Need help regarding jacket lenght

[The Wizard of BC]

A suit coat or sport coat has the bottom of the jacket at around the bottom of the buttocks. This is to hide the pucker caused by the trouser legs.

A jacket cut for a kilt will have the bottom right at around the crest of the buttocks or where the pleats end being sewn down. This is called the bottom of the Fell.

A kilt jacket will also have some form of cut-away in the front to go around the sporran.

This present two problems for someone wanting to convert a trouser jacket to a kilt jacket.


The first is the pocket and vent placement. On a Kilt Jacket the pockets must be higher due to the length. Many suit coats cannot be altered successfully because the pockets will end up right down near the bottom of the jacket once it is cut off. The cutting off of the bottom also interferes with the side vents in the rear. If, after you cut off the bottom, the vents are not long enough there is usually no fabric that you can make new, higher vents with.
The bottom of a kilt jacket will be right about the same length as the sleeve.

Then there is the sporran cut-away. One a suit coat the buttons are quite a bit lower than on a kilt jacket. The sporran cut-away will almost always have a button hole in the way.

This does not mean that a suit or sport coat cannot be converted. Many have. But finding a suitable coat to convert can take a while. Sometimes it is just easier and cost less in the long run to buy a kilt jacket.