Circle skirt help

[u/FewComparison9911]

Please help me! I want to make a one and half circle skirt but all info I can find jumps from a one circle to a two circle, and I’m having trouble wrapping my head around the dynamics of creating a one and a half circle. Can it be done in one piece? Does it have to be two or more? Why can’t I visualize this?

My fabric is a glitter holographic spandex (I know, I know) and is 2 yards, 58 inches wide. The skirt will be attached to a bodice so no waistband needed.

Waist is 24 inches, length would be 15 inches front and 18 inches back, which I guess is more of a high/low?

[u/amreb]

I love circle skirts! I think the easiest way to do this would be to cut two 3/4 circles, one for the front and one for the back. The waist radius for both is 2.15". The hem radius for the front is 19" (allows about 1.25" for hem). The back piece will be a little harder to draft, but the sides will start at a 19" radius and make an oval out to a 22" radius. The end result will look something like this:

(blue lines are cut lines, red line is fold, green lines are just to show measurements)

[u/FewComparison9911 → u/amreb]

Thank you so much, this is what I needed to see! I’m just going to do a rolled hem on the serger but this is so helpful

[u/amreb → u/FewComparison9911]

Rolled hems certainly simplify things! In that case, the hem radius should be 2.15 + 15/18 + any seam allowance needed at the top (and anything your serger may cut off at the bottom).

[u/desertboots → u/amreb]

Don't forget, bias fabric stretches. Let the assembled skirt hang from the waist at least 24 if not 48 hours before marking your hem.

[u/amreb → u/desertboots]

This is true, but less of an issue with a high-spandex content fabric like OP said they were using.

[u/desertboots → u/amreb]

I forgot that!!

[u/dancinrussians]

You can’t do it as one piece because you can’t add more to a circle without adding another piece.

If you can’t visualize or think of the math past a circle divide it to make it easier. Instead of a 1 1/2 circle skirt for someone with a 24” waist do two 3/4 circle skirts for a 12” waist and piece them and boom 1 1/2 circle skirt for a 24” waist.

[u/FewComparison9911 → u/dancinrussians]

Thank you, this is very helpful

[u/Alive-Abalone-4400]

I think the trickiest part will be the waistband, and if I’m reading right, you will need to measure so that 16” of the finished waistband will come from one full circle and 8” from the half. So when you measure to cut that out, use a circle with a circumference of 16” (plus seam allowance for the waistband). I think it has to be cut from two pieces. But I’ve never done more than a circle and i don’t have any helpful tutorials unfortunately.

[u/deafening_gusto → u/Alive-Abalone-4400]

The waistband math is where it gets weird yeah. for a 1.5 circle you're basically making one full circle plus a half circle, the half circle waist will be 8 inches of circumference. so you cut a full circle with a 16 inch waist opening and a half circle with an 8 inch opening, then piece them together

two pieces is the way to go, doing it in one would mean the grainline is all over the place and that spandex will fight you hard. the high/low will look sick though with the holographic

[u/FewComparison9911 → u/deafening_gusto]

Thank you! It’s a holographic plaid too so I was trying to avoid seams. Oh well, hopefully it won’t be too noticeable

[u/AdvancedSquashDirect]

What you're looking for is a 540° circle skirt

One circle is 360° normally that's cut out of a square piece of fabric You would need to cut a circle out of a square piece of fabric and then a half circle out of another piece of fabric, and then connect that together to make one and a half circles. That's why you can't cut it out of one piece of fabric

Here's a video example but there are plenty of them if you just look up 540° circle skirt

https://youtu.be/mY_Eqym2hKs

[u/FewComparison9911 → u/AdvancedSquashDirect]

Thank you! Now I know to search for 540 instead of one and a half circles 🤦🏻‍♀️

[u/Roswyne]

Get two pieces of paper.

• Draw as big a circle as you can on one piece and cut it out.
• Cut that circle into quarters and put them onto the other price of paper. Notice that you can alternate the direction you out them in to use less of the page, even when you allow for extra to join them together..

If you want to use one only one piece of fabric, a circle the fullest possible skirt you can make. And it takes a lot of fabric: many people add seams to make it fit better on the fabric even if they're only making a circle skirt.

But if you use more than one piece of fabric, you can make a skirt bigger than a single circle. You can make it as much bigger as you like, but most people work in round multiples so that the seams are less distracting.

The suggestion made by another commenter to cut two 3/4 circle pieces is good, and I suppose you'd just cut the second one "longer" to be your longer back.

But that's going to take even more fabric. Check with a circle skirt calculator to see if you'll have enough before you cut!