DIY: Skater/Circle skirt

Skater Skirts a.k.a Circle skirts are very popular across all seasons, they are cute, pretty and compliment
 every body type. The circle hangs right at your waist and allows the fabric to drape beautifully around you. Definitely, my favorite style of clothing.

Circle skirt is one the easiest item to sew, especially for beginners. As the name says it, we cut the fabric in a circle like a donut, add a waist band and done. Its that simple !

I paired my printed skirt with a fitted blue crop top. Kept the accessories and shoes delicate.

Things you need:  2 Yards of fabric,

                              Pattern paper or news paper,

                              1 Inch wide elastic,

                              Measuring tape & Ruler,

                              Scissors, Sewing Machine.

Measurements you need : Length of skirt & Waist Measurements.

Part 1: Making the Skirt.

Measure around the waist or hip (the point where you want skirt to sit).  You will need little bit of math here, but don’t worry I will try to keep it simple. The waist measurement is the circumference, we need to find the radius so we can easily draw a circle.

Divide the waist measurement by 6.28 or just use the cheat sheet(pic below). Column1 is the waist measurement and column 5 is your full circle radius measurement. I wanted my skirt to sit a little lower on waist right above the hip, measurement came to 30inches, so if go across to column 5 radius is 4 3/4 inches.

Decide where you want your skirt to end, measure from waist to that length. My skirt length measures to 18 inches.

Now that we have our two measurements lets get stared. 

Take pattern paper or newspaper, lay it on flat surface and fold it in half. On the folded edge, with a ruler mark the radius from the top corner and draw an arc to the other side. Easy way to draw the arc is to mark the radius length from the corner along the path and connect the dots free hand. 

Next with your ruler on the edge of the arc just drawn, measure and mark length of the skirt at various point on paper and join the dots to form outer arc.

Add half or 1 inch seam allowance(left pic below) and cut the pattern. When you open the fold you will have semi circle. Place the cut paper pattern on your fabric and cut two pieces.

When you are done you should have two semi circles, one for front and one for back of the skirt.

To join the semi-circles into a single circle, place the ‘skirt back’ on top of ‘skirt front', with right side of fabric facing down. And stitch along side seams (blue line.)

Finish the skirt by hemming the bottom of the skirt. I folded the edge twice inside and ironed it down so it doesn’t unfold when sewing it. 

Part 2: Making the waist band.

For waist band, cut a rectangle piece from the left over fabric.
length = waist measurement = 30 inches(mine)
Width = 3 inches

Fold the waist band in half along the length and iron it down.

Pin the raw edges of waist band on right side of skirt’s waist edge. And stitch around the waist band(Blue line).

Now last part is to insert the elastic band into the waist band. Elastic band measurement should be slightly less then your waist measurement because when elastic is stretched it doesn’t not tear the fabric. So I cut the band 2 inches less then my waist measurement i.e 30-2= 28 inches.

Attach safety pin to one end of elastic band and feed it into the waist band through the side seams.(Remember that side seams of the waist band are still unstitched)

Once the elastic is out at both ends of waist band, overlap the two ends of elastic and stitch in a box shape so it doesn’t come apart when stretched. Now hand stitch the side seams of waist band close.  Done !!!

Tip: keep your paper pattern, because next time you won’t have to start from scratch. 

I tried to explain as clearly as I could, if you have any question feel free to ask me in comments below or on my FB page here . Will be happy to answer :)

Thanks for stopping by :)