6 Ways to Wear a Tartan Skirt

Hi Everyone, I’m back on this blog after 4+ weeks of “sick leave” with covid. Feeling tired but a lot brighter now.

Sue Stoney’s blog post on her tartan skirt has given me the nudge I needed to think about tops for my own tartan skirt.

The zero waste Clair skirt is my favourite-ever zero waste pattern. It was destined for the Zero Waste Sewing book but was ruthlessly edited out in a purge to get the page numbers down and create some sort of order in the types of patterns the book contained. However, later I released it as a stand-alone pdf pattern (during worldwide lockdown – that’s why I’m the only model).

To show the skirt in a variety of fabrics, I was keen to have a red tartan. Unfortunately, unlike Sue, I was unable to get our family tartan (MacDonald) but found another red tartan, MacGregor, from a kilt shop.

The tartan Clair has made its way into my wardrobe, but I’ve been stuck in rut of only wearing it with black tops.

This is because the colours in the tartan are red, green and white, suggesting a red, green or white top would co-ordinate well, but tartan worn with red or green shouts Merry Christmas! to me. (And is white a bit Highland Dancer?) And while I have no issues with red, green or tartan at Christmas time, I live in Australia and a wool tartan skirt is totally inappropriate for a southern hemisphere Christmas. And Christmassy attire is inappropriate in July. So you see my situation here.

I wore the skirt during Me-Made-May, always with black tops, and asked Instagram friends for colour advice. They gave me some great ides! Interestingly, all the artists were first-in with suggestions!

Here are some of their ideas. They’re all flat lays – I would model, but I’m wary of overdoing it by prancing around in front of a camera.

Tartan with yellow/gold/mustard

There was the brilliant suggestion of this shade of yellow, inspired by the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Denim is always a good idea

Denim + tartan. It worked for Viv Westwood and the Sex Pistols, and maybe it will work for me too.

Classic: tartan with cream cable knit

A creamy Aran knit jumper – a definite classic.

The neutral zone

Neutrals to try include navy, chocolate, and darker shades of khaki or tan.

Red, but make it burgundy

The thinking is to emphasize the deeper red shades in the tartan.

I don’t seem to have much burgundy in my wardrobe. However, this lego fabric top is fairly close, and then I remembered I bought a piece of burgundy-ish fabric from the op shop (can you see the price tag? 5 bucks!).

Teal: the unexpected

While taking the flat lay photos, I discovered that the old teal skivvy I happened to be wearing worked well too. It’s a similar colour to the green in the tartan. Also, my knitted beret with various shades of greens, blues and teals looked good with it.

Cheers!