Ok... this post is waaaaaaay overdue, but...

I found this site and Alan's X-Kilt directions earlier this year while trying desperately to learn how to make kilts for the members of a competitive barbecue team that I joined. The team is named "The Smokin' Scotsmen", we compete in KCBS (Kansas City Barbecue Society) sanctioned events and are currently ranked 73 in the country (after our first full year competing) out of 4,000+ teams. The guy that started the team is a descendant of the Munro clan and had the team logo designed to reflect his tartan. We, as a joke, adopted the phrase "Fear The Kilt" as a sort of intimidation to the other teams but found that lacking the kilt, there was nothing to fear. We started trying to contact some of the larger commercial kilt making companies in the US to see if they would be willing to talk sponsorship (we travel all around the mid-west US and are seen by hundreds to thousands of people per week). After receiving absolutely no response (not even a polite "no thank you") I started searching the internet for instructions. What I found was the amazing piece of work that Alan put together. I went down to the local fabric store and bought about 14 yards of a cotton-poly sueded twill and over a weekend taught myself to use my mom's old sewing machine. I was on a deadline because we wanted to debut the kilts at our next competition (5 days later). The first kilt took me about 18 hours total, the second clocked in at about 14 hours, leaving me about five hours to sleep before I had to drive the 5 1/2 hours to the competition.

After seeing how well they turned out, the third guy on our team (who was adamant against wearing "that silly skirt thing") asked for one. I couldn't find any more of the original fabric (that's what I get for buying it on clearance) but found a nice duck canvas in a similar color). Sewing that one took a LONG while. Mom's sewing machine couldn't cut it, so I had to get dad's old upholstery machine out of moth balls and get it running. UGH!

On the barbecue forums we have a phrase... no pics, didn't happen... so here's the pics:


The Smokin' Scotsmen Competitive BBQ Team


Kilts #1 & #2


Kilts #1 & #2 again


Bringing the hardware home


Ladies love the kilt!!