How did I do?

**Guinness>water** · 11th September 11, 12:40 PM

This is what I wore today. Its the first time I've worn a suit jacket and tie in more than ten years (besides army greens). I bought the jacket at Goodwill for $8.00, cut it to right where the fell ends and had my neighbor hem the bottom. I dont have a waist coat but hope to get a few of them soon. That is a Ryan Ross bonnet, 16oz. Maclaine of Lochbuie 8yrd. kilt and brown leather shoes. I made the belt and sporran strap myself, the sporran was bought on e-bay. I made the whitetail antler kilt pin, sporran button(?) closure and beads that hang off of the draw strings. Standard bottle green hose and STM traditional garter ties.

I wasnt sure how to do the tie, I tied it as you normally would but it looked way too long. I re-did it and now it looks too short. The kilt looks cock-eyed because of the pose.

Please tell me what I did right and what could be better.

Thanks

**Jock Scot** · 11th September 11, 12:53 PM

Well done Laddie! Overall, pretty damn good. In time you will look rather more relaxed.

The tie is the only real problem and roughly the tip of the wide bit needs to touch the top of the kilt. This is not an exact science so half an inch either way will be fine.

Have a look for threads about trying to avoid matching things such as bonnet, tie and shirt-----I can't see what colour your hose are on my monitor, blue perhaps? It might open the mind for more kilted looks for you, if that is the way you decide to want to go. It does take a wee while of trial and error to develop your own particular style. Good luck.

**Guinness>water** · 11th September 11, 01:04 PM

Thanks Jock! Your opinion means a lot to me. As to the matching, the hose are bottle green but so it my tie. The bonnet is a dark blue. I've ordered one of those ABF ties and am a bit disappointed that it hasnt arrived yet. The ABF tie should help with the matchy-matchy bit.

**The Monk** · 11th September 11, 01:14 PM

Very nice. Good work on the belt.

**Jock Scot** · 11th September 11, 01:15 PM

Originally Posted by Guinness>water

Thanks Jock! Your opinion means a lot to me. As to the matching, the hose are bottle green but so it my tie. The bonnet is a dark blue. I've ordered one of those ABF ties and am a bit disappointed that it hasnt arrived yet. The ABF tie should help with the matchy-matchy bit.

Thank you for supporting a very worthy charity. I think the ABF tie is about as versitile as you can get. Now if matchy-matchy is the way that you want to go there is nothing wrong with that, but not being too bothered about it all does give room to experiment.

I t seems I either need new eyes ,or a new monitor, or even more likely--- both!

**piperdbh** · 11th September 11, 01:33 PM

You might want to whittle down your plant badge. It might get caught on something.

The rest of it looks pretty good. Your garters are just right, length-wise.

**Highlander31** · 11th September 11, 02:26 PM

Looks good. The only thing that stood out to me, was the length of the tie, and Jock has already covered it.

On my monitor, the hose look a shade of green in the first photo, and look to be a black/blue in the second.

**RAF** · 11th September 11, 05:38 PM

Overall, I think you look great - well done! I see three things that are, for lack of a better word, distracting. Two of them have already been mentioned (Size of the badge and length of the tie.) The third thing that caught my eye as a bit "off" was the button hole at the bottom of the hem on the left side of the jacket. Being that the length of the jacket was altered, there may not have been a way around this, without making the jacket look too short. Lastly, I might suggest tucking the pocket flaps into the pockets. Due to the alteration, they sit too close to the bottom hem. Tucking them in is a visual trick I find usually works to minimize this fact.

**Riverkilt** · 11th September 11, 06:57 PM

A sharp looking turnout for sure!

You're a braver man than I to whittle away at a jacket and turn it into something to go with a kilt.

**Guinness>water** · 12th September 11, 05:22 AM

Awesome! Thanks for all the complements and suggestions on how to do better.

Thanks for the "trick" with the pocket flaps. The button hole was a big problem, cutting it out would have mis-shaped the area and made the jacket too short. The lady that sewed for me just darn'ed it togeather. I really dont know what should be done when the button hole problem is encountered.

Thanks again,