How Do You Fasten the Fly Plaid?

[Jack Daw]

For formal occasions, I have only been pinning my brooch to the fly plaid and letting the plaid and brooch sort of flop around unattached to my formal jacket. Does anyone pin the plaid to the jacket? The pin for the brooch looks to make too large a hole that I do not want to put in my pc. Does anyone use a smaller safety pin to actually pin it to the jacket?

[Arlen]

I usually pin it to my jacket, but I have a special stitched part on my jacket especially for putting any sort of pin through.
Perhaps you could have something like that sewn to your jacket?

I know quite a few people who don't pin it to their jacket at all and it doesn't give them any sort of trouble at all.

[turpin]

Pin the brooch to the plaid and then use a medium-sixed safety pin to pin the plaid to the jacket. You could even do it with a straight pin.

[McMathTX]

I've never pinned my fly plaid to my jacket. The weight of the brooch has always held the plaid in place with no problem.

Dean

[James MacMillan]

If you have a brooch with a very large pin, I have been told that it was originally designed for a pipers plaid. Brooches designed for the PC, will cost more and have small pins.

I have two brooches that have very small push type pins, and I either pin them through the seam in the collar of the PC or sometimes on the epaulette.

If your brooch has a very large pin, you can do as stated above or, if the brooch is worth it, you could take it to a jeweler and have small pins attached, or if you are adventurous, you could cut off the big pin and epoxy small needle sized push pins.

[Chef]

I don't wear a plaid with a PC only with a doublet but if you have a a brooch with a large pin try this trick it will work the same:

Put the plaid through the epaulette and use a couple of large straight pins to pin the through the epaulette, plaid and the shoulder seam of the jacket. You can hise the head of the in in the braided epaulette.

Pin the brooch through the end of the plaid but not the jacket.

[Bob C]

I pin it to my jacket with the brooch. That's what the brooch is for. It has never left a permanent hole.

[triolamj]

Jack - Take your plaid and draw it through the left-hand epaulet on your jacket and then pull it just another half an inch below where you want it. Open the brooch, put the pin behind the plaid, close the brooch over the plaid, and then tug it snugly up against the epaulet. I point the pin out to the left. Occasionally during the event I'll tug the plaid again to keep it snug. Otherwise, take a big safety pin and pin it to the left front of your jacket in line with the epaulet and the bend pointing up. Take your brooch, open it, thread the brooch's pin through the bend of the safety pin, draw the plaid over the brooch pin, and close the brooch. Good luck.

[Jack Daw]

Triolamj!

Dinnae yae recognize me, mon!? It's Mac an t-saoir! Steaphan Mac an t-saoir!

[PiobBear]

At various times I wear either a fly plaid or an Irish brat. With both, I pin them; a large safety pin just below (anterior to) the brooch, and a small one at my shoulder (both pins inside the coat). There's just too much activity going on on my left shoulder to leave the thing simply flapping about (a brat would just fall off), and one of my brooches has this great spike on it; not something I want to poke through a jacket.
You could replace the spike with a piece of piano wire; my favorite brooch came second-hand (one of my best EBay finds) without it's pin, and that's how I repaired it. Don't sharpen it too much; you want it pointy but blunt enough to separate the fibers without cutting them.
Never leave brooches, pins, kilt pins, etc. in place when not in use. Pewter and steel can oxidize, permanently damaging the cloth.