Thread: Circle Skirt With Stripes?

I have a gorgeous metallic striped chiffon that I would love to sew into a circle skirt. I am just not sure about how good it would look with the stripes going across the skirt. There is enough fabric for me to do 1.5 circles and making a gored or tiered skirt isn't an option. What are your thoughts on striped circle skirts? Am I better to make just a full circle or the 1.5 circle. Any photos of one to help me visualize? Of course, it would make a smashing beledi dress with the stripes running lengthwise but that is my "Plan B".

I've seen 1.5 circle skirts with a half-circle centered directly under the belly button and they look great... the stripes turn into waves.

If your stripes are running lengthwise to the grain (I assume that is what is causing your hesitancy?) then you can get the stripes running top-to-bottom by cutting quarter circles with the straight sides at the selvage. Since I don't know what length / waist you need nor how wide your cloth is, I don't know if you can get 6 1/4 circles out of your yardage this way or not. I do know that you can use smaller circles if you are willing to use a yoke on the top.

I don't think the problem is having an amount of fabric to make 1.5 circles, but the style of the skirt itself. If a 1.5-circle skirt is too skimpy for your taste, you can always augment with a layer of white or another color chiffon underneath, and that amount of chiffon definitely won't make up into an unwieldy amount of bulk.

It seems the main reason many dancers don't like striped circle skirts is that the stripes go in different directions on the finished garment. By its construction, a circle skirt is cut on the grain, against the grain, and on the bias, so directional fabrics can look somewhat chaotic. I couldn't find a picture of a floor-length dance skirt, but this gives an idea of what I'm talking about. Some folks are bothered by this, and some aren't.


Why isn't making a gored skirt an option? Depending on the original striped fabric, you might be able to make the gores out of solid-colored chiffon(s) for an interesting contrast. Alternatively, you could try a pleated style. Pleating will take some of the craziness out of the stripes, but still leave a lot of fullness.

I had fabric much like you are talking about. This is what I ended up with:



I know, the picture sucks.

Basically, what I did was cut it into 4 right triangles per circle. I laid it out so each right triangle had the fabric at the edge pointing down.

This is a diagram. The heavy black lines are the fabric's stripes, the light black lines show the 4 triangles I cut and stitched together before cutting the circle. The burgundy lines show the "line" from the waist to the floor.



I sewed it together to about knee-height and then hemmed the bottom openings and put some shiny red edging and crystals at each point.

It worked out ok, and didn't end up with the wavy look that you get if you just cut a circle out of a stripped thing.

ZivaSelina, thank you! That's just what I wanted; I just couldn't work it out in my head. Also, I like the yoke idea from Maurazebra. Tourbeau, I hadn't thought about using solid chiffon with the stripes but that would use up some of my odd bits quite nicely. I may end up with a combination of ideas and still have enough left to make that beledi or at least a shorter tunic. Will post a picture once it's done.