How to Draft Any Circle Skirt: The Complete Guide

Circle skirts are in my opinion one of the top recommended patterns for anyone starting to draft their own sewing patterns. I think this is because they are not only simple to draft but also easy to sew and hard to get wrong when it comes to getting the right fit.

There are many resources available to us to help draft a circle skirt, but my main qualm when I first started was that the books I read mainly provided basic radii for the type of circle skirt without adequately explaining the why behind everything. Now that I’ve drafted a few of my own, I realise that circle skirts are actually quite easy to understand.

My goal with this blog post is to give you a comprehensive guide to drafting circle skirts so that even if you were stuck on a remote island with just a pencil and paper, you could draft any variation of the circle skirt you would like because you understand the basic math behind it.

Important Note:This blog is divided into two parts: Part 1 focuses on the theory— how the radius changes with the skirt fullness. Part 2 is more practical—how to draft and cut the correct pattern pieces. I encourage you to read both parts fully, as they build on each other. Let's get started!

Deriving the Radius Formula for Each Skirt Type

Whenever you hear or read terms like full circle, half circle, three quarter circle etc, they are referring to the fullness of the skirt. The images below show skirts of the same length with decreasing fullness.

Drafting a circle skirt requires you to know the formula for the circumference of a circle in order to get a radius that you will use to draw your pattern. Additionally, you need to understand how and why the formulas change for different types of circle skirts.

Here’s the foundational formula:

Circumference = 2πr

A Note on Ease

According to Essential Sewing Reference Tool by Carla Hegeman Crim:

Standard ease for the waist is 1 in or 2.54 cm. So the formula will always show the waist circumference adjusted for ease. Just add an inch or 2.54 cm to it!

Circle Skirt Drafting

Full Circle Skirt

A full circle skirt has maximum fullness. This means that when drafting our skirt we’ll use the entire circle circumference since it matches the waist circumference. To find the radius that will help us draft a full circle skirt, we use the formula:

Waist Circ + Ease = 2πr

r = Waist Circ + Ease 2π

Half Circle Skirt

A half circle skirt has half of the fullness of the full circle skirt. For this reason, we fit our waist measurement into half the circumference of a circle. To find the radius for the half circle skirt, we modify the formula:

Waist Circ + Ease = 1 2 (2πr)

Waist Circ + Ease = πr

r = Waist Circ + Ease π

Remember that we fit our entire waist circumference into half a circle. This means that the half circle is the entire pattern piece that will wrap around your waist.

Quarter Circle Skirt

Similarly, the quarter circle skirt fits the waist circumference into a circle with only a quarter of the fullness.

Waist Circ + Ease = 1 4 (2πr)

Waist Circ + Ease = πr 2

r = 2 × (Waist Circ + Ease) π

Since the quarter circle forms the pattern piece, this single piece will wrap around your waist completely.

We’ll get into the pattern pieces and how to cut them in the next section but I hope by now I’ve shown how the desired fullness determines the proportion of the circle to use and why understanding how the basic circumference formula relates to skirt fullness will help you draft a skirt even without a radius chart.

So yes, we could say that the radius doubles when going from a full circle skirt to a half circle skirt, and doubles again from a half circle skirt to a quarter circle skirt. But it’s still helpful to understand the basic formula so you can, for example, draft a 5/8 circle skirt.

So take this as an exercise if you’d like and try out a 1/3 and 3/4 circle skirt.

Three-quarter Circle Skirt

Same as before, we’ll fit the waist circumference into a circle with three-quarters of the fullness of a full circle skirt.

Waist Circ + Ease = 3 4 (2πr)

Waist Circ + Ease = 3πr 2

r = 2 × (Waist Circ + Ease) 3π

The pattern piece for a 3/4 circle skirt will be three-quarters of a circle. We'll go through the pattern pieces and layout later on.

Third Circle Skirt

Again, we’ll fit the waist circumference into a circle with one-third of the fullness of a full circle skirt.

Waist Circ + Ease = 1 3 (2πr)

Waist Circ + Ease = 2πr 3

r = 3 × (Waist Circ + Ease) 2π

The third of a circle is the pattern piece you can split up into two.

Circle Skirt Cutting Layouts

There are several ways to divide the patterns you've just seen above. To keep things simple, we'll place the grainline along the center back and/or front to help us determine out pattern pieces and layout options.

Full Circle Skirt Cutting Layouts

r = Waist Circ + Ease 2π

In theory, full circle skirts are easy to cut out. In a perfect world, you would only need a quarter-circle pattern piece cut on the fold with the grainline running parallel. This layout is featured in some popular sewing books and creates a design effect where the flares fall closer to the side seam.

In reality, the cutting layout outlined above is limited by fabric width. The sum of the calculated radius and skirt length must be less than half the fabric width. As you can imagine, you will be able to get away this approach only if you are drafting for a small waist circumference or a short skirt.

If you are drafting for a larger waist and/or longer length like me, fret not! I have a couple of solutions.

These layouts both have the grainline running along the side seam. You might need to hang the skirt longer than usual to ensure the bias has stretched out fully before you hem your skirt. I wait no less than 24 hrs.

Or you could do go with the layout below.

Half Circle Skirt Cutting Layouts

r = Waist Circ + Ease π

With the half circle, you have two main options when it comes to the cutting layout. Since the full pattern piece is a semicircle, these layouts assume a skirt with two pieces, a front and a back.

Option one involves splitting the semicircle into two, leaving you with a quarter-circle pattern that you cut twice. The grainline here runs parallel to the center front and back, as illustrated below.

With option two, you use an eighth-circle pattern piece, which you can create by splitting a quarter-circle into two (bisecting a right angle to create 45°). Cut this piece on the fold twice with the grainline running parallel to the fold as shown below.

Quarter Circle Skirt Cutting Layouts

r = 2 × (Waist Circ + Ease) π

Since the quarter-circle skirt doesn’t have much fullness, you may prefer to have a single seam at the center back. For this option,you may use the quarter circle piece you drafted as is and place the grainline parallel to the center front as shown below.

Alternatively, you could split the quarter circle piece into two and still have the grainline running parallel to the center front and center back. In this case use r and draft the pattern piece out for 45° as illustrated below.

Quarter Circle Cutting Layout 1

Quarter Circle Cutting Layout 2

Three Quarter Circle Skirt Cutting Layouts

r = 2 × (Waist Circ + Ease) 3π

The three quarter circle skirt when drafted in full covers 270°. The most straightforward layout involves dividing the skirt into four pieces. This means that you will only need to draft a piece that is 67.5° and cut two of these on the fold. The grainline will be parallel to the fold which is your center back and front. The illustration below shows exactly what I mean.

You could also chose to have a larger piece if perhaps you are drafting digitally. In this case, you will need a pattern piece that is 135° of which you will cut 2 pieces as shown below.

Third Circle Cutting Layout 1

Third Circle Cutting Layout 2

Third Circle Skirt Cutting Layouts

r = 3 × (Waist Circ + Ease) 2π

Since the third-circle skirt has slightly more fullness than the quarter-circle skirt, you have similar cutting layout options. One approach is to use the third-circle piece as is, with a single seam at the center back. In this case, the grainline will be placed parallel to the center front.

Alternatively, you can bisect the third-circle piece into two sections, creating sixth circle pieces (each representing 60°). For this layout, you will cut two sixth-circle pieces, with the grainline running parallel to the center back and center front.

Third Circle Cutting Layout 1

Third Circle Cutting Layout 2

Drafting a Simple Straight Waistband

For a simple straight waistband, think of it as a rectangle measuring l x 2h. Here, l is the length, calculated as the waist circumference + 2(ease) (including wearing ease and an additional allowance for easing the waistband into the skirt). h is the height of the waistband, which can be taken as 5 cm (2 in). The height is doubled (2h) to allow the waistband to be folded lengthwise.

This gives you the basic waistband shape, but let’s explore two cutting layouts for efficiency's sake.

Layout Option 1: Dividing the Length in Half

Straight Waistband Layout 1

Divide the total length into two and draft a pattern piece that measures l/2 by 2h. Add seam allowances to the bottom edge and both sides. Cut this piece twice for a front waistband and back waistband. When assembling your skirt, you'll fold these pieces lengthwise.

Layout Option 2: Dividing the Length in Quarters

Straight Waistband Layout 2

Alternatively, divide the total length by four and draft a pattern piece that measures l/4 by 2h. Add seam allowances to the bottom edge and one side only. Cut this piece twice on fold for a front waistband and back waistband.

Sewing Instructions

Sewing instructions for a circle skirt are beyond the scope of this blog post, but you can download my free full circle skirt pattern here, which contains instructions that you may find useful.

Sew your very own full circle skirt.

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