart from being fired I suppose! Honestly, the "fish or fowl"description still applies.The kilt is perfectly acceptable to be worn, correctly, in front of Her Majesty the Queen, Presidents,Generals,dustmen,farmers,tycoons and uncle Tom Cobley and all. To wear the kilt improperly does you and them a dis service. Sorry.

Jock, Point taken,

Respectively, Puffer

[Bugbear]

It's all ok now.

I'm still wondering about putting a vertical row of buttons on both sides of the jacket closure, so I don't have to make a middle buttonhole. That isn't too important, though.

[Bugbear]

Well, for what it's worth, I have been refining the pinning placement, and the dart and pleat shape in the back of this jacket. The folded parts of the back will be sewn down at a point on the jacket about where a kilt belt would be: the waistline area. This sewn down area on each side is almost like making a new seam in the back-sides of the jacket, so I am thinking of the folded areas above the waist as darts, and the folded areas below the waist, which form the side vents and back flap, as pleats. Have no idea what the proper names would be...

I also removed the pocket flaps on the slit pockets. With the less radical cutaway, the pockets are a bit more roomy, and I will use the pocket flaps as a sort of cuff to extend the top of the pocket above where the slits are now.

The jacket will need a third button and buttonhole, I am not sure if I can reproduce the keyhole buttonhole that is used on the jacket, however, I will probably hand stitch the buttonholes that are already there. That means I will have to practice on scrap material. I've never done this radical of alterations on a jacket before, although the button hole might be the most difficult of all the things to do here.

On the waistcoat for this jacket, I will need to re work the bottom because it is a bit too long. It will end up as a four button rather than five button waistcoat. I might sew in curves on the front, rather than the points it has.

So, it's just an experiment with a contemporary jacket design, but I like the way it is shaping up.

The main thing that worried me is, understanding kilt jackets should not be worn closed, this jacket is not possible to close.

[The Barry]

Back to the original post, if you took that jacket, cut away, and hemmed it up, it would make a smart looking daywear jacket. Just don't close it, the kilt police are all around!

[Bugbear]

Back to the original post, if you took that jacket, cut away, and hemmed it up, it would make a smart looking daywear jacket. Just don't close it, the kilt police are all around!

Yes, that is the jacket I am working on. I've cropped it back and it now has a hemline where it is folded in the picture.

It will have a cutaway, just not the same as on my other jacket with the tapered hemline from the curves to the side.

As I have pointed out, it is not possible to close the jacket.

I don't use the term "kilt police," though, I do feel that something else is going on here that has nothing to do with the way one wears a jacket.

After the failure in the pleated-canvas man-skirt thread that lead to the need to create this thread, I am numbing to all of this. I have enjoied learning about the construction of kilt jackets and also of kilts, as well as, experiminting a little with design.