I looove giant repeat prints, but I find them difficult to sew – you want something that doesn’t have a lot of seams as to not break up that beautiful print (and thus render it obsolete). Unfortunately, less seams = less form-fitting, and if you’ve learned anything by lurking my closet for even five minutes, you will notice that I don’t do those loose shift-shapes.
I encountered this problem last year, and decided that circle skirts are a foolproof solution. You can’t disagree with me because I’m totally right, btw.
This is part 1 of Stuff I Made Using Birthday Gifts – Trice (which I might add – if you haven’t been introduced to her blog you HAVE to check out the mini tailored jacket she recently completed. It is so cute; I died a little) sent me a giftcard to Mood Fabrics & I immediately zeroed in on this Marc Jacobs cotton poplin. Ooh, big repeats! And I need a summer circle skirt… right? Right.
As per my other circle skirts, I followed Casey’s Circle Skirt Sew-along for construction, using the pattern I drafted last year. I kept this one pretty simple/summery – cotton skirt, topstitched waistband & hem, no lining. Easy stuff!
And I just so happened to have this hot pink belt that matches the background color perfectly… dontcha love it when that happens? 😀
Circle skirts are magical!
And just so you know I’m forreal here –
It is -literally- a circle with a smaller circle inside 🙂
I also thought it was pretty magical how well the zipper matches the purply-grey bits. Confession: I pulled it out of my stash, and it’s one of those weird colors that I’ve had forever and never used because it was just so weird (and 7″ long). I can’t even tell you how delighted I was when I realized what a great match it ended up being. The little things!
My slashed zipper insertion went in pretty perfectly, if I do say so myself.
The hem is finished with 2″ horsehair braid – a whopping 4 yards, to be precise. Rather than blind stitch 4+ yards of hem by hand, I sewed 2 rows on by machine. It’s not invisible by any means, but I think it looks pretty good as a design detail! And the horsehair braid adds such a nice flounce to the hem – I personally don’t care for circle skirts without some kind of oomph down there (on me, at least, they hang kind of funny & look limp otherwise). I’ve eyeballed Sunni’s petersham ribbon on a curved hem deal, and I love the subtle effect it gives but I haven’t tried it yet – mostly because every time I get hold of petersham ribbon, I just want to rub it all over my face forever. Is that weird? I guess that is kind of weird.
Anyway, yeah circle skirts! 😀
LLADYBIRD 
If it makes you feel any less weird, I carried around a waist stays worth of petersham around in my jacket pocket for about a week. It’s neat stuff.
I don’t blame you! It just feels soo good against the skin… it makes sense to keep it in your pocket, then you can touch it all the time 🙂
Gorgeous!! I love the hem detail, it was the first thing I spotted. 🙂
You’re right: the hem really adds punch to this skirt. I love the fabric too. And the belt. Really great ensemble. I’ll have t check out making a circle skirt this summer.
Loooooove it! I was seriously eyeing that exact fabric for a shirt dress. Might be a little loud for a dress, but it looks fan-flippin-tastic as a circle skirt! Well done, as per always. I need more circle skirts in my life.
😀
Very cute skirt.
I need to find where you get the magic. The last circle skirt I made was too big. It made it with no seams, so if I want it to fit I have to slice it up. Also apparently my trunk was taking up real estate, so I have to do something about the uneven hem.
I really want something that I can slip on and off and is easy.
Check the link to Casey’s sew along – I used her tutorial to draft it, and then she posted another tutorial for a slash zipper (since mine doesn’t have side seams either). Maybe you could make it a bit longer & then have someone help you even out the hem while you’re wearing it? For the one that is too big, you could either give it a wide elastic waistband or make a woven waistband that *does* fit and then ease/gather the skirt into it.
I will definitely check out Casey’s sew along. I might have better luck making the skirt out of a knit if I do the no seams again. That way it will stretch over the hips and still fit the waist.
So cute and summery! I’m always drawn to big prints, too, but they tend to overwhelm my small frame. Circle skirts are the answer!
Super cute! Love that hot pink!
Such a cute little circle skirt. Don’t we all end up with odd colored zippers? Great match with that print.
It looks really, really good. 🙂 The shape is great on you.
I love this skirt! You’re so lucky for scoring such an amazing print! I don’t think the stitching at the bottom looks yucky either – it’s definitely more of a design detail. The best part about it is how you styled it. I loved the pink and yellow together!
Omigosh, that is just so perfect on you. You do our fabric proud!
Love it! Perfect for the summer.
Veeery pretty print and skirt!
Ooh very nice. I love it the pinkness twinned with a yellow cardie you remind me of a lovely little rhubarb custard 🙂
LOVE IT. That shade of pink always scares me, but seeing how good it looks here makes me want to try it. Lovely job, lady!
So pretty and fun!I Even though they take so much fabric, circle skirts rock 🙂
SoOo pretty!
Just too darn cute…. I need one, I feel my confused plans even further derailed….in my head anyway. Chance would be a fine thing. You look gorgeous 😉
I love it! I am so going to make one of these (although it will join my ever growing list of things to try and make).
Very very cute – perfect length too. Nice zipper, or course!
Oh dear, I’m not at all sure about the petersham thing but I guess we do all have our little idiosyncrasies… hah! :o) Wouldn’t life be damn boring without them?
Adorable! I love circle skirts on others but somehow always think I look like a garden gnome in them, like they just overwhelm me. This looks great on you, love the print and color! So great that you were finally find the perfect home for the zipper, I love little things like that. I would so have sewn the hem that way too… 4 yards of blind stitching… omg.
(Love those shoes too!)
Dude, FYI-you completely inspired my first circle skirt, i insisted it be underlined since your hot pink lining was so abdass. see here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/heydollfaceny/6924319986/in/set-72157628852556113
i even mentioned you in my pattern review, heh.
i did derf out figuring out the pattern draft for like 2 weeks, though. math just makes me cry, even basic crap that is already done essentially.Now to experiment with the 2 inch horsehair, my navy blue one was naturally poofy because it was made of like a nuns habit material from the thrift store. worked for me!
Ack, your skirt is super cute! I love how much body is has – and the idea that it has hot pink lining, yeeeah!!
I know, the math part sucks, huh? At least you only have to do it once, though! Now you can pop those things out nobodies business 🙂
Darn you, lady! Now I want to drop my other sewing projects (a dress and some 40s shorts…) and make a circle skirt NOW. Mostly because I have some fabric I think I could use. 😉 lol. Love the fabric you used–so perfect!
How long did it take you to make the circle skirt? Seems easy enough, but I hear something this simple can take all of your free time for two weeks!
It depends on your speed of sewing! I do sew pretty fast, so the actual sewing of this skirt took about less than 2 hour (maybe even closer to an hour!). The cutting didn’t take long at all – maybe 20 minutes – since it’s really just 2 pieces. I can’t recall how long it took me to draft it, but it definitely wasn’t longer than an hour. Really, the longest time I spent on this skirt was waiting for the to bias to stretch – I had to leave it hanging for about 48 hours, in which I used that time to work on a different project 🙂