The fall season usually brings with it an array of plaid fabrics. You see them in jackets, pants,and shirts; even pyjamas seem to be more plaid this time of year. I love plaids, something about that symmetry I think, but they can be a little intimidating for sewers. All that matching - what should match and how do you cut them? then how do you sew them to keep those lines together? Hopefully, I can answer a few of those questions.

First, someone asked me recently for tips on wearing plaid. Specifically, can short women wear plaids? I really think they can, but it is important to keep the colour and the proportion subtle, in order not to overwhelm the person who is "vertically challenged". Plaids in darker colours or in ones which blend with one another would be more suitable for a short and/or large person. A red/black plaid with a repeat of 8" is probably too "loud" and would look too strong for this person. But a navy/purple plaid with a repeat of 4" might be quite striking. Look for plaids with colours which are beside each other on the colour wheel, rather than colours which are opposite each other.

This subtle plaid could be worn by a person of any height. Glen check wool blazer with leather buttons and accents. Burda Plus magazine Autumn /94

Also, using plaid for just one item would be better for the short woman. Only those tall, very slender women can wear plaid from head to toe. Actually, I even find it too much on them.

This is a lot of plaid! Plaid from head-to-toe, with a plaid overcoat worn over a plaid dress cut on the bias. From Burda World of Fashion Sept. 2000

A pair of tone-on-tone plaid pants with a coordinating sweater makes a great look. A plaid jacket is very versatile: it is equally at home with tailored pants or a skirt as it is with your denim jeans. And have you noticed that almost everyone can wear a kilt? Plaids look great when done up in a pleated skirt. Mind you, that is a lot of work and this is an item you might want to purchase rather than sew. I made a pleated skirt once in a beautiful navy and gold plaid - it had 32 pleats in it. The pleats were attached to a yoke, so I didn't have the problem of working all those pleats into a fitted waistline. The skirt took a long time to make but it took even longer to press. Since it was a fabric blended from silk, rayon, and linen, it didn't hold the pleats well and had to be pressed before each wearing. Wool would have been a much better choice here, since the pleats would have kept their memory much better and been easier to maintain.

Almost everyone can wear a plaid skirt A classic pleated skirt from Burda Plus magazine Fall /96

A plaid blazer makes a wonderful wardrobe addition. In fact, it can form the basis of a wardrobe. Pick a plaid that is medium-scale, with some basic colours. Perhaps navy and green with a small red stripe through it. Automatically you have a core wardrobe started. Now you can add navy, green, and red skirts and pants and know that they will all have something to go with them. And it will always go with your denim jeans.

Pattern choice is important when it comes to a plaid. A tailored jacket with lapels and princess seams is going to be much harder to cut out and sew with all those details going on. Unless you are an advanced sewer, choose a pattern with less difficulty. Avoid princess lines, since you would have to match the plaid at those seams as well as the side seams. Also, plaid can look really strange going over a bust line in a princess seam. If there are welt pockets, cut the welts and flaps on the bias so that you don't have to match those to the plaid on the jacket front. Just be sure to make them identical, i.e. mirror images of each other. Lapels and facings need to be cut identical to the pattern piece that they will be sewn to.

A jacket like this would require lots of matching and good sewing skills. But what a cheerful overcoat it makes! A plaid raglan sleeve casual jacket from Burda Plus magazine Fall /96

All this matching takes extra fabric. Purchase 1/2 metre more for a jacket, if your plaid is an even one. Purchase up to a metre more if it is an uneven or unbalanced plaid. An even plaid repeats itself on either side of any line. Fold down a corner of the plaid on the bias and see if the lines match up when folded this way. If they do, you have an even plaid. If they don't, your plaid is uneven and will require a nap lay-out plus more yardage (not to mention more skill).

Plaids can come as woven or printed yard goods. Woven fabrics have the colour bars woven right in. In other words, the yarns in the fabric are dyed before weaving. These plaids will be on-grain and are more reliable for sewing. Printed plaids are just that: the pattern is printed onto the fabric after it is woven. There is a possibility that the fabric might be printed off-grain, which will make this fabric a nightmare to sew. You can usually tell if a plaid is woven or printed, by looking at the wrong side. It should appear almost identical to the right side. Check the grain carefully as well - simply don't buy off-grain plaids - there isn't much you can do with them, maybe use them to line jackets?

This plaid coat looks great over casual clothes Jacket made from a plaid blanket with sleeves, collar, and pocket flaps made from fleece. Note that the pocket is matched but the shoulder seams are not. From Burda Fashion for the Fuller Figure Autumn /94

Before cutting out your pattern, determine where the prominent colour bars of the plaid should fall. It is not likely that you will want a strong horizontal stripe right across your bust or across your hipline. So position the pattern accordingly. Also, find the dominant vertical bar in the plaid and place this in a pleasing place on the front pattern piece. The front is the most important part, so start there. I was once so concerned with matching the side seams of a pair of pants, that I totally overlooked the vertical position of the plaid. The dominant stripe was slightly off-centre and gave the pants a skewed look.

Can you cut your fabric double? Well you can fold the fabric for cutting and pin it so that the plaid matches on the top and bottom. But I don't cut double. After carefully matching the double layer of fabric, I pin the pattern on, but only cut through the top single layer. Then I remove the pattern and use the fabric piece to cut the bottom layer. This allows me to re-position the piece - it always needs a little repositioning - and I can get both the vertical and horizontal bars perfectly matched.

It is absolutely vital that you match the side seams of the garment. This is the most jarring mistake in plaids. Of course, I am assuming that you also match the centre back and centre front seams if there are any. You may or may not be able to match the shoulder seams. Trying hard to match these may put the bars of the plaid into not-so-desirable a location on the back of the garment. I would be sure to match the side seams first, get those vertical stripes where you want them, and if the shoulder seams match after that, you have a bonus.

Matching sleeves can be a little tricky. The thing to remember here is to match the pieces at the notches, not at the cut edges. A simple tip here is to draw the colour bars of the front piece onto the paper pattern with marker, then run those over onto to the sleeve piece where they should be. Then lay the sleeve pattern down and line it up with the fabric. The single front notch of the sleeve should line up perfectly with the single notch on the front, then you know that the bars on the sleeve will line up with the bars on the front when your arm is down. Don't worry about the notches on the back of the sleeve. You will not be able to match them up with the back pattern piece, because the sleeve is cut larger for ease in the sleeve cap. It is more important that you cut the sleeve on the true straight of grain so that it will hang correctly when worn.

A simple collar-less jacket Note the careful matching of the sleeves to the jacket front but not on the shoulders. From Canadian Living Magazine Sept. 91 - some things never go out of style.

Another area to pay particular attention to is the collar and any turn-back facings on a garment. These are right next to your face and will be noticed immediately if they don't look right. Both ends of the collar need to be identical. If, when you lay your pattern piece on the fabric, you can't make the same colour bars appear in the two corners, cut the collar in two pieces and seam it at the centre back. This is most likely to happen with an uneven plaid, where the two ends of the collar simply cannot be mirror images of each other. Also, the top collar should match the back of the jacket - the bars in the plaid on the collar should line up with the bars on the back of the jacket.

Also check the facings on tailored jackets. These turn back over the jacket and it is crucial that they look exactly the same. It is also important which colour bar occurs there, since the facings are quite noticeable. Try positioning them several times to get the most pleasing effect. Or, if this is driving you crazy, use a contrast fabric for the collar, lapels, and pocket flaps. A plaid jacket looks great with cotton velvet as the contrast fabric. And your matching problems are solved.

Some details of the garment look very pleasing when cut on the bias. Patch pockets, the welts on welt pockets, cuffs and trims all look appealing on the bias. Just be sure to stabilize them with interfacing cut on the straight of grain so that they do not stretch out on you.

The piping on this vest really defines the edges. Vest featured in Australian Stitches Vol.6 No.1

When it comes to sewing, you will need to use a lot of pins to keep those plaids aligned. Use a walking foot to avoid seam slippage, which will cause your seams to be slightly unmatched. By far the most accurate method of sewing plaids is a method called "slip-basting". Place your two pieces of fabric together as they will be sewn. Then press back, with the iron, the seam allowance of the top piece. This allows you to see exactly where it will be sewn to the under piece. Now hand sew them together, right along that seam line, slipping through the fold of the top piece, then picking up about 1/8" of the bottom layer. This will hold the two layers in place until you sew them. This technique combined with a walking foot will take care of any seam slippage.

A student in a class of mine chose a lovely green and navy plaid to make a blazer. She matched her plaid so well, that when she brought the blazer to a dry-cleaners for a final steam press, they actually moved the seam line of the facing and front. She had them that well matched. Of course, they corrected the mistake when she pointed it out to them.

A plaid like this would be a great wardrobe extender. Zip-front jacket in shades of blue, beige, and navy would be equally at home with a navy sheath dress or a leather skirt or your favourite jeans. From Burda World of Fashion Sept. 2000

Hopefully, you will give plaid a try. If you have never sewn with plaid before, try a simple straight skirt or, if you are a little more adventurous, a collarless jacket with a one-piece sleeve. These call for minimal matching, basically at the side seams and at the armhole. It can be an item which really ties a wardrobe together. And, by taking your time in lay-out, cutting, and sewing, you will meet with success. There is something very satisfying about doing something difficult really well. Happy sewing. Julie

Any sewing questions? I would be happy to try and answer them: you can email me at mail@timmelfabrics.com