Tartan Tablecloths: Sizing, Weave and Care

To size a tartan tablecloth, measure the table top, decide how far the cloth should hang over each edge, and add twice that drop to the length and to the width (or to the diameter, for a round table). Everything else on this page is about the choices around that sum: how long the drop should be, what a tartan does to the size you can buy, whether the pattern is woven or printed, and how to treat a stain. No standards body sets tablecloth sizes, so the figures below come from retailers and a reference work, and the page says where they disagree.

The tartan itself does not change the sum. It changes what you see at the table edge and how the cloth is constructed, which is where the second half of this page goes. For the general principles of using tartan in a room, see tartan home decor; for what tartan cloth is, see tartan fabric.

The sizing formula

Three retailers and one encyclopaedia entry describe the same method. Linen House says a rectangle needs the table length plus twice the drop by the table width plus twice the drop, a round table needs the diameter plus twice the drop, and a square table needs one side plus twice the drop (Linen House). Sferra gives the same rule for rectangles and squares and for round and oval tables (Sferra). Magic Linen adds that an oval table is measured like a rectangle, by its length and width (Magic Linen).

The three worked examples in the Linen House guide are round 160 cm plus a 30 cm drop on each side, giving a 220 cm cloth; a 100 by 215 cm rectangle with a 30 cm drop, giving 160 by 275 cm; and a 50 cm square with a 40 cm drop, giving 130 cm. The arithmetic is simple, which is why the real decision is the drop.

How long a drop

The sources give ranges rather than a rule, and they use different words and different units.

The sources broadly agree on the order of magnitude for everyday use: about 15 to 30 cm (6 to 12 inches) hanging over each edge. They disagree at the long end, because Linen House counts a cloth that reaches towards the floor as a full drop, while the Sferra chart tops out at 14 inches for rectangles. The disagreement is a difference in what the sellers sell, not a difference in fact.

Sferra’s chart is useful because it shows what a retailer treats as normal for a seating count, so you can work out the drop it has in mind. Take a 42 by 84 inch table, which the chart pairs with a 66 by 106 inch cloth for four to six people: that is 12 inches over each long side and 11 over each end. A 40 by 64 inch table pairs with a 66 by 86 inch cloth, which is 13 inches at the sides and 11 at the ends. A 36 inch square table pairs with a 54 inch cloth, a 9 inch drop, and a 48 inch round table pairs with a 90 inch cloth, a 21 inch drop. Those are our subtractions from one retailer’s chart. Treat the seating counts as that retailer’s guidance, since no independent source was found. If you cannot find the exact size, Sferra says to round up to the next one available.

Drop length has also changed over time. Wikipedia’s tablecloth entry says the oldest known reference is from about 100 AD, that spreading fine white linen or cotton on the table was part of preparing a feast in a wealthy medieval household, and that Victorian interiors included tablecloths reaching the floor (Wikipedia). A long drop is therefore a stylistic choice with a long history, not a requirement.

What a tartan changes

Width and joins

The research site Crossing Tartans bases its weight figures on cloth 54 inches wide (Crossing Tartans), and the tartan fabric page explains single and double width. If that is the width of the cloth, a table of 42 inches with a 12 inch drop each side needs a cloth about 66 inches wide, which is wider than a 54 inch piece. This is our inference from those two figures, not a statement in any source: a cloth wider than the loom width must be cut from a wider piece or joined along its length. Ask any seller whether the cloth has a seam, and where it falls.

Joining a pattern is old practice. A researcher’s paper on a National Trust for Scotland plaid describes an eighteenth-century plaid made of two lengths of single-width cloth, each about 27.5 inches wide, woven offset so that the pattern met at the join, with the repeat sized to fit the width of the cloth (Nethybridge plaid). The point for a modern buyer is practical. A seam through a check can be matched or it can cut across the pattern, and a photograph rarely shows which.

Repeat size and the table edge

A cloth hangs over the edge, so the visible pattern depends on how large the repeat is. A small repeat reads as texture on the table top and as a plain-looking skirt at the sides. A large repeat shows whole stripes, and the hem will cut through the pattern at whatever point the hem falls. The retailer rule for patterned curtain cloth, that each cut length is rounded up to the next whole vertical repeat so neighbouring widths match (The Mill Shop), applies equally to anyone cutting a cloth from tartan by the yard. The retailer does not mention tartan. Tartan has a horizontal as well as a vertical repeat, so ask for the repeat size in both directions.

Woven or printed

The word “tartan” is used on tablecloths for two kinds of cloth. One is woven from dyed yarns, where the pattern is the structure of the cloth. The other is a printed pattern on a plain cloth. Wikipedia defines tartan as a patterned cloth of crossing horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours, and describes the traditional cloth as a 2/2 twill, which is a statement about weaving (Wikipedia, Tartan).

A hat retailer argues that woven tartan lasts better: colour sits in each warp and weft yarn, so abrasion wears many threads slightly, whereas printed ink sits on the fibre surface and is more likely to fade or flake where cloth is rubbed and washed. It suggests a loupe on a cut yarn end or the selvedge, where colour running through the thread means a woven pattern (Christys’ Hats). That is a seller’s reasoning and no test data accompanies it. No source read compares printed and woven table linen through repeated washing.

There is a third case. Gingham, which the Wikipedia entry describes as a balanced plain-weave cloth of dyed yarns, can show check or tartan-like patterns and is common in home furnishings, but it is a different cloth from tartan twill (Wikipedia, Gingham). Many things sold as a “plaid tablecloth” are checks in this sense. The difference between the words is covered in tartan vs plaid, and the cloth types are set out on types of tartan fabric.

Fibre and surface

Wikipedia lists linen, cotton, poly-cotton and PVC-coated cloth as the usual modern tablecloth materials, though nearly any fabric can be used. The coated kind descends from oilcloth, which began as close-woven cotton or linen coated with boiled linseed oil, and which by the late 1950s had come to mean vinyl bonded to a cloth backing (Wikipedia, Oilcloth). A wipe-clean cloth with a tartan print is the modern version of the brightly printed kitchen cloth that entry mentions.

Woven tartan is traditionally wool, and wool has fibre-level fire data that cotton and polyester lack. The Woolmark Company, a wool industry body, quotes CSIRO figures for untreated fibres: wool ignites at 570 to 600 degrees Celsius, cotton at 255, and polyester melts at 252 to 292. It also says wool is self-extinguishing once the flame is removed (Woolmark). Those are laboratory figures about fibres, from an industry body. They are not a rating for a finished tablecloth, and no source read tests tablecloths near candles, so candles are a reason to keep any cloth well clear of the flame, not a reason to trust a fibre.

Stains and washing

The extension advice on stains is written for washable clothing, and none of it mentions tablecloths, but the principles are the same ones a table linen needs. A Texas A&M extension leaflet says to treat a stain quickly because time and heat make it harder to remove, to blot rather than rub, and to work from the back of the stain so it is pushed out rather than deeper in. It adds that a stained item must never go in the dryer, or the stain may become impossible to remove (Texas A&M). Mississippi State University Extension says the same about the dryer, and advises soaking beverage stains in cool water before pretreating (Mississippi State).

The Texas A&M leaflet groups table-type stains in two ways, and the treatment differs. Oily stains, which it lists as vegetable oil, mayonnaise, chocolate, animal fat and candle wax, are treated with liquid detergent or a prewash remover worked in and washed at the highest temperature the fabric allows. Plant and protein stains, which include egg, mustard, ketchup, meat sauce, flavoured drinks, dairy products and chocolate, are treated with detergent and a non-chlorine bleach with an enzyme presoak. Chocolate appears in both lists, so the leaflet itself says some stains fit more than one category.

Tartan is several colours in one cloth, so colourfastness matters more than it does on a plain cloth. The leaflet advises testing any pretreatment on a hidden spot such as a hem, remembering that fabric looks darker wet and that a colour change may only show once it dries. It says to avoid chlorine bleach on silk, wool, spandex and non-colourfast items, and that a dye transfer should be rewashed straight away without drying. No source read says whether woven or printed tartan is the more likely to bleed.

Water temperature and labels

A label that says “hot” or “cold” has no single meaning. The US Federal Trade Commission’s care labelling rule defines cold as up to 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 Celsius), warm as 87 to 111 (31 to 44) and hot as 112 to 145 (45 to 63). It applies only to clothing and to cloth sold for making clothing, and does not cover tablecloths or throws (FTC). A tablecloth label is therefore a maker’s choice. Whether another country’s rules cover household textiles was not researched.

Shrinkage

Linen retailers warn that linen may shrink slightly after the first few washes, and ask buyers to allow for it (Magic Linen). For cotton denim, a denim publication gives a figure of no more than 5 per cent shrinkage for sanforized cloth and a potential 10 per cent for unsanforized cloth (Heddels). Applied to a 150 cm cloth, that is 7.5 cm at 5 per cent and 15 cm at 10 per cent. That is arithmetic on a denim figure, not a measurement of any tablecloth. It shows why a cloth cut close to the drop you want can end up a hand’s width shorter, and why a slightly generous drop is a sensible margin for natural fibres. That last point is our judgement, not a sourced rule.

Before you buy