How to make a tartan waistcoat cut on the bias to wear with a kilt

[Bobby Gordon]

Normal waistcoats to go with a kilt are too long, they interfere with the top of the sporran. And kilt length waistcoat sewing patterns are not available so I've had to draft up my own. Its about 3 inches shorter than a normal waistcoat. I've used a proper kilt length waistcoat as a reference.
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I draft up my patterns digitally first of all using google sketchup. It’s a great way of getting the pattern perfect, and saves all your work making it easy to tweak. So in future I can draft up the pattern in other sizes quickly.
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It’s also a great way of previsualizing what the end result will look like
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It’s then very quick a simple to draft up the physical pattern onto card.
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Then I lay the cardboard templates onto the tartan and draw around them with chalk
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Its trickier than you may think: Both halves need to be symmetrical otherwise it would look awful. I'm using the centre block of the tartan (they grey element with 8 dark stripes crossing through it) at the middle of the centre front of the waistcoat, so there's only a few places on the fabric the pieces can possibly go. Also, the grain lines on the panels need to all be going the same way.
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I then use a rotary cutter to cut the pieces out, and see! perfectly symmetrical! I'm very happy with that.
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Next I use the templates again to cut out some interfacing. This is a fusible interlining that you apply with an iron. It gives the panel a bit more stiffness.
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I then baste the chalk marks of the fitting darts that they're visible on the reverse.
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[Bobby Gordon]

and then hand stitch the marks together on the wrong side of the fabric.
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Press it, and then reinforce it with machine stitches.
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it then then gets pressed flat towards the centre from of the panel.
and the right side gets pressed as well.
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I want the welts for the pockets to match in with the tartan as close as possible. Obviously though, as the panel has a dart running through it only half of the welt will match up to the tartan. So to do this I find where the welt will be located and cut out a cardboard template the size of the welt. Using a ruler I work off the tartan stripes of the fabric to get an idea of what the welt will look like.
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I then make a bigger template working off the tartan so that I can find the right place on the fabric.
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Once I've found and cut of the fabric for the welt I apply a piece of fusible interlining the size of the welt for a bit of stiffness.
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then it gets folded and halt, the narrow ends sewn, and the corners trimmed.
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then turned to the right side
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pressed.
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and topstitched.
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[Bobby Gordon]

it then gets sewn to the panel, right sides together, upside down.
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next the pocket lining pieces and stitched to the outside of the fabric on the welt stitching line and above the welt.
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The stitching marks are then used to draw out where the slashing lines are going to be to turn the pocket out to the right side. They're then cut.
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the pieces and then pressed back.
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and the pocket lining pieces are pushed through to the correct side and sewn together.
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now the welt can be pressed back to the right way up.
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and hand stitched down.
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not too bad I think.
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Next I cut out the outside back lining piece and mark out the fitting darts.
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Then I make the adjustment straps for the back. These are cut of lining, stitched, seam allowances and corners trimmed and turned to right side, pressed and topstitched.
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[Bobby Gordon]

They're then sewn to the adjuster and the raw end sewn in place to go inside the fitting dart.
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the same for the other side.
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and then the fitting darts are stitched closed as before.
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Now that the front and back outside panels are complete they can be pinned and stitched together at the shoulders.
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and the shoulder seams are pressed open.
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The next step is the inside lining. The front pieces are cut out and these too have fitting darts.
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The facings are then pinned to the lining right sides together,
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stitched,
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and then then pressed open.
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Now that the inside lining panels are complete they can be stitched, right sides together at the shoulder seams, and then pressed open.
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[Bobby Gordon]

Now comes the good bit. The outside is pinned to the inside
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all the way around.
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and all the seams are then sewn together, except the side seams. The seam allowances and the corners are then cut.
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and then it’s all pulled the right way round through one of the side seams. It’s starting to look a bit more like a waistcoat now!
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Then the outside side seams are pinned together from the inside,
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stitched, and then pressed open.
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gets pressed. It’s starting to look really good!
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Then the button placements are marked on the inside facing on the centre front at 2 inch intervals.
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[Bobby Gordon]

Then buttons are hand stitched on.
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Next the buttonhole placements are marked on the centre front at 2 inch intervals.
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These are keyhole buttonholes. The keyhole has to be punched out and the rest clipped,
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and then it has to be hand sewn with a blanket stitch.
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And then they buttoned up to make sure it all lines up.
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et wallah! finished!!
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Very happy with that :0) :0) :0)
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Can't wait to wear it!
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[unixken]

This is outstanding. Well done!

[Chas]

You make it look so easy! I am sure it can't be.

Regards

Chas

[Cygnus]

What an incredible thread (and a very nice waistcoat)! Thank you for the step-by-step tutorial. Welt pockets were always a bit of a mystery to me, but your explanation and photos really clear things up for me.

I hope to make myself a couple of similar waistcoats as my skills improve, so I'm sure I'll be revisiting this thread from time to time.

Thank you for sharing!

[Jon Lilley]

Very nice work, Bobby!!! About how long did this take you? Hours? Days? Weeks? And how were you able to figure yardage? How much material did you get for this? I'd love to try this, but I think I'll start on a solid color one first.

Slàinte!,
Jon