tweed shooting waistcoat with kilt?

[Luke MacGillie]

Fossilhunter,

I see no reason to prevent a garment being made using the same sort of pattern, but a lighter-weight fabric than tweed. I am planning to have my tailor make a kilt jacket out of cotton or linen so that I will have something suitable to use during the warmer months of the year.

Andrew

JoAnn's has had a cotton Herringbone tweed cloth on its shelves for the last year, I think there are 3 versions, all combined with black, a green, brown and blueish grey. I've often thought I should pick some of this up, as I prefer to wear tweed year round, not just in the fall, would make for a nice summerweight waistcoat or jacket.

[FossilHunter]

Fossilhunter,

I see no reason to prevent a garment being made using the same sort of pattern, but a lighter-weight fabric than tweed. I am planning to have my tailor make a kilt jacket out of cotton or linen so that I will have something suitable to use during the warmer months of the year.

Andrew

I actually have a linen jacket made to kilt length. It regularly gets hot enough here that it doesn't matter what material the jacket is made of (90+ degrees). I kind of hoped that not having arms might help but I see how a wool vest would likely hold in a of of body heat.

It may just be my fate to always go out in shirtsleeves in the summer.

[kingandrew]

Luke,

That fabric sounds like it will make a great kilt jacket. The last time I was in Joann's I was disappointed they didn't have ANY wool fabrics, let alone something in a tartan pattern (I was hoping to get some pants made and my Chinese tailor has no source for tartan pattern fabric). But they had lots of good cotton (including lots of tartan flannel--just the wrong season for my project).

Fossilhunter,

There's nothing wrong with shirtsleeves if the weather demands them. But the right lightweight vest might still be made to work, whether in cotton, linen, silk, or tropical weight wool. Summer nights in many places are a bit cooler and may enable you to use items that won't work in the heat of the day. And the ventilation provided by the kilt may help you feel cooler, regardless of what's up top.

Andrew

[Luke MacGillie]

JoAnn's has really gone downhill over the last 30 years! When I was a kid, they had a blackwatchish tartan wool, a madder red, a light camel colored wool, plus linen. My first highland reenactment unit back in the 80's the only thing you couldn't buy cloth wise was bag hose material from there.

Now the wool is pretty much gone, and even the "Linen" is at best a linen/rayon mix. So sad.

[Holcombe Thomas]

JoAnn's has really gone downhill over the last 30 years! When I was a kid, they had a blackwatchish tartan wool, a madder red, a light camel colored wool, plus linen. My first highland reenactment unit back in the 80's the only thing you couldn't buy cloth wise was bag hose material from there.

Now the wool is pretty much gone, and even the "Linen" is at best a linen/rayon mix. So sad.

Perhaps people simply do not sew as much as they once did?

[Madadh]

I use a polar fleece vest over a wool sweater all of the time. I see no problem with using a tweed shooting waistcoat. Warm is warm


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[Arnot]

I use a polar fleece vest over a wool sweater all of the time.

I do occasionally as well. Sometimes just over a shirt.

[Jock Scot]

I do occasionally as well. Sometimes just over a shirt.

Me too.

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[kingandrew]

Perhaps people simply do not sew as much as they once did?

I think this is true. But I also think that the disappearance of their major competitor, Hancock Fabrics, has made it easier for them to cut corners without worrying about losing out on sales.

Too bad. Back in the 1980s, in my SCA days, I used to get some great stuff from Hancock's.

When I went looking for wool in tartan patterns in Atlanta recently, the only place that had such a thing was a home decorating store, which offered it in the Ralph Lauren Collection for making drapes to match the fox-hunting prints in your library or drawing room. At $150 a yard, it was more expensive than ordering the real thing from Scotland.

Andrew

[Luke MacGillie]

The loss of a an affordable Black Watch'ish tartan for a price less than imported, that has led to a whole lot of folks doing the unauthentic thing and wearing cheap kilts, instead of belted plaids. On one hand I cant blame them, on the other, I wish folks would be a little more dedicated to the historical record....