Now that i've had a bit of coffee, my brain is starting to wrap itself around your suggestions, Pleater. I think I'm gonna dig my way through mom's storage closet and see what excess material she has and just sew the denim strips onto different material. Origionaly, i was going to do alternating strips of the main denim and one of the lighter denims; but I like the idea of a different mat/color all together.

I haven't made a kilt before, this will be my first attempt (I figure if i can do one out of recycled material at least once, i'll have no trouble doing one out of good material the right way? It makes sense if you're in my head haha) I have been using the xkilt pdf as a guide though, jotting down notes of things that might help me, making little changes i think ill need to adjust for the project.