rosie's whimsy circle skirt tutorial

this is what we are making today!

circle skirt with yoga style knit waistband

are you ready? here we go….

this is what you need:
a/ a square of material – depends on the length of skirt you desire … see step 1

suitable fabrics: quilting cottons, home dec cotton, light to mid weight woven, jean, or cotton sateen material. the ability to drape nicely is important. **always wash and dry your material before you start**

b/ 1/3 yard of rib knit material ( I use cotton with 5 to 10% lycra)

first comes the cutting:
1/ size of square: this depends on the length of skirt you desire …. measure from your belly button to the length you desire and add approximately 2 inches … then double that to get the total for your square …  for this demonstration, I used a 58″ square  (1 5/8 yards of 58″ embroidered denim).

2/ fold material in half and then again length wise … this will give you one corner with 4 loose corners …  the corner diagonally across from it will be all folds …. the folded corner is where we will begin cutting.

3/ lay your folded material with the folded corner closest to you … with a ruler and a marking tool of your choice ( I use tailor’s chalk) …  make a mark in an arc  pattern from the corner (according to the size chart).

small – misses 4/6 – waist cut – 5.5″
medium – misses 8/10 – waist cut – 6″
large – misses 12/14 – waist cut – 6.5″

4/ the next cut is made measuring from your waist cut … I used a yardstick and carefully moved the same length (in my case 23″) around the arc of the waist cut marking another larger arc for your hem cut … if you have started with a square, you will be basically be going from side corner to side corner marking a quarter circle.

5/ with you quarter skirt laying flat, mark each fold with a pin … making 4 equally measured marks … front, back, and both sides.

5/ now for the waistband … I use a 10″ vertical length of material … make sure your fabric stretch is in the width of the material … then cut the width of band according to the size chart.

small – size 4-6 – cut band 10″x24.5″
medium – size 8-10 – cut band 10″x26.5″
large – size 12-14 – cut band 10″x 28.5″

now for the sewing:

1/ fold your waistband in half, right sides together, short sides together … make a seam 3/8″ seam widening to 3/4″ at halfway mark and then taper back out again to 3/8″ … this, again, makes an arc or curve (makes a nice fit along the middle of the back) … trim off excess to 1/4″ (sewing a second row of stitching is personally what I do here for added strength)

2/ fold band, wrong sides together and pin seams together … laying the tube flat with the fold along one side, place a pin at the fold … now lay the tube with seam across from that first pin … pin each of the 2 new folds… this gives you 4 equally measured quadrants.

3/ with skirt inside out and the band inside, pin waistband to skirt aligning each quadrant of the skirt to the corresponding quadrant of the band **note – there is no front or back to this skirt until you place the seam of the band onto your skirt … then, that is the back of your skirt**

4/ after pinning, sew a 3/8″ seam stretching your knit band to fit as you go ( if you are not comfortable with that, stretch and pin before you start)

5/ serge or zigzag your raw edges and turn the skirt right side out.

6/ next top stitch the top of the skirt 1/4″ below the waistband seam with the seam folded down underneath under your stitching area.

7/  serge or zigzag the raw edge of your hem … fold over 1/2″ and machine stitch your hem close the edge of your zigzag or serged edge … if you are using a lightweight cotton, you can make a rolled hem if you prefer.

press and put on … you are done!!

circle skirt with yoga style knit waistband

hope you make lots of skirts! If you do would you share them on my new flickr group?

((hugs)) rosie ** This tutorial is for personal use only **

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