Thread: Circle skirt with 36 inch wide fabric?

Ugh. I am a novice seamstress. (Novice is really stretching it.) So I found some gorgeous fabric at Joann's on sale and bought the rest of the roll. Silly beginner me, I never checked the width of the fabric!

It is only 36 inches wide. All the circle skirt directions I see are for fabric that is at least 45 inches wide. Is there anything I can do? I really like the pattern and would love to be able to use the fabric to make a skirt, but I'm not interested in making a straight skirt, I have a million of them.

Signed,
Forlorn Phillyraqs Fabric Forgetter

JoAnn Fabrics will take back cuts that are over a certain number of yards - how much do you have?

If you are very petite and only need your skirt to be 30" long (at the most), you could probably make it work. Otherwise, check into taking the fabric back. I have had to do that before. They really will take it back.

There is a way, and I am afraid I am not very good at describing it: You take the fabric and cut it into almost triangular, trapezoid shapes. The short sides will form the waist, the longer sides will go to the hem. The hem is gonna follow an x-agonal shape, not a circle, but the more trapeziod shapes you have, the closer to a circle you'll be. And, with a 36 inch wide piece of fabric, you'll get a a 36 inch long skirt.

Hope that makes some sense - I am a too software-cranky right now to figure out how make a figure for that, sorry!

I think the only way it would work is if your hip to floor measurement is, say 32-33" AND you have a fairly small hip measurement (say 37" or less) AND used 4 half-circle panels.

If you did this, you could cut the waistband circle with a 3" radius to produce a perimeter measurement of ~9.5" (pi times 3"). Times 4 panels would provide around a 37" waistband, and a 33" length.

I think you'd need 8 yards to do this.

Now I remember what the construction I was trying to describe is called - it's a gored skirt with many, many gores (dunno - 8? 12?) to make a circle or more, similar to this: Drawing a 6 gore circle skirt pattern - tribe.net

Originally Posted by ssipes

I think the only way it would work is if your hip to floor measurement is, say 32-33" AND you have a fairly small hip measurement (say 37" or less) AND used 4 half-circle panels.

If you did this, you could cut the waistband circle with a 3" radius to produce a perimeter measurement of ~9.5" (pi times 3"). Times 4 panels would provide around a 37" waistband, and a 33" length.

I think you'd need 8 yards to do this.

forgot to add that I was assuming you'd sew a separate waistband casing, which could add another inch or two to the length, making it doable for up to a 35" hip to floor measurement.

You can do this by adding fabric at the bottom of the curve. But I would suggest that you talk to soemone who has been sewing for a while if you are going to do this.

{{{HUGS}}}

Another option is to add a ruffle on the bottom or a strip of complimentry / contrasting fabric.

{{{HUGS}}}

You can also, if the yardage is enough to a cheater circle. it's a rectangle with quarter circles on each end, like an oval. ASCII art to follow: A, A* are your length of skirt (36" in this case) B is 1/2 your waist measurement)

To sew: stitch A to A, A* to A* leaving a little gap for getting into the skirt, you can then sew a band of interfacing along the insides of B for added stability, or make it a casing for elastic or draw string. This, for me, takes about 6.5 yards of fabric with a length of 36 and 37" waist

A B A*
--------------------
\ | | /
\ | | /
\ | | /
\|_____|/


Does that make any sense?

Thank you so much for your advice and suggestions, everyone!

I have a pretty low hip to floor measurement and I am fine leaving the sides open, so ssipe's suggestions just might work. I'm also intrigued by the gore skirt and might want to try that.

Acme, I am going to PM you because I think I understand what you are saying, but am having a hard time with the ascii art.

what kind of fabric is it? Sheer or solid? Chiffon, rayon, etc or something stretchy? And how many yards do you have?

If I remember correctly, I have just under 7 yards, maybe 6 and a half. It is a stretchy material - something like glitterdot (but not! I swear! Not glitterdot!) that has some random large and small sequins all over it. It is not completely opaque.

Sounds like some people above have described similar skirts. I've use the pattern below and similar to make cirlce skirts. Just more seams than a regular cirlce skirt. (the tops on the other hand, not so useful, I just keep reusing the skirt pattern from this one)

Originally Posted by resullivan

Sounds like some people above have described similar skirts. I've use the pattern below and similar to make cirlce skirts. Just more seams than a regular cirlce skirt. (the tops on the other hand, not so useful, I just keep reusing the skirt pattern from this one)

Hahahahaa I have reused the exact same pattern too!!! The last time though, I sewed together 4 of the panels, and then cut a pattern over those, and voila now I have a 2 piece circle skirt that is just as wide :) But yeah it is an easy and handy pattern....Sorry to jack the thread....