Tartan Fabric UK: 12 Things to Make and How to Match the Checks

The short answer to what to make with tartan fabric: scarves, blankets, bunting, bags, cushions, stockings, waistcoats, skirts, pinafores and jackets. The longer answer is that only about half of those need the checks to line up - and knowing which half is the difference between ordering 1.6m and ordering 2.2m.

Tartan is a woven check, not a print, so the pattern goes all the way through the cloth and there is no wrong side to worry about in the way there is with a printed check. It comes in polyviscose (200–260gsm, crisp, pleats well, the cheapest and the most common), brushed cotton (150–200gsm, soft, shirt weight) and wool (300–450gsm, heavy, the traditional cloth). Those weights are typical rather than universal, so check the listing. Start with the tartan fabrics range and pick the weight to suit the make, not the other way round.

Pattern repeat: how to measure it and why it changes your order

A pattern repeat is the distance from any point in the design to the point where that exact design starts again. Tartan has two repeats: one running down the length of the fabric and one running across the width. On a true tartan they are usually the same, because the same sequence of coloured threads is used in both directions. On a check that is only tartan-ish, they can differ, so measure both.

To measure it, lay the fabric flat and pick a distinctive line - the thin white overcheck is usually the easiest. Put your tape at the centre of that line and measure to the centre of the next identical line, in the same sequence. That is your repeat. Most tartans sold by the metre in the UK repeat somewhere between 8cm and 20cm. Large modern checks can run to 30cm.

Here is the rule that decides your order, and it is simpler than most sewing books make it sound:

Round the total up to the next 10cm when you order. And measure the repeat on the fabric you are actually buying - if the listing states it, use that figure; if it does not, order a small length first, or assume 20cm and be generously wrong rather than tightly right.

Which projects need matching and which genuinely do not

This is where most tartan advice goes wrong, by implying that every check needs matching. It does not, and the projects that do not need it are the best value in the whole autumn range.

Matching is required

• Skirts. The side seams sit at eye level on a moving body and a mismatched horizontal is instantly visible. Match horizontals at the side seams; verticals will follow if you cut on grain.
• Trousers. Side seams and outer legs. The two legs must also mirror each other, or you will walk about with one leg's checks 4cm higher than the other's.
• Jackets and waistcoats. Centre front, side seams, and the pocket flaps — a patch pocket cut to disappear into the front panel is the single most satisfying thing in tartan sewing.
• Pinafores and dresses. The waist seam and the side seams both.
• Cushion covers. Not strictly necessary, but a cushion sits still on a sofa where the eye can study it. Centre the same motif on every cushion in a set and they read as expensive.

Matching is not required

• Scarves. One piece, or two identical strips cut side by side. Nothing to match.
• Blankets and throws. A single rectangle, hemmed or fringed.
• Most bags. A tote is a rectangle folded at the base, so the front and back come from one continuous piece and match themselves automatically.
• Bunting, stockings, hot water bottle covers, small crafts. Cut from scraps in any direction. Deliberately mismatched pieces look better, not worse.
• Table runners and napkins. A runner is one straight cut. Napkins are squares.

The distinction is simple: if two pieces meet at a visible seam that a person will look at from a fixed distance, match them. If the make is one piece, or the seams are hidden or at the base of a bag, do not.

Twelve makes, easiest first

All figures assume 150cm-wide tartan and a 15cm pattern repeat where matching is needed. Prices are worked examples at indicative rates - not live prices, so check the listing on the day.

Two of those are worth expanding, because they show the whole argument.

The scarf. A scarf wants to be around 180cm long. Cut across the width and one 40cm cut gives you a 150cm scarf — slightly short, but usable, and it costs 40p at an indicative £1/m. Cut along the length instead and 1.8m of 150cm-wide tartan yields four scarves at a full 180cm each, 35cm deep, with the fringe pulled from the cut ends. That is £1.80 for four, or 45p each. No matching, no lining, no pattern, and about twenty minutes each. A comparable wool-mix scarf on the high street was £12–£25 at the time of writing.

The A-line skirt. Two major pieces, front and back. Ungrand, unmatched, on 150cm-wide fabric you would need 1.2m. With a 15cm repeat and two pieces to match, add 30cm: 1.5m. Add 1.0m of lining and you have 2.5m of cloth in total, or £2.50 at an indicative £1/m and £7.50 at £3/m. That 30cm of matching allowance costs 30p and it is the whole difference between a skirt that looks home-made and one that does not. Work the same sum for your own pattern using how much fabric you need.

If you are pairing tartan with a plain, the obvious partner is cord, texture without pattern against pattern without texture. There is a full comparison in working with corduroy, and the whole season is laid out in autumn fabrics uk.

Cutting tartan: single layer, chalk lines, match at the seam

The sewing of tartan is completely ordinary. It is a plain or twill weave and it behaves like any medium-weight cloth — 80/12 needle, 2.5mm stitch, press as you go. All the work is in the cutting, and it is worth doing slowly. Allow roughly twice as long to lay out and cut a matched tartan garment as you would for a plain.

1. Prewash and press first. Woven cotton and wool tartans shrink 3–5 per cent on the first wash. Shrinking after you have matched everything undoes the matching unevenly.
2. Check the tartan is printed or woven on grain. Lay it flat and look along the checks against the table edge. Cheap printed checks are sometimes off-grain, and a check that is printed crooked cannot be matched at all — you have to choose between following the grain and following the pattern. Woven tartan does not have this problem.
3. Cut single layer. Not folded. Folding hides the checks on the lower layer and you cannot see whether it has shifted. Cut the first piece, flip the pattern over, and cut the mirror piece separately, watching the checks each time.
4. Pick a reference line and mark it on the pattern tissue. Draw a horizontal line across your pattern piece at, say, the hip notch, and write on it which stripe of the tartan it must sit on, "centre of the wide green". Do the same line on the piece that joins it. Now both pieces have an instruction, not a guess.
5. Match at the stitching line, not the cut edge. This is the one people get wrong. If you line up the checks at the raw edges, they will be out by one seam allowance once sewn, which is usually 1.5cm. Mark your stitching line in chalk on both pieces and match the checks along that.
6. Chalk the dominant stripes across the whole piece. Once a piece is cut, run a chalk line along the main horizontal stripes onto the seam allowance. It gives you visible reference marks even where the pattern is hidden under the presser foot.
7. Pin at every crossing. Pin at right angles to the seam, one pin at each point where a major stripe crosses, right sides together, checking the stripes meet before you move on. On slippery polyviscose, hand-baste instead of pinning, it takes ten minutes and it stops the layers creeping.
8. Use a walking foot if you have one. Two smooth layers walk against each other. A walking foot feeds them evenly and preserves the match you just pinned.

Bias-cut tartan and when it is worth the extra fabric

Cutting on the bias turns the checks 45 degrees, so they run as diagonals. It looks deliberate, it is very hard to get wrong - there is nothing to match in the ordinary sense, only diagonals to mirror - and it produces the chevron effect you see on kilt-style skirt panels and on bias-bound edges.

The cost is fabric. A bias layout does not nest efficiently, so expect to add 25–50 per cent to the metreage compared with the same piece cut on grain. A 1.5m skirt becomes 2.0–2.2m. At an indicative £1/m that is 50–70p more, which is why bias cutting is a luxury on a £20/m wool and a shrug on a £1/m polyviscose.

It is worth it for: bias binding and trims (cut 4cm strips from an offcut - a 0.3m piece gives you metres of binding), chevron skirt panels, collars and cuffs cut on the bias against an on-grain body, and pocket flaps set diagonally on a jacket. It is not worth it for anything that needs to hold a firm shape, because bias-cut cloth stretches and drops. Hang a bias skirt for 24 hours before you hem it, or the hem will drop unevenly afterwards.

Tartan without the kilt look

Tartan carries a strong association, and if you do not want it, three things control how the fabric reads.

Scale. A small, dense check on a shirt or a lining reads as texture rather than as tartan. A large check on a full skirt reads as heritage. If you want to wear tartan without announcing it, buy a small repeat and use it on a small garment - a waistcoat, a shirt collar and cuff, a pocket lining.

Colour ground. The base colour does most of the work. Muted greys, navy and ink read as contemporary. Bright red and green with a yellow overcheck reads as Christmas, whether you want it to or not. Black-and-white or black-and-grey checks read as neither - they read as a coat.

Shape. The kilt association lives in pleats and in mid-calf length. Put the same tartan into a straight trouser, a boxy overshirt, a tote bag or a pair of cushions and it stops referencing anything. A tartan shacket over jeans is the most-worn thing you can make from 2.9m of this cloth.

One styling rule worth keeping: one check per outfit, and let everything else be plain. If you want a second pattern, make it a texture - cord, wool, cable knit - not another print. For more on how printed and woven patterns behave differently once cut, see choosing printed fabrics, and for picking the right weight of tartan for a given pattern, how fabric weight affects drape and fit. For the heavier traditional cloth, look at the wool fabrics range; for everything else this season, the warm and cosy collection.