Greetings,

As winter is here I find my "sport fleece" jackets to be not as fitting to wear kilted as an Inverness cape might be. Ive long lived in jeans and Columbia or other brand fleece jackets and Gore-tex or some other version overcoat. For the kilt I plan to make an Inverness cape for the blustery days and nights of winter. My starting point is a pattern for the Sherlock Holmes (Simplicity 2517) style cape which I plan to modify quite a bit. For one thing, after looking at many images on Google Images, the cape portion is to short so it will be lengthened. The other issue is the pattern has long sleeves and it seems most the capes Ive viewed don't have sleeves. I plan for this to be an overjacket/cape for when I may have a kilt jacket or pullover sweater on. For this reason I plan to lengthen the cape portion to the appropriate length down the arms. My question is are most Inverness capes without sleeves? This can be easily done and a nice hand warmer pocket placed in the long portion of the cloak. Id like to make this cape as true as possible to an Inverness and if sleeves are not used I would like to go that way. Im using a heavy coat weight houndstooth wool for the outer fabric. I plan to possibly put a lightweight breathable water proof fabric between the outer fabric and inner lining. The lining will be a gaberdine or flannel wool for warmth. Any suggestions or ideas are appreciated as I know there are some great male and female tailors on this forum.


Ive got 10 yards of cheap cotton cloth to play around with and modify this pattern I just need to know if it would be more appropriate without the longer sleeves. I will adjust the body of the cloak and the cape length as needed to make sure it is not too long down the legs and long enough to cover my arms.

Thanks in advance Ill post photos as I work on this project.