circles & circle skirts.

by - Saturday, August 10, 2013

Hello! I'm so happy you're here!
What could brighten your day more than a denim circle skirt? A denim circle skirt with little white spots all over it!
So if you need some cheering up on this rainy day, keep reading for a fun little tutorial.
Tip: For extra cheering up, pre-paint your nails.

Step 1. Find some material that you can't resist.
With wrong sides together, fold the material in half.
We are about to make what you see in the diagram below.
Tip: To get your waist radius and desired skirt length, please feel free to download and use this document for Mac users. It makes it so easy. Here you will also find all the calculations for your 'actual waist measurement', seam allowances and it does all the maths for you. (Definitely my kind of document - another thing to cheer you up!)

I want an 18" length skirt, so start with that. Pop a pin in at one end of your folded material. Measure out your skirt length along the fold and put another pin at the end of the measuring tape.
You should now have something like this.
In the same direction along the fold, we need one more pin to mark the centre point. To do this, add your waist radius to your skirt length and pop in the pin there. For me, that's another 4.3".
From that centre point, use your measuring tape to mark out your waist radius with pins all the way around, and back to the edge again, making a half circle as shown below.
Do the same for your 'hem cutting line'. (Which is combining both your waist radius, and the length of your skirt). For me that makes 23.3". Make sure you are measuring from that centre pin all the way around. This makes another half circle.
Cut along the line of pins for both of the half circles.
All the complicated work is done!
Carefully cut one edge of the fold. ONLY on the one side. And there is your skirt, with one side cut open for the zip!
Now we need to attach a band. You will need a strip of material.

Firstly, the length of this strip with be the same as your 'actual waist measurement', but you will also need to add on 2 seam allowances (1 for each end).
Secondly, decide how thick you want the band, but then double it, (because it will be folded over) and then add on 2 seam allowances (1 for each end).
For me, my actual waist measurement is 29", and I wanted a 1" thick band, with seam allowances of 0.5". So my strip of material was 30" x 3".
Unfold the skirt, so it becomes one long piece of material. With right sides together, pin the waist band to the whole inner circle (waist radius section) of your skirt. Stitch. Press up.
If possible, overlock your 2 zipper edges including the waist band.
Fold over your waist band to the inside, making it the width that you want, and tuck in the seam allowance, hiding the original stitch. Pin and press.
Pop your zip in, making sure it goes under the waist band and starts where the waist band will fold over. Then top stitch down your waist band from the outside, making sure it catches the material closed on the inside.
Stitch the material under the zipper closed. Hem the bottom of the skirt and press.
And it's finished!
You'll have to excuse half nude Millie - it turns out she was so excited to wear this skirt that she forgot her top.

Happily Yours,

You May Also Like

5 comments

  1. That is awesome.. I luv it. Thank you for this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's lovely! I would not have thought a denim circle skirt would hang so well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. me too! but it hangs surprisingly well!! i love denim.. and of course polkadots! :)

      Delete
  3. Cannot open or use circle measurements document . Would it be possible to publish it as PDF. Thank you

    ReplyDelete