I have been wanting to make a tartan skirt for forever! I’m not really sure why but it just never made it to the top of my sewing queue until now. Speaking of tartan, I always wondered about the American term plaid. Of course, I looked it up and tartan refers to the fabric and plaid basically means blanket and the fabric worn over the shoulder (while wearing a kilt) in traditional Scottish dress is referred to as plaid. In the US plaid means tartan. Just in case you were also curious. Anyway, I ordered the fabric online from Spotlight and while I was waiting for it to arrive, I had a look at tartan skirts online. I was loving the look of suspender skirts and getting excited about apron/pinafore/jumper dresses. Here are some of my inspirations:
Pic Credits: Top row Modcloth, Middle row Hot Topic and Bottom row Hellbunny
I wondered if I should make a basic skirt or something more, I only ordered 2.3m of tartan but it was 150cm wide. Plain skirt? Suspender skirt? Pinafore dress? I couldn’t commit to a plan. Then I heard the taco ad in my head…why not both? I decided to make the skirt and see if I could also cut out a bodice and suspender straps and have them attach with snaps inside the skirt. That way I could have all three. I absolutely love convertible garments that can be worn in different ways, it adds so much to my wardrobe with just one make.
I started by making my usual half circle skirt (the how to is here) but decided to cut the waistband on the bias. There was no way to pattern match the waist band nicely, so I thought the contrast might be nice. If you want to do the same, this youtube explains how to put pattern pieces on the bias of the fabric. I ended up having to take the waistband off and redo it due to a bit of weight loss, so it’s not as neat as it could be. Good reminder to check your measurements and not run on auto pilot. Thankfully my Sister is crazy and finds unpicking relaxing, so loves the opportunity to seam rip. I repaired a tear in her skirt in return.
I wanted a shaped pinafore bodice, I thought if I went with a simple rectangle my waist might get lost. I pulled out good old Simplicity 4070 which has a basic sweetheart bodice. I traced off the bodice front, side front and side back only (not the last back section). I drew a straight line across the top of the sweetheart and tapered side back down to an inch or so. You can see the original pattern vs the pinafore pattern above. It’s important to have a under table cat while you are drafting!
I cut out a lining from some burgundy poplin that I had in the stash to check the fit. I decided to cut the bodice front out on the bias and everything else on the straight grain. I cut the bodice side front and back out carefully. It’s not 100% perfect pattern matching but it’s close enough not to stick out as wrong. With the reminder of the fabric I figured out where I could cut out straps for this pinafore (see pic below where I pinned out the lines to cut on) and also the suspender skirt and cut those out, stitched them into a tube and pressed them flat. I pinned each set of stripes so they lined up nice (see below). Once all the bodice pieces were sewn together, I pinned the straps to the tartan layer before pinning the lining and tartan together. I attached the lining to the tartan outer by sewing along the whole upper edge. I turned it through and closed the bottom edge with bias binding.
Next up snaps! My beautiful, kind, loving mother offered to do the tedious job of hand sewing all the snaps. I ended up using 7 sets of 18mm snaps. The female side of the snaps was sewn inside the waistband and the male sides to the pinafore/straps. We fitted the apron first, with two snaps in front and two on the side towards the back and two on the back for the apron straps. The suspenders work with the same front & back snaps.
I love how all of this came together! I can wear this as a plain skirt, a suspender skirt or a as a pinafore/apron dress. All of that from just 2.3m, it’s so satisfying! there was only tiny scraps of fabric left. As it’s coming into the cooler weather, I know I’ll get heaps of wear out of this transforming convertible number. It’s exciting to have so many new wardrobe options for such a low effort and cost investment. My tartan dreams have been answered! If you make a transforming skirt, I’d love to see it xx
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