Ruric-Amari Home » Belly Dance Costume » Circle Skirts » Circle Skirts Without Patterns

Making Circle Skirts without Patterns

.. and without crawling on the floor with a string..

These techniques are designed to get you to the first rough-cut stage. You will have to refine the hem after you hang the skirt for a week to stretch the bias out. If you haven't done this before, make a sample with a small piece of scrap fabric so you have the steps down smoothly!

  1. Fan-Fold technique.

Fan-Fold Technique

Make sure you have enough fabric

You are going to make half-circles from rectangles. You will need one rectangle for each half-circle. To figure out the minimum dimensions of your rectangle, you need to know how long your skirt will end up and how many half-circles in your skirt.
    This is the calculation for the Prime Measurement , or the width of the rectangle.
  • Measure from where you want the top of the waistband to sit on your hip to where you want the hem to end. The easiest way to do this is to put a circle of elastic around your hip at the point you want the skirt waistband to be and have a friend measure down to where you want the skirt to end. Take several measurements at different points and use the longest one. For many woman, the longest measurement will be from waist over a buttock to the floor.
  • Add 2" for hems and waistband seam.
  • Then add yardage for the waist hole: if using 2 half-circles for a person with a 36-40-inch hip, add 6" (which makes a 12" diameter circle which equals a 38-inch-ish waist opening). If using 3 half-circles, add 4 inches.
    This is the calculation for the length of the rectangle:
  • Double the Prime Measurement to get the length of the long side.
The pattern on the left is for a 2-half-circle skirt with finished length of 34 inches. 34 inches + 2 inches for hems/sa + 6 inches for waist. This gives you the length of the short side, or the Prime Measurement.

Please note that if your fabric is wider or longer than you need you DON´T have to trim it to size first. The extra will be trimmed off, below. Just make sure that your rectangle(s) is at least as long and as wide as you need.

After you understand this approach, you will understand how to make circle skirts from squares of fabric (half the rectangles) if necessary. 		Measure and Mark.

Mark the center waist

The picture at the above left has a circle marked in dotted lines in the middle of the left side (the eventual location of your waist opening) with a little mark in the middle of the circle. That is the midpoint of the long side. Take two safety pins (in case one comes out) and put them at the midpoint.

Fold

Fold your fabric in half.
  • The pins marking the waist center should be in a corner (in the diagram, they are in the lower left corner).
  • You now have a square.
  • I left the 84" arrow on the diagram so you can keep track of what is where. Since the rectangle has been folded in half, you can only see 42" on that side, not 84.
Fold into a Square.
Make your first diagonal fold.
  • By bringing the corner marked UL (Upper Left) down to the corner marked LR (Lower Right), you will be folding along the line marked First Diagonal Fold Line.
  • Make sure to start the fold from the center waist mark (safety pins). You don't want to lose track of the center-waist point in this or in subsequent folds - which is why you marked it with TWO safety pins.
  • Be sure to make the side between UL and the waist-center mark line up with the line marked Center Fold.
  • Pin ruthlessly to keep folded - or baste, if necessary.
First fan-fold.
Now fold again on the line marked 2nd Diagonal Fold. As above, start the fold from the center waist mark and make the sides line up. Keep the shortest side on top. Fold as accurately as possible. Second fan-fold.
Now make at least one more fold (for 16 sections). 2 more folds will give you 32 sections, and 3 more will yield 64. The more sections, the rounder the resulting half-circle will be. Remember to fold from the center waist mark and make the sides as even as possible. Keep the shortest side on top. Pin or baste or tack or secure with pony clamps ruthlessly as you fold to keep it folded. It doesn't have to be exact, but be as exact as you can be! Third fan-fold.

Mark and Cut the Raw Hem

Now make your fan as long as the Prime Measurement by:
  1. Keep the shortest side up;
  2. Mark the length of the Prime Measurement on both sides of the folded fan
  3. then cut a slight curve between them (Cutting line is denoted with zig zags in the picture.)
If you think you put pins where you'll be cutting, go slow and remove any suspicious lumps before cutting into them! 		Cut your circle.

Mark and Cut the Waistline

Open your half circle up. As you can see, the multiple folds give a very circular effect while saving your sanity AND keeping the scraps as usable as possible!
  1. Mark a waist opening using the pins as center point, then stay-stitch along the outside of the mark.
  2. Cut a waist opening, leaving the stay-stitching intact so that the opening doesn't stretch..
  3. Complete your skirt sides and waistband and HANG it to stretch out the bias.
  4. After the skirt hangs a week, it is time to mark and make the hem!
Ta Da!.

Cutting Two Half-Circles from One Piece of Cloth

You can save fabric by cutting two half-circles from one piece of cloth, overlapping the patterns a bit. To do this, you need to mark the waist-center points for both half-circles before you start cutting.
  1. The first center-waist mark is a Prime Measurement from the short end of the fabric (in this case, 42").
  2. To determine where the waist-center point for the second piece is, use graph paper. Make two half-circle pieces to scale. Make a piece of fabric to scale. Place the half-circles on the fabric and you will be able to calculate where the waist-circle marks should be.
  3. On the real fabric, use safety pins to mark the center-waist mark, and then iron or baste a center-fold line for both semi-circles BEFORE you cut.
After you cut your first half-circle, straighten out your fabric and then make your first fold for the second half-circle on the center-fold line you marked/ironed before you started cutting. Proceed as above, folding on the diagonal as many times as you can before cutting and keeping the short side up. Folding for the second-half-circle will be a little more awkward than for the first one because of the various scrap ends attached, but go as carefully as possible and keep the cloth supported on a bed or table at all times.		 A whole circle from one piece of cloth.

Contact Ruric-Amari

www.Ruric-Amari.com is maintained by M Enright
Pictures and text ©2004-2008 by Ruric-Amari