DIY "Half Circle Skirt" Tutorial (with zipper!) plus 3 ways to hem a skirt

[intro music]

Hello! So today I'm going to teach you all how to make your very own "half circle skirt".

Now what is the difference between this and a "circle skirt", you ask?

Well, you use *half* the amount of fabric.

What I've found with full circle skirts is that when you're wearing them out and about and if there's

like, a *little* bit of breeze that day, your skirt just *woop!*

Blows right up!

And you flash everyone.

So you always have to wear shorts underneath.

And you have to hold it down all the time.

So I've actually found that HALF circle skirts work a LOT better.

And I actually like the shape of them a lot better. They're still quite full skirts,

But they're not as big and dramatic as full circle skirts.

So anyway, I'm going to teach you how to make them today!

First things first, we need to make a pattern!
Now these are the two pieces of fabric that

you will need to cut out.
First, we’ll work on the skirt.

To make a pattern for the skirt, you will
need to make some measurements!

The first measurement is your waist, divided
by pi (which is 3.14).

As an example, my waist is 30 inches, divide
this by 3.14 and you get 9.55.

So, my first measurement is 9.55 inches.

So I’m going to draw this out onto my pattern
paper. From the corner of the paper, I’m

first drawing a bunch of marks 9.55 inches
out, then I connect those dots into a quarter-circle

that looks like this.

Then you need to make an outer circle measurement.
First, figure out how long you want your skirt

to be. I want mine to be about 19 inches.
Then subtract from this whatever width you’re

going to use for the waistband. I want a 3
inch waistband so I subtract 3 inches, which

gives me 16.
Then, add your inner circle measurement. Mine

was 9.55.
This gives me a total of 25.55.

You should also add about ½ an inch for the
hem, so I’m just going to round this up

to 26 inches.

Then, also from the corner of the paper, I
draw this outer circle measurement.

Then, I cut my pattern out.

and it looks
like this!

Next, fold your fabric in half, right sides
together.

And yeah, I know the clothes I’m wearing
are pretty weird here – they’re my comfortable

sewing clothes, don’t judge me.

Now, place your pattern piece on the fabric, with one straight
edge on the FOLD of the fabric.

Pin the piece of paper onto the fabric, and
then cut around your pattern.

When you unfold it, you should have this half-circle
shape.

Now we also need to cut out a waistband from
the remaining fabric.

To make your waistband, take your waist measurement and add 3 inches.

And this is the length of your waistband.

Then, decide how wide you want your waistband to be,

And double this measurement.

And this is your waistband width.

Now, this is a slightly different

method of making a waistband then what I've shown in my videos before,

So, right sides together, place the waistband

onto the inner circle of the skirt like this.

Line up the edges like this, and then pin
the waistband on. Then, attach the waistband

to the skirt by using a straight stitch, just
like this.

Then hem the unsewn edge of the waistband.
Fold the edge of the waistband over ½ an

inch, just like this, and then sew right along
the length.

To finish off the waistband, fold it down,
with the hemmed edge lining up with the stitches

that you made when you attached your waistband to your skirt.
Pin this together, and sew around the waistband

to completely attach it to the skirt. Make
sure you’re catching the fabric of the skirt

underneath your stitches. You
should also use a thread that matches your

fabric – I didn’t, but that was so you
could all see where I was stitching in this

video.

Then, you’ll notice that you have raw edges
on either side of your skirt. If you want

to finish this off professionally, you can
either overlock these edges, or, if you have

room to do this

fold this edge in once, then twice,

then sew over the top. Do this on both sides
of your skirt.

Now, fold your skirt in half, right sides
together, just like this.

Line those edges up and pin them together,
then, get your zipper and line it up next

to the skirt.
Make a mark where the zipper ends. Below this

mark, you will do normal-length straight stitches,
but above this mark you will need to do what

are called basting stitches. These are very
long stitches used to temporarily hold your

fabric together.

From your stitching, you will have created
a seam that looks like this. Fold the seam

open. You can also iron the seam here to hold
it open. Then, place your zipper onto your

seam like this, so that the teeth of the zipper
line up with the middle of your seam.

Then, you will need to sew your zipper onto
your skirt like this.

If you have one, a zipper foot, which looks
like this, makes sewing zippers really easy.

Then, carefully cut through those basting
stitches that you made earlier, in order to

free your zipper!

Now all we need to do is to hem the bottom
of the skirt. I always hear that you’re

supposed to let a circle skirt hang for a
day or two before hemming the bottom, because

the grain of the fabric will cause the hem
to drop in certain spots and not others. Or... something.

But, this is the skirt 2 days later, and there really isn't a noticeable difference. If there is, even

out the bottom with a pair of scissors, and
then continue on.

Now, onto the hemming.There

are three methods you can use for hemming
the bottom of your skirt.

If you have an overlocker, go around the entire
outer-circle edge with the overlocker, then

fold the overlocked edge up inside the skirt,
and sew across it using a straight stitch,

all the way around the outer circle.

So you can get yourself some pinking shears. These special
scissors prevent fabric from fraying. When

you’re cutting out the outside circle on
your skirt, use this scissors instead. Then, when

hemming, simply fold the edge over about 1
inch like this, and using a straight stitch,

stopping every 10 inches or so to readjust,
carefully sew all the way around your outer

circle.
Method 3 is if you don’t own pinking shears

– you can make something called a rolled
hem. This is when you fold the fabric over

once, then twice, then like in the other methods,
sew along all the way around the outer circle.

And hopefully you should now have a finished
half circle-skirt.

Thank you so much for watching!

Make sure to subscribe to my channel and check out my other videos for more DIY projects and inspiration.

See you next time, bye!