Simplicity 8384

Today I’m sharing my tartan dress. That winter staple which loves to fray, and has high potential for disastrous pattern-matching. 

As a child of the 80s I had several tartan dresses. I think there’s a picture of me in front of the Christmas tree in one too. Then In the 90s I had more tartan dresses, I especially remember one with a matching scrunchie worn for a school picture. Flash forward and I never owned one in my adult life but I had a chance to fix that when Amanda from PatternsandPlains.com got in touch. She sent me 3m of the softest brushed cotton tartan to try. And yes I’m sure most people would make pyjamas but my mind was already racing to dress ideas.

The Hudson Brushed Cotton Woven Fabric comes in two colours and this is Scarlet Tide. Hudson is a yarn dyed woven check, made from 100% cotton. It’s fairly light weight but still opaque. You can either use the face, with its cosy distinctive brushed surface, or for a smoother look, use the reverse. Scarlet Tide is a wonderful bright red with pops of green, blue, yellow and black. It’s 145cm wide and 140gsm – that’s grams per square metre.

My inspiration was actually a double gauze dress. Aspiga’s Harper Checked Double Cloth Organic Cotton Dress in a navy and green check reminiscent of black watch tartan. Black Watch tartan is a dark blue, black, and green pattern associated with the Black Watch Regiment, the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The Harper dress features a button front, small stand collar, long sleeves and long skirt. I had been itching to try Simplicity 8384 and thought this could be a fun project for it!

When approaching checked fabric you have to look at the Pattern Repeat. Then weigh up design decisions for example – would I be happy with a straight gathered skirt that I could easily pattern match at the sides? Or do I want something flared? Cutting a basic flared skirt out of a check or stripe will make the print pitch off the sides in a curve when worn. But using a panelled skirt layout can counteract this but creates chevrons at the seams. Same for the bodice, how many darts do I want and where will they fall in the print? Is any piece cut on the bias – or should I cut some pieces on the bias for fun?

Learn more about this in my YouTube tutorial!

This dress doesn’t have a zip which is helpful because pattern matching tartan across a zip is a tough job. It can be done of course and basting glue is a lifesaver when prepping your matching. My dress has an elasticated back like the pattern directions for an easy fit plus elasticated sleeves for a tapered finish. I swapped the sleeves so I could use the ones from S8014 without the cuff and no sleeve vent. I like my bias cut placket and stand collar. The facings are cut from the straight grain. And I interfaced the bias outer pieces for stability instead of the facings.

It’s incredibly soft and warm. Frayed a bit during construction but my overlocker took care of that. I’ll definitely be wearing it to one of my festive events and well into the chilly new year when the snow comes! I really wish I’d used the handkerchief hem design from the pattern as I think in hindsight that would have looked brilliant. Instead I levelled off the hem around the view B length. 

So that’s my tartan Christmas dress — complete with fully-matched checks, bias-cut plackets and only a medium amount of fraying-induced panic. Honestly, I’m so happy with how it turned out, and if you’re thinking about sewing with tartan this season, I hope this post and my YouTube video gives you the confidence to go for it.