Thread: why wont my chiffon-y circle skirts hang straight?

am digging thru the ole closet and trying on stuff..seems all my chiffon-y type circle skirts do not hang even along the bottom (in fact they never did so i cant blame it on hanging them)

is this just the way they are cut? its no biggie since i like to layer them and having multiple lengths with layers is fine but...jus wondering

I know that some materials relax when hung up (gravity taking over), so if the seamstress didn't let the material relax before cutting it, that may be what happened. The cut of the fabric also determines how much it will hang, and I think for circle skirts it's almost always cut on the bias. Someone who actually knows what they're talking about (I'm no seamstress!) may be able to elaborate...
:-)

They were probably not hung and reshaped when they were first made. Yes, hanging will cause the bias to stretch out a little bit even after the initial bias growth and reshaping, but it shouldn't be that much.

I recently had to remark and recut a beautiful Pharaonics chiffon circle skirt recently. In addition to being overall too long for me, the half circles varied by up to 5 inches in their length. IMO, it must have not been made properly to begin with. I had to sacrifice a beautiful wired, sequined edge.

wow that would greatly upset me to have to remake an expensive skirt

you are right, because of the way they are cut, some parts of the skirt are on the bias and some are not. That means because of the weave of the fabric it will stretch more in some directions than others. If the fabric had time to stretch before it was hemmed then it will be more even, but all circle skirts will stretch and deform over time if they are hung. You just hope it isn't too much.

Sounds like it could be not hanging for long enough pre hemming. I know i have gotten impatent before. I want to wear the skirt, not wait a month with it on the dressform for the edges on the bias, usually smack dab in the center of a panel, to stretch.

Or it could just be that the world is crooked.

You might want to store your bias cut chiffon skirts in flat containers for future. Even skirts with perfect hems will warp and grow when hung for a while. It is the nature of the bias. : )