Sew: Inside Out, Round & Round Skirt Tutorial {No Hem Reversible Wrap Circle Skirt}

I adore circle skirts! They have a 50’s vibe, they’re full and flirty and best of all they are twirly. From the littlest girl to the most grown up woman, a circle skirt makes you want to spin and twirl!

The Inside Out, Round& Round Skirt is fab because:

• It’s reversible, so you can wear it two ways
• it’s adjustable so it will fit a range of sizes
• because of the way it’s constructed, there is no fiddly hem!

So, let’s get started…

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When choosing fabric for this project, remember that due to the nature of the skirt, parts of your fabric may be upside down or sideways in some sections. Parts of the other side of the skirt may show (whichever way you wear it) so keep that in mind when choosing fabrics too. I find two medium weight cottons work well but I used a cotton sateen and a cotton lawn for this one.

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Draw or download a pattern, make sure that the total waist measurement is 4 1/2’’or 12cm bigger than your waist to allow for an overlap at the waist. Drafting a circle skirt is pretty easy, this post explains things nicely. Or you can buy a pattern if you’d like, this one comes in UK sizes 8 to 22.

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Once you have the pattern cut out, it should look like this. The pattern piece I have is ¼ of the total skirt and I will cut 2 pieces of fabric on the fold. So I will end up with 2 half circles of each fabric that will add up to a full circle of each fabric.

I folded my green fabric in half, pinned out my pattern on the fold and cut. Then I repeated, so I had 2 green half circles. I did the same for my polka dot fabric, so I had 2 half circles of polka dots too.

Each of my circles are made up of 2 half circle sections. To join the halves into full circles, I laid the green fabric right sides together, pinned and sewed the sections together with a 1 cm seam allowance. Then iron the seam allowances open.  The I repeated with my polka dot fabric.

You should left with two fabric donuts with one open seam, like this:

Lay the skirts out on top of each other, right sides together and pin all the way around. Sew down one short side, along the bottom curve, up the other short side, leaving the waist open. I use a 1cm seam allowance. I’ve put a book in the open waist, so you can see that it’s there.

Clip the seam allowance at the corners and notch the bottom curve.

Turn the skirt to the right side through the waist. Poke out the bottom corners, using a pointy object (be careful not poke a hole) and press all of your seams.

Think about which fabric you want for waistband/ ties. Both sides will have the same fabric. Mark out and cut a rectangle 350cm or 138” long and 15cm or 6” wide from the fabric of your choice. This will give you a 4cm or 1.5” waistband that is long enough to tie around you waist. Unless you have some very long remnants, your waist band will have joins along the length, sew and press those first.

Fold the waistband in half lengthwise and press. Sorry for the blurry pic!

Open out the waistband and fold each edge into the middle, using the line you just pressed as guide (I have marked that in blue for clarity). The pic shows it better than I can explain it.

Fold in half one more time and press. Cut an angle at the ends and open out, like this.

To avoid bulk trim back like this

Fold and press the raw edges like this

One last press and the waist band and you should have this

One last step! But I forgot to take pics, so I hope I can explain it. Find the centre of the waistband and mark with a pin. Find centre back of the skirt and mark that too. Sandwich the waist of the skirt in the waist band and pin. Topstitch from the tip on one end of the tie, all the way along the tie. When you get the where the skirt is sandwiched in the waist ties, be sure that you are catching all the layers. Keep sewing until you get to the other end of the waist ties. And Voila!!