My New Obsession: Cigar Box Guitars

What do you get when you cross a bored man crafter, a box and a stick? Why a cigar box guitar of course.  I have wanted to build some sort of instrument for years so last year I finally took the plunge. Mrs. Man Krafter wanted to do something special for Christmas that made memories instead of collecting more “stuff”. I suggested that I make instruments for the kids. She, being the concerned wife that she is, didn’t think I would have enough time with all my other responsibilities at work and at home.  I knew I could do it so I set out on a secret mission. I purchased some cigar boxes through the local online classifieds to get started. I made my first guitar as a challenge to myself. I wanted to see if I could make a simple cigar box guitar over lunch time so I gathered my materials and headed to a park near my office. Because of my one hour time constraint I had to do something extremely simple so I chose to make a Diddley Bow.

Originally this instrument was made by running a broom handle through a small box then taking the wire that held the straw onto the broom and stringing it across the instrument. When mama would come home and find her broom torn apart, she would give lickins to the child who made it. Since she had to go and buy a new broom, the child would be allowed to keep the instrument. So it was said that playing the Diddley Bow only hurt the first time. The instrument is played using a slide made from something hard such as a glass bottle or a smooth piece of metal. They you pluck or hit the string. It has an interesting sound and could be considered, in some cases a percussion instrument. Even though I have made several other cigar box guitars since that first one, I still love jamming on it. In fact it is sitting on my desk next to me as I type this.

After my Diddley  Bow experiment, I knew I was up to the task so I turned my car into a mobile workshop and over the next few months, I crafted four new instruments. The first was a traditional three string fretless cigar box guitar. I started with this one so that I could figure out the best ways to make the others. I made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot but it was an amazing journey. Once that was done, I knew what I had to do. Ultimately I made a dulcimer for my son, a smaller diddley bow for my youngest daughter and a tenor ukulele for my 10 year old.

When I presented them to my family, my wife and older daughters were so impressed that they decided they wanted me to make them instruments as well. I am now thoroughly addicted to making these things so making a few more won’t be a problem!!

How about you? Have you ever made your own instrument? Post pics of yours!

A Man Crafter Among Us

Since the beginning of time, crafting has been considered a past time for women and elementary school children, not for manly men. In fact, I have guy friends who will say: “I don’t sew, I make stuff!” These same guys have re-titled their sewing machines as “Thread Injectors”. It is time for those of us men who like to make stuff to come out of the shadows.  There is no need to hide behind our wives, girlfriends or mothers! Be proud! Embrace your creativity.  How do you think the most brilliant minds in history created the inventions that changed the world? They made stuff!  That truly is all that crafting is.

Russ ‘The Kilted Man Krafter’ and some of his tools

The first time I ever heard the term “Man Crafter” was from my sister in law Gretel.  I was showing off a custom leather sheath that I had made and her comment that coined the phrase for me: “Russ, you are so ‘Man Crafty!'” My family loved the term and that is what they have been saying about my projects ever since. Years later, I work for the greatest company in the world, Cricut! They support my man crafting habit 100 percent and have enabled me to do what I love in addition to my regular job of Electronic Data Engineer. In fact the title on my e-mail signature is “EDI Engineer and Staff Man Crafter”. How cool is that?!? It is fantastic to be able to run my ideas past such an amazing group of creative individuals.  They are always truly excited to see my projects.

When I first started working for Cricut, my wife was teaching science classes two times a week. The Cricut Explore was invaluable for creating engaging crafts for her students. While not all of my projects use my Cricut, I have found many non-traditional ways to use the machine.

Kilted Man Krafter Wallet

I have a passion for simplicity and clean lines. My latest project is an uber-thin wallet that can be made on a Cricut with a single cutting session. My initial intention was to modify a pattern from one of the many duct tape wallet projects found on the web. On Pinterest, I found a picture of a wallet that was made from a single piece of leather with no sewing involved. Given my penchant for simplicity, I fell in love with the idea! Using simple shapes available in Design Space on Cricut.com, I inserted, sliced and welded my way to the final project. This wallet holds some cash and up to eight cards while still being incredibly thin. It is in fact so thin, that I regularly have to check my pocket to make sure it is still there.

My goal is to provide inspiration for you to go out and make cool stuff of your own. So grab your paper, leather, fabric swatches and thread injectors and join me for a journey into all things creative from the perspective of a Manly Man!

A shot of the open wallet

Another shot of the open Wallet

Every Hat Needs A Head To Hold On To!!!

I have been wearing Australian Bush hats for the last several years. My first hat was loved to death. I wore it so much that the crown fell apart. After two attempts to fix it by an experienced leather worker, I finally laid it to rest. That was truly a sad day but fortunately, my oldest daughter had already given me a replacement as a Christmas gift. It is rare to see me without my hat and I even have a smooth black leather version that I call my “Sunday goin’ to meetin’s” hat. BC hats makes a great product and thus far, it is the only brand I wear.

Until today, my beloved hat has been hung on the side of my cubicle at work or worse, just tossed on the desk. Well no more! Over the last couple of days, I have created a head almost as complex as mine as a pillow for my crown. Perhaps I should give my hat a name?!? Cars are given names as they are cherished possessions, why not a hat? I challenge you all to help me name her.

I had seen tiny versions of this head around work and I knew it was available on Cricut.com’s Design Space. I searched for a while and finally found it. Once you start a new project, select insert image and search for “autodesk” under all images. There will be an image set called Human Head – 123D. This was the base for my project. The original project is only designed to stand about six inches high. With my huge head, I knew that just wouldn’t suffice. I expanded the image set so that the tallest pieces were eleven and a half inches tall, the maximum allowed on a standard Cricut 12×12 cutting mat.  The problem with the file is that it starts out entirely grouped together. After un-grouping and detaching all the images, I proceeded to use the contour tool to create groups of images that would fit onto a single sheet of 12×12 cardstock. A word to the wise: each piece has numbers written on it using the Cricut Explore Air’s pen tool. Make sure you keep them on the images. When I made my head, I figured I was smart enough to just use an image from the computer to figure out where everything was supposed to be placed. That little mistake added an hour to my assembly of the head.

Once everything had been separated, I cut out all the pieces on my Cricut Explore Air. This took 8 sheets of 12×12 cardstock and about an hour of time. Next came the fun part, assembly of the 22 unmarked pieces. Fortunately I hadn’t removed all the markings and had left the part numbers. The most difficult part was getting the horizontal pieces attached to the first four vertical pieces. This took a lot of patience but when it was done, all the other pieces slid right into place. The end result….a surprisingly stable, almost life size head to hold my hat. Perhaps one day I will wrap the whole thing in paper mache to give it a bit more stability but that is a project for another day.

Now it’s your turn! Help me name my hat and send me pictures of your hatstands.

Interview with Jake Andersen of Hobo Hammocks

Jake Andersen is a dental student with a passion for hammock camping.  Thanks to his recent successful Kickstarter campaign that funded at over 300%, he is also on his way to being a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist. Go check him out at hobohammocks.com!

Kilted Man Crafter: How did you get into hammock camping?

Jake Anderson: When I was younger I went camping with my family all the time, as I got older,  my back is not the greatest, as you can see I am all hunched over, so it started not being enjoyable for me to sleep on the ground.  And then a couple years ago one of my roommates up in Logan bought a camping hammock and he’s like… back then there were ten of us in the house and when one guy did something we all did it. He like “Everybody needs to get hammocks, we’re doing it”.  So we all bought hammocks and tried out hammock camping and it was just awesome.  I mean I slept great that night we had a good time just a big ole hammock hive, all of us in there you know. Ever since then I’ve just loved it.

KMK: So you liked hammocks and decided you wanted to start a business. Tell me how that came about.

Jake: So I’ve toyed around with other business ideas online, I’m in dental school as I told you before and… do know much about affiliate marketing?

KMK: Nope.

Jake:  So affiliate marketing you, for example I was doing it for Amazon where I created a blog and I linked people to Amazon on my blog, and they have it set up so you can create an account on Amazon where when you link somebody to Amazon, whatever they buy even if it’s not the product you linked them to Amazon for, whatever they buy in that session you get a commission for that. It starts out at four percent and the more items you refer to the higher the percentage goes.  So I started doing that with electric tooth brushes and it was not the best but it was a good learning experience kind of figured out the ropes of making a blog and all those things. Then I thought I want to do something I was more passionate about because I love dentistry but electric toothbrushes are kind of like there, you know, there’s not much of a difference between different brushes. So then I started thinking more and more about hammocking and I thought I would really like to do something with hammocking.  and I was going to do affiliate marketing at first but then I thought, why don’t I just start my own company?

The way the homeless thing tied into it is last year me and my roommate want to go on a trip to Thailand but we didn’t have the money for that. So we decided to be homeless for a little while to save up the money. That’s what kind of got me interested in the homeless so I thought why not combine those?

KMK: So you guys had no rent you just camped for a little while to save money?

Jake: We found an abandoned softball field in Draper and we strapped our hammocks to the backstop of the softball field and just lived in our hammocks.

KMK: Wow!

Jake: Yeah that was pretty awesome.

KMK: So did you meet any homeless while you were out there?

Jake: While we were there, no, but because I kind of got introduced to that, I mean we’re living out of our cars so it wasn’t near as bad as the homeless actually have it. But being in that environment made me think more about the homeless and so I started to interact more than when I could, not necessarily when we are living in our hammocks, but if I was driving somewhere in Salt Lake and saw some, I would stop and talk to them, offer them food, stuff like that. Actually last fall I took a date to Pioneer Park and we brought pizza and hot chocolate to a bunch of homeless people there.

KMK:  Very cool!  So with your hammocks what, what is different about your hammocks besides your cause.

Jake: Honestly the actual product there isn’t a huge difference. I mean you know ENO makes great hammocks, Grand Trunk makes great hammocks and I wanted to make a hammock similar to theirs because I knew I could do it at a more affordable price while still including straps with the hammocks. That’s a difference; usually the other companies don’t include the straps and also doing the cause where we’re helping out the homeless, giving them a meal for every hammock we sell. So the actual hammock really isn’t all that different from an ENO or a Grand Trunk. It’s got about the same weight ratings, you know all those specifications are going to be pretty similar.

KMK: So when you went to design it what was your process behind deciding how you wanted your hammock to be?

Jake: One of the biggest things I’ve noticed when I’ve gone hammock camping is that I don’t like single hammocks, I don’t like a hammock that I feel tight in. You know I like to be able to cocoon  myself in it so that was one of my biggest priorities is making sure that the hammock is plenty big, plenty of space for you to sit in there and cocoon yourself, you can shift a little bit and get comfortable. So yeah that was actually the main thing when designing the size was just making sure it’s long enough and wide enough to be comfortable.

KMK: What is the name of the shelter that you’re working with?

Jake: So right now are working with the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake. They have a You Tube video you can look up, I think it is called “The Forgotten” to check that out. There’s also several other companies we’ve been talking about the Homeless Youth Alliance, we want to work with them but it’s going to be a little bit more difficult because the way their program set up, their meals are pretty costly per person but we are going to work something out where we will be able to help them too.

KMK: So I hear you’re going to try to get hammocks to the homeless as well, how are you going to work that?

Jake: Yeah we’re going to do a, I’m calling it a hammock recycling program. So basically it’s a warranty on our hammocks where anytime somebody has a hammock that tears or rips or anything like that they’ll be able to send that in with the recycling fee. We still haven’t figured out exactly what that will be, probably fifteen to twenty dollars,  and with that fee we are going to fix the old hammock and we’re going to send them a brand new hammock and then we’ll take the old hammock and will donate it to the homeless.

KMK: What else you want the blogosphere to know about Jake and Hobo Hammocks?

Jake: I don’t know what to tell you about it, I mean I am really passionate about it! It’s been a lot more work than I expected it to be because of the positive reaction I’m getting from people. I’ve been doing a lot of advertising through Facebook groups and everybody’s responses are super positive and I love working with all these great people. The interaction with all of the people is half the fun of this business for sure!

My thanks to Jake for a fantastic interview.  I wish him all the best. As a fellow hammock camper, I can vouch for the comfort.  I will never sleep on the ground again, if I can help it! Send me pictures of you in your hammocks!

Have a GREAT Memorial Day

To all those who have served with me and for me in the armed forces, I salute you. For those who have given their lives for my freedom, I am forever in you debt for I know that “freedom” is indeed not free. For those of you who are serving in the military now, I pray for your safe return.

 

Defense Language Institute Mandarin class of 1993

 
Have a great Memorial Day everyone! As you spend time with your friends and families, please take a moment to remember why we celebrate this day.

MEAT!!! Gotta Love It!!!

I love meat! I tried to be vegetarian and even vegan once and can I just reiterate…..I LOVE MEAT! There is just nothing like a good medium ribeye steak, just a little pink in the middle, seasoned just right.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Much of what I know about grilling and cooking meat I learned from my best friend Kim. In fact many of my man crafting skills I learned from him.  When my family goes over to his house for Thanksgiving, my wife hangs out with his wife, my kids hang out with their kids, and best of all, Kim and I spend hours making stuff.

I have become a pretty good cook over the years. Lots of experimentation and way more unpalatable meals than I would like to admit. I think my most epic failure was a soup I made that needed thickening. I had read somewhere that you could use instant potatoes to thicken soup.  That sounded good to me but I didn’t have any instant potatoes on hand. I did have some boxed au-gratin potatoes though. I said to myself, “Hey, instant potatoes are just ground dehydrated potatoes so I should be able to grind the dried whole potatoes with no problem.” Wow, what a colossal mistake that was! I learned that there is a lot more to instant potatoes than just drying them. My blender only made a course grind out of the potatoes and since it was pseudo ground dried raw potatoes and not dehydrated cooked potatoes, they didn’t thicken the soup at all.  They just made this disgusting soup with crunchy bits of uncooked potatoes.  Needless to say, we had to throw the whole thing out. It was so bad that I even considered tossing the pot I cooked it in as well, just for good measure.

Let’s talk for a minute about seasoning. There is a seemingly endless selection of premixed rubs, spice blends and flavor packets to choose from. What I dislike the most about premixed is that they almost always have other stuff besides spices, the worst of which is MSG. For my steaks and most other meats, I keep it simple…I use “The Mix”. “The Mix” is not a unique blend of spices by any means and all of them are readily available.  My buddy Kim was taught this blend by his grandfather who used it on the BBQ circuit back in his day.  Are you ready for the secret? All you do is combine equal parts of salt, pepper and garlic powder. Pretty earth shattering huh? These three spices really compliment the flavor of pretty much everything. I prefer to keep things simple so if I had my choice, I would probably season everything I ate with “The Mix”. Mrs. Kilted Man Krafter, however, has a much more sophisticated pallet. I recently purchased equal sized containers of Salt, Pepper and Garlic.  I will empty them all out into a bowl, mix them thoroughly  and transfer them back into the containers. For one, I will label it, with my Cricut machine of course, “The classic Mix”. It will be just the three spices. The next will probably be “The smokey Mix” containing the classic mix plus paprika. Then I will create “The Mexi Mix” which will have the classic mix plus chili powder and cumin. We eat a fair amount of fish in my house so the last one will be “The fish Mix” and will be blessed with the classic mix plus dill.  I could go on forever with variations of “The Mix” but for what I do, these four will suffice.

The way I cook all my meats is the same and works both on a stove and on a grill. For convenience, I usually cook inside on the stove.  If you are cooking steak or pork chops, rinse it off and let it sit on the counter for an hour or so to come to room temperature. If you do this with chicken, fish or burgers, you are taking a risk of food poisoning. Chances are all the bacteria will be cooked off but I have had food poisoning before and don’t want a repeat performance of that nightmare.

Generic Cast Iron Frying pan

On the stove I use a heavy bottomed cast iron pan like this one. Recently I saw a square pan that has raised lines for grilling that I want for Father’s Day, hint hint. When you are ready to cook, turn your oven on to 350 and start heating up your pan on medium. Every grill is different so I cannot tell you what heat to use.  For mine, I heat to medium high. While you are pre-heating, coat both sides of the meat liberally with whatever flavor “The Mix” you choose would like. When I grill, I like to lightly coat the meat with avocado oil before seasoning to prevent it from sticking. When your pan is hot, immediately prior to putting your meat on, slap a large portion of your favorite fat on the pan. My three favorites, in order, are bacon grease, butter and coconut oil.  If you put your fat in the pan too early you will burn it and the flavor of your meat will be affected. Put your meat in the pan so the pieces are all flat.  You can crowd them without any issue but you can’t have any pieces overlapping or it won’t cook properly. If are cooking fish and like a crispy skin, like Mrs. Kilted Man Krafter does, then make sure to put the skin side down first. The duration will be the same for each step in the cooking process but the actual time will vary based on the type of meat and the doneness you prefer. I will go into my general guidelines in a minute. Cook the first side for the prescribed time, flip it over and cook it for the same amount of time then take the pan off the heat and toss it in the oven, again for the same amount of time. On my grill, I turn off the burners on one side and put the meat on the warming rack above them for indirect heat. When the last step is done, I turn off the oven or grill and let it rest for five to ten minutes. That’s it! Simple right? It takes some practice to get the timing correct for your personal cooking implements and cuts of meat but once you do it is perfect pretty much every time.

For my tools, I have found the following cooking times to be what I need. All of these are based on a cut that is ¾ to 1 inch thick. For medium rare steak, five minutes per side and skip the oven. For medium steak, with just touch of pink in the middle, five minutes for all steps. For medium well steak, seven minutes per step. Pork I usually cook for 5 minutes per step. Chicken and fish are tricky because they are usually not a uniform thickness.  I hesitate to give you a time on these and request that you experiment with them so that I don’t poison any of you.

So go out and grab some steaks, make “The Mix” of your choice and get your grub on!  Post your variations for the rest of us to enjoy.

Down Time

For all 3 of my loyal followers, I apologize for the lack of posts.  With spring here, I have been working outside and have not been able to do any crafting.  That coupled with the fact that I took my wife away on a vacation for 6 days has made for sparse posting.  I won’t have time for a couple weeks to do any crafting but I will post some reviews and perhaps some recipes within the next couple of days.  Once things settle down, I will be able to get back to what I love to do.  Thanks so much to all of you!

Cinderella’s Carriage

Cinderella’s Carriage for the Tooele Valley Academy of Dance rendition of Cinderella.

This past weekend, I reviewed the ballet my kids performed in for the the Tooele Valley Academy of Dance. Parents are asked to volunteer their time and services to help defray costs of the studio. Last December, I was on the stage crew for the Nutcracker and had the task of making the sled they had, move across the stage. Fortunately, the high school where the performance was held had a plethora of scrap wood and spare parts I could use. I attached the sled to a couple of two by fours and scavenged the casters from a broken chair for a rolling sled. It worked great. I did all that and didn’t even have my own tools. So having shown my man crafting skills, I was assigned to build Cinderella’s carriage.

For this project, I had the distinct advantage of being able to purchase what I needed and to use my own tools. I figured that most performances would have the need to move something across the stage at some point so I decided to start by building a 4′ x 6′ rolling platform with 3″ swivel casters. This gave me a fantastic base for the carriage and can be used in December for the Nutcracker again to make the sled roll better. For last years sled, Clara and the Nutcracker Prince were still standing on the ground so they had to take baby steps as the were whisked away in the carriage. Functional but not so elegant to be sure.

Hoop wheel prototype

After the platform was built, I framed up some 2×4’s and made a 3 sided box for the carriage base. The whole kit and caboodle was painted black and left to dry. The next day I painted the carriage onto the box and attached 45 degree pvc pipe fittings to receive the pipe that would eventually be the canopy.  I had originally planned to use hula hoops as the wheels but they were not rigid enough.

A few days later, I painted the detail on the carriage and tried to make some wheels with cardboard. I used my Cricut Machine to cut out a pattern for the spokes.  My maximum cutting area is 12×24 inches so I had to create it in two parts. I quite like the flow of the spokes, especially when I decided to use 4 spokes instead of 2.

Cardboard wheels

The cardboard did not work since the moisture in the paint caused the cardboard to buckle and warp. Luckily, I still had extra wood from building the base to use for wheels.  I used my table saw and created a pivot point 11″ from the blade by drilling a hole directly into the saw base. I drilled a hole in the center of my wood and stuck a screwdriver through it so as to create the pivot point. Little by little, I raised the blade then turned the wood around the pivot point. I kept raising the blade until it cut all the way through giving me a perfect 22 inch circle. I created another jig out of scrap wood to help me draw a line two inches from the edge for the wheel. Then I traced my spoke template onto the wood for a painting guide. I started with white, then I went to grey and finally to black so that I could paint without having to wait for the other colors to dry.  That went better than I had hoped.

Cinderella and Prince Charming

The next morning the carriage was ready for assembly. The night of the show, it was decorated with tulle and garland creating the perfect carriage for Cinderella.

I love being able to create things like this, especially when it benefits my family and others. The ballet was a huge success and I set up the carriage afterwards so that people could take pictures with their friends and families.

How about you, have you built props like this before? Post pics if you have!

Tooele Valley Academy of Dance Presents: Cinderella

Emma as Cinderella

You wouldn’t think that a Man Crafting Blog would be the place for a review of local ballet but since A. this is my blog and B. I built Cinderella’s carriage for the show, I am taking the liberty to do so. This will undoubtedly be a biased review as my son and two youngest daughters,  were members of the cast. So often we go to our children’s performances out of a sense of obligation. I can’t count the number of band, orchestra and choir performances I have suffered through. When it comes to seeing my kids perform with the Tooele Valley Academy of Dance (TVAD), it is a different story all together. All of the performers, whose ages range from 2 through 18, work their collective little hearts out to give the best performance they can muster. They all did a fantastic job! My girls are in the younger groups and seeing them work so hard is quite endearing. It is always heart-warming to see the itty bitty kids up their dancing.  They are all just so cute you can hardly stand it. If all we were watching was this for an hour and a half, I am sure the sentiments would resemble those of the choir and orchestra performances mentioned before where with the exception of my kids and a few “awwwwww” moments I would be bored to tears. However the senior members of the cast dance with so much polish that sometimes you forget that this is a local dance school performance. There is an exceptional amount of grace and talent at TVAD, that is for certain.

All of the cast did a wonderful job in their various roles. Emma Lewis as Cinderella was enchanting and captured the hearts of the audience from the moment the curtain opened. Nick Werrett made a dashing Prince Charming and his experience and strength helped Emma to shine. Intermixed with the youth performers were a handful of adults to round out the cast. Mallory Serr , who was also the assistant director of the ballet and is the dance company mistress, played the fairy godmother. Anne Griffith as the wicked stepmother with Darren Westhora and Phil Eldredge as the step sisters had the audience roaring with laughter. I was laughing so hard I almost cried when the stepmother was trying to pound the slipper onto her “daughter’s” foot.

Not being one who likes cats, at all, I found it a little surprising that the part I enjoyed the most were the scenes with the cats and mice. Heidi Hughes as Bad Kitty and Lindsay Argyle as Good Kitty were spot on with the rambunctious, playful and sometimes spoiled rotten spirit of a cat. My son had several supporting roles in the show. The part where he got as chance to really shine was as the dance instructor. That boy has more grace in his little finger than I have in my whole body. He takes after me when it comes to athletic aptitude and when it comes to playing sports, we have about as much talent as a pregnant water buffalo. However when it comes to dancing, my son has so much raw talent, it makes me beam with pride. I love to watch him dance!

After a few hiccups opening night, the kids finished strong on Saturday, having worked out all the kinks. It was a highly entertaining performance that I would recommend to anyone for a high quality family night out. TVAD never disappoints when it comes to their performances. Kudos to Ms Sarah Westhora, Ms Mallory Serr and the entire studio for a job exceptionally well done.

Emma as Cinderella

Nick as Prince Charming

Cinderella and Prince Charming

My 3 Stars of the show

Special Order UTK Ultimate Modern Utility Kilt with Comfort Waist Review

As the name of my blog suggests, I do in fact like to wear a kilt. This is not a decision I took lightly for the sake of my family’s good name and not wanting to embarrass my wife and kids. At the time of this posting, I do not wear a kilt full time and probably never will simply due to propriety in certain settings. That said, I enjoy it to the point that I will be making it a more regular clothing item as I acquire/make more kilts. It would be pretty nasty if I wore my only kilt every single day. I was filled with trepidation when I wore my new kilt for the first time.  There is no formal dress code where I work with the possible exception of “You must wear clothes of some sort” so I donned my kilt and headed to work.  I stopped at the store on the way to work and got some funny looks from people I could tell I wouldn’t hang out with anyway. I am a big fan of shock value so this made me as giddy as a school girl. At work the response was overwhelmingly positive. Frankly, that is what I most nervous about as I love my job and would never want to cause undue distraction. I gotta tell ya, I wish I had tried this before.  I have been toying with the idea for a long time and my 9 year old even bought me the material with her own money to make my own. Not having the time, I decided to just bite the bullet and purchase one online.  (Baby girl, daddy will still make a kilt with your fabric, I promise!)

Ultimate Black UT Kilt with comfort waist.

I looked at the different sites online and came across one that is in my state, UT Kilts. The prices were much lower than the other kilt manufacturers I researched and the reviews on the website seemed favorable as well. Being a rather large, translated “FAT” man, my options were somewhat limited as to the style I could get.  I opted for the Special Order UTK Ultimate Modern Utility Kilt with Comfort Waist. I followed the measuring instructions exactly and came up with a 54″ waist(I told you I was LARGE). Kilt sizes are not measured like pants but are measured around the belly button. When I ordered the kilt, I was told that special orders can take several weeks. I was pleasantly surprised when mine arrived 2 weeks later. Since belly fat is usually soft, the exact measurement made the 54″ kilt feel like it would fall off so for you big guys in my situation, I recommend you order about 4 inches smaller than your tape measure tells you if you decide to go with the comfort waist. I have not seen this feature on any of the other kilts on the web and since I don’t particularly like being cut in half when I sit down, this appealed to me greatly. The comfort waist has elastic in it making it stretch a little when you bend over or sit down.  It does, however, make the kilt not feel as secure as I am used to with pants. This is my first kilt so I can’t really compare it to a non-comfort waist model.  Ultimately, I opted for a size 50 instead of a 54…..it fits great!

This particular model has more storage than my house! There are two cargo pockets with compartments inside and out. Additionally, you get the standard jeans pockets; two front slash pockets and two back pockets. My favorite feature, second only to the comfort waist, is a pocket located behind the front panel. This makes it so that you don’t need to use a sporran to carry your wallet, keys, knife, etc… unless of course you dig wearing a sexy man bag! Honestly, this is way too many pockets for my liking, but that is just personal preference. I would be completely fine with the cargo pockets and the front panel pocket but I like simplicity.

I highly recommend UT Kilts and will be purchasing more from them in the near future.  Brice was a pleasure to work with and the quality is unsurpassed. Go buy one today!