Well, my first XKilt is in the washing machine now, having all of the chalk removed. It's a black light cotton/poly twill.

All said and done, it took me about 2 weeks start to finish, of which there were about 3 really heavy nights.

This was the first time I'd ever done more than sew a button on a shirt, and my Grandma's 1950's Singer 500 (designed to survive the nuclear holocaust and global Commie domination) was pressed into service. It only does straight and zigzag stitches, but it performed far better than it's operator did.

All said and told, I'm pretty pleased with the results. It's not a kilt I'd wear on a night about town, but certainly will be okay around the house. Now that I've seen them up close and personal, I love the box pleat look more and more.

The only problem I had was in doing the A-shaping on the front apron. I had no problem doing the shaping itself, but couldn't figure out for the life of me how to tack the front apron to the first pleat so that everything hung correctly. I got it pretty close, but ended out tearing a small hole with my seam ripper in the pleat underneath the front apron trying to redo it. So, I just kind of had to leave it, with the result being that the front apron is a little "funny" on the wearer's left.

If anyone wants pics, I'll be happy to post them tomorrow once the kilt comes out of the dryer and I am a bit more coherent than I am now. I do have some stuff going on tomorrow evening, so it may not be until late tomorrow (or maybe even Saturday morning) before I get them up.

I cannot say enough good things about Alan and the directions he put together. Even the constant reminders to stop and think about what I was doing were very helpful.

For those that are considering trying one of these, it's about at the skill level of a level 3 model kit (enough to make you grit your teeth at times, but nice enough that it looks snazzy when done.)

And I really feel like there are some parallels with Jedi here. A Jedi makes his own lightsabre. Period. Granted, I have 4 store-bought kilts, but I think this needs to be a rite of passage.

Next up: I've got some modifications I'd like to do to the plans (I'm thinking about adding leather straps instead of the velcro closure, and I'm thinking seriously about doing a double box pleat instead of a single. And hand sewing it. This one will take a while. Maybe something in a dark forest green wool serge. Almost like the fabric that US Army Class A uniforms are made of, except more green than olive.

Well, off to bed. Thanks and a wOOt out to Alan for everything!