Thread: making circle skirts out of 55 inch wide fabric

the non-seamstress here again

my seamstress was able to start making that silk skirt out of the charmeuse silk that I dyed but she has to add a waistband at the top to give it enough length to fit me (I'm tall)

So I'm doing the homework necessary to see if these are cost effective enough to offer to other dancers, but it appears that if we were to make skirts any longer than 33 or 34 inches long, we'd have to buy the 55 inch wide charmeuse.

advice/thoughts? How many of you wear skirts that are longer than 34 inches (not saying you're going to order ..just wondering WWYD do you buy 55 inch wide fabric to make your own skirts or what?
thx u

I suspect I do. If I make a tube skirt from 90cm fabric (35in) I have to wear it really low, lower than my belt. I *think* my skirt length is 36 at least. Not sure, it's hard to measure on yourself. I'm 5'8, long legs.

It's been so long since I made a circle skirt, I can't remember how deep the fabric was that I used, but I *do* remember my first one ended up too short. You end up with a lot of leftovers unfortunately. 55 wide should be ample - I am pretty sure I got skirts out of 45in (115cm) that were OK, but I'd go for 150cm where possible (59in), because you can always take them up...

I swear by Shira's method of making skirts. This should help explain fabric needs Jesennia. Even if you're a non-seamstress I think you can follow the jist of it:

Belly Dancing: Making A Circle Skirt

If it is a circle-and-a-half and a waist-circumference of around 40-45 inches and long, but not extra-long, I don't think you need 55 in wide, you can get away with 45 inch wide fabric for a length of up to around 38 or so inches. However, both extra-long skirts and designs with an extra-wide waist circumference will require wider fabric.

The math: For a circle-and-a-half skirt with e.g. 45 inches at the waist, one will need to cut into each 1/2 circle piece of silk cut a little half circle hole at the waist (see Shira's for the figures) of about 5 inches radius. That means, there is 45 inches - 5 inches = 40 inches of fabric length left! Subtract from that hem allowance, and add a bit for the waist band, and you get to around 38/39 inches long skirts from 45 inches wide fabric. Now, of course, if the fabric is not 45 inches wide or has a wide, uneven selvage, one may only get 36/37 inches long skirts out of it.

PS. The circumference of a half circle (the length of the arch that will go at the waist or the length of the hem) is about 3 times the radius of that half circle. That's a good rule of thumb to know.

I have always made my circle skirts out of 45 inch fabric. These were mostly 1.5 circle, but eventhe whole circle skirts came out fine, and I always cut the length to be 36 inch and then trim it down. I really don't think you need 55 inch.