Adding slant pockets to traditional kilt

[Kiltem in NM]

How difficult would it be to add slanted side pockets, like on jeans or trousers, except with zipper closures, to an already made wool kilt? It seems to me it should be fairly easy to put a top and bottom lock stitch between two pleats on the sides, where the pockets are going. Then rip the seam between the lock stitches and add a pocket. A zipper closure would probably also be necessary. I've only been wearing kilts about six months, and have several utility kilts, but do not yet own any tartan or wool kilts yet. My concern is, being a farmer, wearing a sporran all the time would not be possible.

[The Wizard of BC]

As someone who puts pockets into almost all the kilts I make I am going to say, I'm sorry, it would be almost impossible to retro-fit a traditional kilt.

The problem is not with the outer fabric but with all the stuff hidden behind the inner liner. A traditionally made kilt is perhaps one of the most tailored garments today. Akin to a custom made suit coat. The liner inside the kilt has no purpose but to cover up and hide what is underneath.

The primary characteristic of a traditionally made kilt is not the outer fabric but full floating interfacing, a strip called the stabilizer and of course the cut-away of the pleats to thin the back of the kilt.

Here is a peek to what is under the liner of a traditionally made kilt.



If you cut through the outer fabric you must then deal with going through or around all of this inside stuff.

There is no place to put the actual pocket part. The part that holds your keys. All of the inner stuff is sewn down so there simply is no room or space for that pocket to go.

If you want a pocket in a kilt that looks like a traditional kilt you will have to make a Contemporary style kilt.



I have to plan for this at the very start. There is extra stabilizer, changes to the interfacing and additional fabric to allow for the space where the pocket is inside the kilt without compromising the strength and durability of the whole garment.

[flyingpiper]

I would have to chime in and agree with the wizard. I've made two kilts and working on my third. The first and last are traditional kilts as described in The Art of Kiltmaking.

The second followed those same instructions except that I included pockets. Aside from having to allow enough extra material to account for those pockets, I had to modify the inner construction to work around the pockets once they were there. The manner in which the wizard constructs pockets retains strength and durability despite a large opening in the fell stitching, in part how the pocket is integral to the construction. His method of inner construction is also uniquely suited to the addition of things like pockets.

If you were somehow to work around the inner construction, and somehow successfully insert a pocket, I suspect that you would likely encounter failure of the fabric at the top/bottom of the pockets after any amount of use.

If you still wish to go ahead with such an experiment, I wish you good luck, but would rather recommend making or having made a contemporary style kilt if you truly are set on pockets!

-J

[Kiltem in NM]

Aye!
I see I have a lot to learn! Thank you so much for taking the time to explain that for me! You very well may have prevented me from destroying a perfectly good kilt!
I appreciate that!

[H. Hastings]

Hey! I recognize that kilt! (I still have some of that stabilizer fabric if you're interested Steve ....)

As someone who puts pockets into almost all the kilts I make I am going to say, I'm sorry, it would be almost impossible to retro-fit a traditional kilt.

The problem is not with the outer fabric but with all the stuff hidden behind the inner liner. A traditionally made kilt is perhaps one of the most tailored garments today. Akin to a custom made suit coat. The liner inside the kilt has no purpose but to cover up and hide what is underneath.

The primary characteristic of a traditionally made kilt is not the outer fabric but full floating interfacing, a strip called the stabilizer and of course the cut-away of the pleats to thin the back of the kilt.

Here is a peek to what is under the liner of a traditionally made kilt.