How to Sew a Circle Skirt from a Kid’s Bed Sheet (or other Directional Fabric)

circle skirt from a sheet (5 of 5)

Vintage tablecloths and bed sheets are a great fabric to use for sewing a circle skirt, unless you’re trying to sew your kid a circle skirt from an old Charlie Brown sheet.

If you use the traditional, easy-peasy way to sew a circle skirt, then Charlie Brown will be upside down on half the skirt–boo!

Directional fabrics, including children’s novelty sheets, require a slightly different, and only a little more complicated, method to sew a circle skirt with nothing upside-down.

Here’s how to make your kid a circle skirt where Charlie Brown ALWAYS faces the right way:

the pattern for your circle skirt
the pattern for your circle skirt

Although circle skirts are typically so easy to sew that no pattern is required, you’ll want to go ahead and make yourself a paper pattern if you’re sewing a directional, novelty print, because this will allow you to piece your skirt however you need to preserve the graphic’s direction.

To make the pattern:

  1. Take the hip measurement, and add an extra inch or two to this number for ease. Plug this number as the circumference into a circle calculator to find the radius.
  2. Starting at one corner of a square piece of paper, mark that radius in several spots, all measured out from that one corner. Connect the dots, sketching out a quarter-circle in the process. Cut off the corner of the paper to this quarter-circle, and you have the top of your pattern piece.
  3. Take the measurement from the waist to the desired length of the skirt, and add extra for your desired method of finishing the bottom hem of the skirt.
  4. Starting from the waist quarter-circle, measure out that length in several spots. Connect the dots, sketching out another, larger quarter-circle in the process. Cut off the bottom of the paper below this quarter-circle, and you have your entire pattern piece.

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