Circle Skirt Calculator

Common styles include: Full Circle (creates a full 360-degree circle when laid flat), Half Circle (180 degrees, less voluminous), and Quarter Circle (90 degrees, more of an A-line shape).

No. Measure against the body, or over a single thin layer, at the height the waistband will actually sit. The formula turns your number straight into a cut radius, so anything the tape picked up on the way round becomes a wider opening in cloth you have already cut. Measuring over a waistband and a jumper can add an inch or two, which at a 28 inch waist is a waist opening several percent too large, and a circle skirt cut too big at the waist cannot be taken in without recutting the whole curve. If you want ease, add it deliberately as a stated amount rather than letting your clothing decide it.

The waist radius here is the finished opening, so yes, add your seam allowance outside it when you cut, and add hem allowance below the skirt length. The calculator returns the geometry rather than a cutting line, because seam and hem allowances are a matter of your pattern and your fabric rather than of the circle.

For a full circle skirt, the waist opening represents the full circumference of a circle. For a half circle skirt, the waist opening represents a semicircle, meaning the waist radius must be twice as large to yield the same circumference when laid flat.

The calculator estimates the minimum fabric required based on dimensions. Always buy an extra 0.25 to 0.5 yards/meters to account for pattern matching, fabric shrinkage after washing, and potential cutting mistakes.