Tartan Sash Dress

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Tonight is Burns Night, so I thought now would be the perfect time to post this tartan themed dress. I actually made this last summer to wear to the Edinburgh Tattoo (which I do highly recommend by the way) but only got round to photographing it recently.

The whole idea behind this dress was inspired by a mix of traditional Scottish costume and 1950's tiki dresses. During the design process, the silhouette of the dress gradually evolved away from the fitted, wrap-style form of the tiki dress into a more generically fifties bodice and big skirt combo, but the main feature was always meant to be the sash, and I felt like simplifying the rest of the dress would make this stand out more. Very much unlike a tiki dress, I always intended for the main fabric to be plain black, again to make the sash stand out more, and for this, I went for some cotton sateen. I love the slight sheen this fabric has, but it does crease at the slightest touch, which gets quite annoying quite quickly, if truth be told.

In terms of construction, all the pieces were reasonably simple. The main dress consists of a basic circle skirt (with pockets, obvs) and a strapless princess seam bodice made from cotton sateen*, both of which were lined (the lining was cut from the same pattern pieces as the outer fabric). The bodice also had an extra interlining layer made from plain cotton canvas, also cut from the same pattern pieces, and basted to the wrong side of the outer fabric so that it could be treated as one for the rest of the sewing process. This isn't an absolutely necessary step, but it helps to add some more structure to the bodice, which is especially desirable if you're working with a lighter-weight fabric.

Speaking of structure, the bodice also had to be boned to make sure it would keep its shape and not just flop down when I put it on - this is important in pretty much any strapless dress, but especially important if you're going to be addling a load of extra weight to it like a heavy wool sash, which I found wants to pull the dress down if it slips off the shoulder and we don't really want that. I used 8 7mm wide spiral steel bones for this (I prefer them to the plastic ones, but I think this is all down to personal preference). I made the boning channels out of some store-bought bias binding (10mm wide, to allow enough room for the boning to fit), which I sewed over the seam allowances on the wrong side of the outer fabric/interlining layer.

As for the sash, this was made from a piece of tartan fabric roughly 2m long x 1m wide. I then pleated one of the shorter ends, placed it roughly over one of the bodice princess seams, and sewed this in place when I attached the bodice section and skirt section together. With hindsight, if I were to make this again, I'd go for a fabric a little wider so there was less of a high-low gradient effect at the back. Shortening the sash overall would also work to avoid this, but I liked the drama of it basically touching the floor.

The long sash isn't purely decorative though - you can wrap it around yourself like a shawl and keep yourself nice and warm. This is especially very helpful if you're planning on going to an outdoor event in a country not exactly famed for its brilliant weather.

Overall, I really like this dress and love the effect the sash has, though if I were to make it again, I would do a lot of things differently. I hadn't entirely accounted for what effect a great big, thick sash would have on the rest of the dress once sewn in place. The weight of the sash pulls the skirt up and the bodice down and twists everything round and generally makes wearing the dress far more of a process than wearing clothes really should be. Maybe the pressure from this would be alleviated if I sewed the sash down in more than one place - perhaps I should have topstitched down the entire sash section that rests over the bodice. Or maybe a waist stay would have helped keep the dress itself from moving about. If anyone has any other suggestions, I'd love to know them!

I guess that brings me to the end of my post. I hope you enjoy Burns Night if that's something you celebrate, or enjoy Chinese New Year if that's something you celebrate (or both at the same time if that's the way you roll).