DIY half circle skirt tutorial

Hello Everyone!

I hope your week has been going super! Thanks so much to everyone who liked and commented on Monday’s skirt post. If you missed it you can click here and read all about it.  I really do love the skirt.  So much so that I wanted to put together a quick tutorial on how I made it.

If you are new to circle skirts.  They over all are a quick make and really don’t require a pattern.  You can fold your fabric and draw it on with a tailors chalk or wash away pen, cut and sew.  The biggest thing is finding the radius of your waist measurement.  There is an actual formula that requires simple high school math.

You do this by dividing your waist measurement by pi (or 3.14) and round off your answer to the nearest quarter of an inch.

my waist is 35″ + 1″ for fitting ease= 36″  divided by pi (3.14) = 11.46.  So the radius of my waist measurement is 11.50″

If you opt to use this method.  You can add your seam allowance after you draw out your skirt as I illustrate in the tutorial.  Or you can simply add your seam allowance to your waist measurment.  i.e. waist =35+ 1″ fitting ease+ 1/2″ seam allowance per seam (4 seams) = 38″.

The other and easy way to find your waist radius is to use a circle skirt calculator. My favorite one is from By Hand London.com   I love it because it includes your seam allowance for you (if your making a 2 seam skirt. If you want to add a back seam you have to make sure to increase your waist measurement by your desired seam allowance) as well as gives your length measurement for a mini, midi, or maxi length.  Here’s the link to the app. Its a handy little tool that I use alot.

Once you’ve figured out your radius and desired length you can follow along with the tutorial that I created in Adobe llustrator below.

Supplies: 

• Fabric of choice 
• Pattern/butcher paper
• Measuring tape 
• push pin or thumb tack 
• pencil
• scissors

• I forgot to note that the 90 degree angle should be longer than your desired skirt length.

 

 

 

Voila! that’s it.  Once this is complete draft a waistband using your waist measurement and desired width and add seam allowance.  Cut and sew.

I hope your inspired to go out and make your own half circle skirt!

Until next time!

xoxo

♥Iris

 

Advertisement

DIY Ankara Print Circle Skirt

“They who sow in tears shall reap with joyful singing.” Psalm 126:5 (amplified)

Hello Everyone!

I pray your week is off to a great start! I wanted to start this week’s post off with a short testimony about the photoshoot for this weeks make.  These pictures caused me to reflect quite a bit. It started with a conversation that I was having with my daughter after she took my shots. As I was looking at them I had mentioned that they were some great action shots and that my smile looked nice. She said: “yeah mom! Because that’s your actual smile!” Her words blessed my heart and caused me to look more closely at the photos.  She was right. I was genuinely smiling and laughing.

My divorce brought a series of major life changes along with a series of trials that really shook me. I cried out to God so many nights worrying about my and my children’s future.  but I stayed steadfast in God and He used all of it not only to make me stronger; but to give me a testimony about the restorative power of a life in Jesus Christ.  His love has been restoring me from the brokeness and pain of my past.  One of my prayers for 2018 has been for God to restore my joy. When I saw these pictures it became evident that God was answering me. It really blessed me. I wasn’t just posing, but for the first time in a long while, my soul feels light and my smile is reflecting it.  To God be the glory!

As for this weeks DIY post! This skirt is already a favorite of mine. It’s a self drafted half circle skirt and let me first tell you that I messed up my measurements when I cut the fabric lol!. I forgot to add the seam allowance for the back seam. So it was a tight squeeze at the waist lol! But I didn’t want to scrap it and I only needed like another inch. So came the genius idea to add an exposed elastic waistband at the back along with an exposed zipper which I’ve been wanting to play with for a while. I love it !!!! It came out sooo cute and gave the skirt a ready to wear aesthetic that I like. Not to mention that it gave me the waist room I needed. It’s still a bit snug but I’m not struggling to breathe in it lol! I’m calling it my happy accident skirt!

I plan on intentionally remaking this skirt with the right waist ease and a thicker waistband.

Fabric

The fabric is an Ankara print that I bought I believe from House of Mami Wata. I love the print but the print quality and weight of the fabric I was not impressed with. It’s more of a quilters weight cotton and I considered lining it to give it more body but opted to leave it unlined so I could wear it in summer. I chose this print for the skirt because I felt like the colors were a great transitional fall look.

Style it

It took me a little bit to figure out the styling for this because I wanted to do something out of the box but remain true to my style. The top is actually a men’s shirt I bought to use as an up cycling project but liked the idea of print matching with stripes. So I just tucked it in and rolled up the sleeves and voila! The yellow necklace is from Ashley Stewart clearance and the shoes are Forever 21. I think this a great and vibrant transitional season look.

 

Well thats all for now! until next time!

xoxo,

♥Iris

DIY Skirt Making 101 w/ free pdf skirt measurement chart

^“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, ²⁷ for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”  Galatians 3:26-27

Hello Everyone!

I pray all is well with you!  I am so behind on posting. Life has been full of soooo many amazing blessings and while I am thankful, those blessings have been keeping me busy.  Like getting my new house ready so my children and I can move in (yaaay!).  Add to that list my daughter fracturing her ankle in a roller skating accident.  Yet in between it all, I have managed to make my first skirt project which I’ll be featuring next week.  Can’t wait to share it with you!!!

For this week however, I wanted to introduce skirt month by spending sometime writing a post that would set the foundation for this series.  Each week in addition to sharing my DIY skirt makes with you I will also share in a seperate post a more in depth explanation of some aspect of skirt making.  For this week I created a free pdf download of a skirt measurment chart.  So here it goes…

DIY Skirt Making 101

Introduction

Skirts are probably one of the easiest garments to make and fit as it requires minimal measurements.  A beginner sewer young or old can make a simple gathered skirt with an elastic waistband in just a few hours.  They are a fun,versatile garment with many styling options making it a great wardrobe staple. Keep reading for for a brief description of skirt construction.

Measurements

Skirt measurements are few.  For a basic straight or pencil skirt, all you need is your natural waist , full hip and length from natural waist to desired length of skirt. If your making a full skirt like a circle or pleated skirt all you need is your waist measurement and desired length. Below is a brief description of how to take your skirt measurments and you can click on this link  Skirt Measurement Chart. to download and print your copy of the skirt measurement chart to use as a tool to record your body measurments.

Natural waist= take a piece of string or yarn and tie it firmly (not tight) around your waist. Bend your torso from left side to right side a few times until the string settles to your natural waistline.  This is the measurement that you want to take.

Natural waist to full hip= This the measurement starts at the natural waist and measures down to the full hip.  For most misses sized women it is about 9inches.  If you are a pear shaped or plus sized this number will most likely be greater.  I am a pear shaped sized 14/16 and my full hip falls about 11inches down from my natural waist.

Full Hip=  The full hip is where the widest part of your hip is on your body.

Length=  This is going to be based on your personal preference and skirt style.  The key here is to measure from your natural waist to your desired finished skirt length. Below is an image that I found on Pinterest of the various skirt lengths and their names.

Basic components of a skirt

Like I mentioned earlier, skirt designs vary but all skirts have a waistband or facing, the body of the skirt, a hemline and elastic or a closure like a zipper, snaps, buttons etc.

Supplies needed

1. Measuring Tape
2. Fabric of Choice
3. Interfacing or elastic (if making an elastic waistband)
4. Sewing thread
5. Closure of choice (zippers, buttons, snaps are the most commonly used)
6. Sewing machine
7. hemming tape or wash away tape (not necessary but can be useful with hemming).

Skirt Styles

Once you understand how a basic skirt is constructed the possibilities are endless.  Below is a chart that I found on pinterest that illustrates some common skirt styles.  This skirt series will focus heavily on skirt construction and not design.  However, I hope to feature a few projects toward the end of the month that demonstrate some basic skirt design options.

Fabric options:

There are a variety of fabrics that make a great skirt.  It really depends on the skirt style and look that you are going for. The easiest way to begin to familiarize beginner sewers with fabric is to purchase commercial patterns. All patterns list the recommended fabric on the back of the pattern envelope. I think this is a great place for beginner sewers to start.  Below I have listed a few of my favorite skirt fabrics.

• Mid-weight cotton
• denim
• stretch sateen
• light to mid weight twill
• wool 
• rayon
• ponte knit

Closures:

A basic skirt with a waistband uses a zipper.  Some skirt styles like a jean pencil skirt for example may have a button placket going up the front of the skirt.  This is an example of using a closure for both aesthetic and construction purposes.  The exception is usually a skirt that has an elastic waistband or a skirt made from a knit fabric as the elasticity of the waistband and the fabric allow the fabric to easily come on and off the body.

Well there you have it.   A basic introduction to skirt construction.  Pretty straight forward right? Make sure to stay plugged in for the rest of the series.  Each week i’ll be posting all of my DIY skirt makes and will go more in depth about each aspect of skirt making!

Have a great week everyone! Until next time!

♥ xoxo

Iris