my circle skirt turned out big enough for an elephant, WTF!?

Was your circle skirt too big when you were finished?

Did you cheat?

Tell the truth, now…

I bet you tried to skip all the math and do this:

Say you wanted the waist hole to be 32 inches.  Cutting the circle can be a real bitch. So you fold the fabric in half twice, and then you divide that measurement by 4.  This gives you 8 inches.  You measure a line that’s 8 inches long, because lines are easier to draw.  But you really need a circle, so you just sort of draw a curved lined around it.

If you look at the gap between your 8 inch line and the curved line, there are several inches of extra space in there.  Now multiply that space time 4, and that’s where you got a skirt that’s ridonkulously big.

If you really want to skip most of the math, get yourself a bendable ruler. That way, you can make the ruler curved and use that instead of all those calculations.

Or you can do the math one, trace it on a piece of paper, and have it already done on a pattern that you can use over and over again.

Related posts:

1. circle skirt tutorial – version 2.0 – new and improved!
2. circle skirt variations tutorials – pixie skirt and more!
3. tutorial: how to make a pencil skirt
4. technique tutorial: darts
5. Sewing 101: seam allowances