Thread: How much would a chiffon 2 1/2 circle skirt go for?

I was looking to buy a skirt, but I found some fabric at a good price.

Wanted to know about how much these go for it I were to purchase one? For the 12-14 yards of fabric i'll need, it wont be cheap to make! I have to buy in bulk to get a good price on fabric and will have enough left over to make a couple more skirts....so I'd probably look to sell them also.

Thanks!

You can get a chiffon skirt from lrosedesigns.com for 35.00 and Professional chiffon skirt (extra back panel makes it full in the back) for 50.

yeah, but the l.rose skirt circle skirt is just that-one circle. The professional is 1 1/2 circles. The OP is talking about a 2 1/2 circle skirt...I've never even seen one...Would it be TOO much fabric??? Has anybody ever owned/made one??? I'm curious now!

If it is chiffon it will not be too much, as the fabric is so fine. It will be LUSH.

I am entirely in favour of making or having skirts made. You get the right length, the fabric you like, variations on splits that you want etc. Circle skirts are not hard, just fiddly.

Definitely make your own. It will be expensive, but a little cheaper than buying a super full skirt like that.

If you do want to buy one, pharaonix makes some nice super full skirts... most have beading on them too and they usually go for over $200 used.

Yes I've seen the pharonics! Love them, but wayyyy too much money since I don't dance professionally. Just wanted to make something for my recital coming up.
I found a pattern online for it. Heres the link:
How to Make a Full Belly Dance Skirt: 9 steps (with pictures) - wikiHow
If I only make a 1 1/2 circle skirt, since it's sheer I'd have to wear an under skirt. Since its so full, I wouldn't have to.

I did a 6 panel (half circle- 3 full circle) skirt - and it was fine and totally awesome. I made it from this mesh stuff. Very light and flowy.

Somewhere, I think on my busted computer, I have a spreadsheet of measurements. (Not helpful, I know)

I got a piece of molding, cut it to about 4 feet long, and then marked "2 panel, 3 panel, 4 panel, 5 panel, 6 panel" on it. That's what I use for the pattern.

So no, a 2 and a half circle skirt is NOT too much.

Ziva, do you happen to have a picture of the skirt? Or even better, you in it? I have a pattern so no problem there. I was thinking about doing a 6 panel also. I have a silver, pink, and aqua bedlah and I either want to make an aqua & pink or aqua and white skrit I think. 6 panels would make it even, 3 of each color alternating.
Do you know what kind of material it was? I wad going to use chiffon (polyester, not silk). The cheapest I've found it is $3/yd plus shipping (don't know how much shipping would be!)

I don't know if I have a picture standing...

This is the only one I can find online, and all my photos on my computer are ...locked inside it's virus riddled hard drive. (Haven't taken it to a doctor yet, just turned it off and put it aside until I had time to deal with it.)

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1292/...e2cc928c85.jpg

I could put it on and take a picture, but I'll need a reminder. (I think I also said I'd put on a different costume with coverage, too...I need lots of reminders. Y'Allah. <--that comes from my grandma.)

are you in the middle with the red skirt???
do u know the material?

Yes, sorry. I'm in the middle in the red skirt.

I don't know what the material is, but it's this really really shiny mesh stuff. You ABSOLUTELY need a serger for it. Or to hand stitch. Or to machine stitch, fold, and restitch, because the mesh is a little loose. You also need a skirt, pantaloon, or stretch pant underneath of this sort of stuff because it IS SHEER.

The meshiness gives it some body, so it kinda poofs a little, too.

If you think it would help, I can find a bit of it in my scrap pile (might be green - I've got some of that somewhere to make a skirt) and send you a small swatch (assuming you are in the US and it takes a stamp, and not some kind of outrageous mailing fee) or see if I still have the cardboard bolt around - I think I took the fabric off the bolt to save space, though.

I've seen it in red, green, purple, orange, and maybe gold and silver. It usually appears in the fabric store around halloween and christmas time, but they might have some off season as well. I bought it about 3 months after christmas for 75% off the discount price, so it was a dollar or two a yard.

Looks nice from what i can see lol! LOVE the red and black! I'm planning to make a costume with those colors once i'm out of school.
I've heard people talk about sergers, what does it actually do? People have said that it's taken them 2 hours to make a roll hem for a skirt on a machine, but only 15 mins on a serger. Why is it so much quicker?

It's fine, you don't have to send a swatch but thanks so much for offering! I think I may know what you're taking about. I went to the fabric store today and didn't see anything like that. I may go with the chiffon if I can find the right colors.

I think I may hand stich (because I dont have a serger, and I heard it is hard on machine) although 30 yards will take FOREVER! What kind of stitch would you use to hand stich it? I've never done a rolled hem before.....

A serger goes faster and encloses the edges of the fabric, and automatically trims for you. The difference between a sewing machine seam and a serger seam is ....

Ok. look on your jeasns. On the inside of the fly, on the zipper area, there is a stitch that is sort of 2 rows,

----------
///////////
----------

That is a serger seam.

On the top of the jeans, on the waist band, there is a seam that goes along the very top of the pants like this

-------------

That is a sewing machine seam.

The nice thing about the serger seam is that it is much more secure. It cuts and encloses where you cut all in the same pass. Then since the edge of the fabric is stitched twice and enclosed, you have two rows of stitching that would have to unravel before the stitching rips out, and a little pocked inside which all the threads are held together, so they cant unravel and let the stitching slide out.

For something like lycra or polar fleece, which doesn't really ravel that bad, you don't absolutely need it.

For something that ravels and is a very delicate fabric (a mesh, chiffon, silk, etc), you need to protect the edges or they will ravel until you have nothing left. The serger does that. On a high end serger, you can also set the width of the two lines of sewing and the enclosure part, so you can make it very narrow or very wide - if you make it very narrow and put the stitches together, you get a rolled hem. You can use coordinating colors or shiny stuff, and get a nice finished look. On a machine, to do a rolled hem, you sort of need to press it all in place, hold it tight, and stitch very carefully or you'll end up getting an ugly seam. So you have to move very slowly and tediously.

I got a serger (as a gift) that was just a really basic model for about $200, I think. It's 4 thread and I can do a rolled hem or a standard serger seam, but I can't top stitch and it doesn't have any bells and whistles. A friend of mine has a $1000 serger. It self threads, top stitches, and automatically adjusts to the various settings. (To do a rolled hem, I have to take out needles, change all the settings around, and just generally suffer a lot. And I will sew on the same color thread for MONTHS so I don't have to rethread the damn thing- nevertheless, it revolutionized how I sew because I can do things I just COULDN'T without it.

**Note: the mesh fabric I used (and some fishnet fabric I made a shirt with once) are not ravelly - they won't undo themselves. But because they are a big weave, I found it grabbed more fabric for a more secure stitch to use the serger, than a straight line stitch.

Awesome =) Thanks so much for all your time Ziva! Is there any certain type of serger you'd recommend? My birthdays in a couple weeks....maybe I can ask for one lol

I think it depends on your price range and how much you sew.

My price range was "low end" so I got a very very basic one. I love it, but if I could choose and have no price limits, I would probably get one that can also do what is called an "overlock" stitch (it's like....the edge of a shirt, maybe (I'm looking at my tank top), where there is
on the top:
-----
-----

on the bottom:
-------
/\/\/\/\/
-------

And it's not entirely enclosed. (so the edge of the shirt collar or cuff is a nice edge, not enclosed like the jeans)

It's a nice feature, but I think it requires either 5 ot 6 threads.

The best way is to ask around among local sewer friends and find where a good sewing shop is, and go in and look at their machines. A good shop will let you try some of them out and answer a lot of questions. The purchase will also come with some kind of "get to know your machine" class. Which is REALLY essential. (Every serger is a little different, really.)

The price range can vary a LOT depending on brand (sometimes an issue, sometimes not) and on the fun features. A really high end serger seems to be able to sort of like,...I don't know, just make your project overnight while you sleep or something. Ok, maybe not that good, but there's lots of VERY nice extras. But the price range also runs from liek...$150-200 all the way to thousands, depending on what you get. I'm of the mind that unless you are a fashion designer or a seamstress, a serger more expensive than my last car is probably not necessary. :P

LOL okay thanks so much Ziva! I know I've seen posts on here about sergers, I'll check them out. I'll also look to see if there a local shop.
Thanks again =)

Low cost sergers are available in Hancock's, WalMart, KMart, etc. You can also rent one for a few days to determine if you like using a serger. If you have friends that owns sergers maybe you could talk with them and ask to see what they do and do not like. They might show you how their machine works for them.

You could do a 1.5 circle skirt and make harems to wear underneath. That would save some money.

I finally got pictures of the 6 1/2 panel skirt.

L Rose has well made chiffon circle skirts for reasonable price. Excellent workmanship and fabric quality.

I found chiffon skirts for only $18 (and that comes with a veil (extra fabric!!!)) at $PAGETITLE. I wonder if it would be less expensive for you to buy a couple of those and combine them into one skirt? I don't know how or even if that would work, and I'm trying to find a sewing class in my area so I can learn to work my machine and do this kind of thing for myself. You can catch sales at your local fabric shops and get good deals.

I found a chiffon skirt yesterday that I liked (and I can't remember now where at because I was digging thru so many web sites looking at skirts) but it was flippin' $70!!!! There's no way it should've costed that much for as little as there was to it. It did not have as much fabric as you're planning to use. Or maybe I just don't realize the cost of chiffon?

Originally Posted by ZivaSelina

A really high end serger seems to be able to sort of like,...I don't know, just make your project overnight while you sleep or something.

LOL I think we'd all buy a machine that would do that for us!..g.:

Originally Posted by Darbla

I wonder if it would be less expensive for you to buy a couple of those and combine them into one skirt?

I don't know how that would work. When I made the skirt pictured above, I did it by adjusting the size of the top cutout, so that there were fewer inches around the waist. (I have the spreadsheet somewhere - I created it based on The Costume Goddess's comments on circle skirts - yes, I'm an engineer)

Basically, on the spreadsheet, you put in your height and waist and how many panels, and then it gives you the radius of the larger and smaller circles (the one you cut out for the waist and the one you cut out for the bottom hem) for the pattern. Then you can just lay out the fabric, and use a stiff piece of molding or a yard stick to cut along as the pattern.

By reducing the cutout for the waist, you reduce the bulk of fabric around the waist. Adding a ton of smaller panels to one waist band would significantly increase the bulk at the waist.