#circle skirt tutorial

Here is the basic measurements: If you are planning to use elastics make sure to make the waist at least as wide as your hips so it is wide enough to pull it on. I put the waist measurement at 100cm because I usually use it and it is easy to start with. After I cut out my skirt I try it om without the elastic just to make sure that I did not make it too small, if I did it is easily fixed by just cut it a bit bigger. With the waistband on it is a bit harder to fix. For the length I put it at 50cm because that is what I used for my sample skirts, these things can be decided depending on you and what you want.

I use a converter to find all my measurements for the radius and diameter of my waist(the 100cm) and came up with ~16 in radius and ~32 cm in diameter. So here is my pattern! Since the skirt is going to be round I can just fold my fabric in half and draw out a half circle.

My skirt is hemmed with bias tape. I find this to be easiest way to hem a circle skirt, since it is round the hem gets curved and well och you can’t just fold it because it will be more fabric at the edge and it will create bunching if one is not careful. It is also lined and I sewed on decoration “rope” around it for fun and it might have given it a bit more volume. The waist also got a little bigger than the planned 100cm, mayhaps around 150cm

The half circle is going to have a longer diameter than the full circle skirt and it will have one seam. That is because the ratio of the waist hole och skirt is bigger since it is just an half that is sewed together to create the skirt. So while the normal circle have two half's with a circumstance of 50cm, this skirt only have one half and so that half needs to already be 100cm. If that makes any sense. The circumstance must always be 100cm for me(or whatever your measurement is). To put it easily, you need to make the ratio and diameter measurement double of what you would use in a full circle skirt. 

My skirt is lined with yellow fabric and hemmed by folding the fabric, since it was just a half it was a bit easier.

Now to the double circle skirt. In short, it is two circles sewn together. You cut them out the same way as if you are making a normal circle skirt. But you make two, cut them open och sew the sides together, it will have two seams. For this pattern the waist is going to be smaller since you are sewing two waists together so here the diameter is 16cm for me in other words half the diameter used for the full circle skirt.

On my skirts, the left one is the one I used for Jeanne and it is unlined, the waist is 100cm, it is hemmed by folding and sewing which took a very long time(just remember to iron it, much easier to hem then) and it is made of cotton satin. The left is also unlined but the waist is 200cm gathered to the elastic waistband, it is hemmed with bias tape and is made of twill which is a bit stiffer than the cotton satin.

Waistband

For the elastic waistband I just measure how much I need, I usually vary it a bit since it is not so picky. The smallest is just going down my hip when I stretch it and biggest is, just not falling down my hip, also depends on where on my body I want it to sit so it can vary between 50-90 cm.

Then I sewed the edges together and measure the front, back and sides of the band and the same on the skirt, I match and pin it together. If I have a bigger skirt I measure more spots and pin it, the important part is that it should be relative to it self, so half of the skirt, and half of that and so on so that the division of the skirt will be even on the waistband.

When I sew on the waistband I layer in on top of the skirt, right side of the skirt to inside of the waistband. It is less bulky then the classic right side to right side and flip way.

Now for the way I used them in cosplay

For Piru’s dress I used a circle and then I had a “waistband” and zipper, not a good idea for this kind of dress cause it wanted to slip down. After that dress I moved to using mainly elastics and so making the process even more simpler. It had a loose petticoat since I had too little fabric to make a full circle of it.

So for my second version of Madoka I used a elastic waist band, to make it into that puffy shape I made the waist double my hip and when I sewed it on I stretched the elastic to gather it. At the bottom I gathered the hem and frills by hand, pinned them together and sewed. I also had a big petticoat, without it the skirt is just droopy.

For Jeanne’s skirt I was not sure if it was pleated or just very full but I decided to go for very full. This is two circle skirt but the waist is just enough to get it over my hip since I did not want much fabric around my waist. 

Mayuri was pretty much same as Piru, it is a circle that I sewed onto the top part of the dress.

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That is pretty much it! Hope I did not forget anything. :) I wanna do a series on skirts so when I have more time I will make some square ones (not square dance) and a tutorial of that!