Buy a little extra fabric. You know how they say, “Allow extra fabric to match stripes or plaids”? Make sure you do! Allow at least 25 percent more than the pattern calls for and more if you have a very large plaid. Pick a pattern with not too many pieces. If you pick a coat with a lot of seaming and panels, you’re creating a lot of work for yourself. Either the seaming will be lost in the plaid, if the plaid is perfectly matched, or there will be plenty of opportunities for less-than-perfect matching to be seen! Think about where you want the plaid lines to be placed. This could be at the hemline, on the collar or over certain areas of your body. I’d never want a wide band of plaid around my hips! (But I might over my bustline for extra attention.) Think about which lines you want at the hemline, especially if it’s curved.
HOW TO MATCH PLAIDS Matching plaid is all about the cutting. The good news is that once the cutting is done, the sewing part is easy. Laying out your fabric and matching the plaids is a tedious process, but I feel it’s worth it to sew professional-looking garments. Decide where you are going to match the plaids. It’s critical to match plaids at center front and center back. After that, the rest is up to you and depends on the pattern and the scale of your plaid. Lay out your fabric on your table or floor, folding it according to the pattern’s cutting diagram. Now you will line up every plaid intersection and pin them together. Tedious and time-consuming? You bet. But it’s the best way to ensure perfectly matching plaids through both layers. Alternately you could cut the fabric open and cut each pattern piece twice. That would mean less matching of plaid intersections but more marking plaid lines on pattern pieces. For uneven plaids especially, this may be the best solution.