US Army Blues Jacket to Doublet Conversion

[madmacs]

I like the sneaky reuse of the pockets... im thinking of trying a doublet from a tweed i have, but im not sure that there's enough fabric to make all the tashes etc, did you use more than the bottom of the jacket?

[longhuntr74]

I like the sneaky reuse of the pockets... im thinking of trying a doublet from a tweed i have, but im not sure that there's enough fabric to make all the tashes etc, did you use more than the bottom of the jacket?

madmacs...yes and no!!

To all of you out there that may wish to try this...you will have to be VERY frugal with your fabric reuse...and it may...as in my case...dictate the size of your flaps.

Because I had one larger piece of fabric that I had to cut two of the outer flaps out of, the size of that piece determined the maximum height of the flaps I was able to make. If you look closely, the tops of the outer flaps are not equal with the tops of the larger inner flaps when I've sewn them together...this is, in part, due to the fact that I would have liked to have made the outer flaps a 1/4" or so taller, but wasn't able to. It will help to reduce inner bulk on the finished jacket as well, so I am not overly concerned about it.

The other "trick" I employed that you will have to employ if you attempt a doublet out of the skirts of a jacket: the back side of the flaps will have to be another material other than the jacket material. In my case, I was able to find an identical weight material at my local fabric store. The problem is that it's just a half a shade lighter (so close that you can only tell in bright light). If it had not been, I'd have had total freedom to use that instead of recycling jacket materials. But since it wasn't a perfect match, I am only using it on the back sides of the outer flaps. I could have used it on the back sides of the inner flaps as well, but I made a design decision that I wanted satin lining material there so that the flaps slide smoothly across the kilt when worn...so there's no binding, wear on the kilt, or static issues. I will be using that near match material (and iron on woven interfacing) to reinforce the seam when I sew the flaps onto the rather ragged bottom of my cropped jacket body, as well. Pics of that stage to follow in the near future.