For my fellow Marines

[creagdhubh]

Steve,

I saw your design over at Scotweb and was intrigued. I had considered the same project about 8 years ago but never had the tartan woven. While I like your design, I would encourage you to consider a sett that more closely "matches" the current Leatherneck tartan. Just as Dress MacDonald is easily recognizable as a variation of MacDonald, and Hunting Fraser a easily recognized modification of Fraser, I think that the "Leatherneck Dress Blue" should be easily recognizable as a variation of the Leatherneck tartan.

To that end, I suggest that you simply take the Leatherneck tartan and replace the green section of the tartan with a light blue that matches the Dress Blue trousers and add a wide red stripe to mimic the blood stripe. The Dark Navy Blue then approximates the color of the Dress Blue blouse and the gold and red overstripes on the dark blue mimic Enlisted Rank Insignia colors. Simple and striking.

Just my $.02...



S/F,

David

PS- I have about 5 DW yards of HW Leatherneck tartan is anyone wants a Leatherneck kilt...

***

As a U.S. Marine, I completely agree with David's assessment - he was quicker on the M16A2 Service Rifle trigger than I was - he must have had his selector lever on three-round burst! I love the blue being lighter in colour, thus making it a bit more reflective of our Dress Blue trousers.

Gorgeous design, Steve. I am also rather fond of the name, "Leatherneck Dress Blue."

S/F,