Circle and pleated skirt pattern generator

How to make a circle skirt pattern

1. Measure your waist where the skirt will sit (snug, not tight) and the length from there to where the hem should fall. For an elastic waist, measure your hips at the fullest part too: the waist edge has to pass over them.
2. Pick the skirt type (full, three-quarter, half, quarter or double circle), type the waist and length, and say whether your fabric is folded or open and how wide it is. The radii, the maths and the panels update as you type.
3. Check the seam allowances at the waist, side seams and hem, and choose a straight waistband or an elastic casing.
4. Look at the fabric layout and buy the length it gives, in metres or yards. If the skirt was split into panels, the page says why.
5. Print the tiled PDF at 100 %, measure the 10 cm check line, trim and tape the tiles using the tile map, then pin the piece with its grain line along the fabric (and its fold line on the fold) and cut as many as it says.

How to plan a pleated skirt

1. Choose Pleated skirt, then knife pleats (all turned one way) or box pleats (pairs turned away from each other), and either the pleat depth or the number of pleats; the page works out the other.
2. Type your waist, the length and the fabric width. The page gives the rectangle to cut, how many panels it takes on that fabric, and the length to buy.
3. Cut the panels as rectangles with the length running along the grain, so every pleat hangs straight.
4. Print the marking strip at 100 % and lay it on the waist edge of each panel. Transfer each line with a pin or chalk: red solid lines are fold lines, black dashed lines placement lines, grey dotted lines inner folds. Extend the lines down the panel with a long ruler if you want pleats pressed to the hem.
5. Sew the panels together on the dotted inner-fold lines at their edges, so every seam ends up hidden inside a pleat, then fold each fold line to its placement line, pin, baste across the top and attach the waistband.

What it cannot do

• It does not fit a body for you. It uses the waist and length you type; it does not know your hips (except for the elastic option), your posture or how low you wear it. Make a test skirt in cheap fabric if the fit matters.
• It cannot predict how the hem drops. Most of a circle skirt is on the bias, which stretches as it hangs, so the hem comes out uneven; let the sewn skirt hang and level the hem before you finish it. How much it drops depends on your fabric.
• No pockets, zips, linings or facings are drawn. Leave a gap in a seam for a zip; the side seam allowance is the place for it.
• Circle skirts and straight pleated skirts only. No gathered, gored or A-line skirts. Pleats are drafted on a rectangle, so they are the same depth at the waist and the hem; it does not taper pleats to fit the hips, so if your hips are much bigger than your waist the pleats spread open over them.
• Pleats are full depth only. The depth and the spacing are tied by the 3:1 ratio (the hidden layers just meet), so you cannot ask for shallow pleats with gaps between them. Typed by depth, the count is rounded to a whole number, so the spacing at the waist moves a little (70 ÷ 23 = 3.04 cm, not 3).
• It does not draw pleats on a circle skirt, does not plan accordion or sunray pleating (they are set by heat in a pleating machine), and does not allow for a zip: the closing seam sits on an inner fold, and a zip there needs a little extra allowance.
• It does not nest pieces. Pieces are laid one after another (or side by side when they fit); turning a piece to tuck into another's curve can sometimes save fabric. One-way prints and napped fabric (velvet, corduroy) may need more, as every piece must point the same way.
• An elastic casing on a curved edge has to ease in a little when it is turned down, because the edge it is folded onto is shorter; wide elastic on a very full skirt lies flatter in a separate band.

How the pattern is worked out

A circle skirt is a ring of fabric: the waist is the inner circle and the hem the outer one. If the skirt uses the share f of a full ring (1 for a full circle, ¾, ½, ¼, or 2 for a double circle), its waist line is 2πf × r long, so the waist radius is r = waist ÷ (2πf). The hem radius is R = r + length, and the hem is 2πf × R round. Seam allowances go outside these stitching lines: the cut waist line is the waist allowance inside r, the cut hem line the hem allowance outside R, and each straight seam edge is moved out by the side seam allowance.

A worked example. A 70 cm waist and a 50 cm length as a full circle: r = 70 ÷ 2π = 11.14 cm, R = 61.14 cm and the hem is 384.2 cm round. With a 1 cm waist allowance and a 1.2 cm hem allowance the cut lines are at 10.14 cm and 62.34 cm. On 150 cm fabric folded in half (75 cm) the skirt is two half circles, each a 62.34 × 63.84 cm piece against the fold, so with the waistband it takes 142.4 cm: buy 1.5 m or 1⅝ yd. On 112 cm fabric (56 cm folded) a half circle no longer fits, so it is cut as four quarter circles, 2.4 m in all.

Where the defaults come from. Waist 1 cm, side seams 1.5 cm and hem 1.2 cm (a sewn narrow hem; 1 cm for an overlocked rolled hem) from Hannah-Rose Smith's half circle skirt drafting guide on the BERNINA blog (fetched 2026-10-21). Fabric widths of 36 to 108 inches from Wikipedia's article on bolts of cloth (usually 45 or 60 in; fetched 2026-10-21). The waistband cut as the waist plus seam allowances long and twice its height plus two seam allowances high, with a 2.5 in band as the example, from Treasurie's circle skirt tutorial (fetched 2026-10-21). The casing (turn under ¼ in, fold down the elastic width plus ½ in) and the 1 in elastic overlap from Utah State University Extension's elastic waist skirt sheet, and drafting an elastic waist to the hip from MADE Everyday's circle skirt tutorial (both fetched 2026-10-21). Other patterns use other allowances; change any number to match yours.

How the pleats are worked out

A pleat of depth d folds 2d of fabric out of sight: under to its inner fold and back out again. A box pleat is two knife pleats back to back, so it folds 4d, twice as much. At full depth the hidden layers just meet, which is the 3:1 ratio sewing references give for both kinds (three inches of fabric for every inch of finished pleat): knife pleats then sit d apart at the waist and box pleats 2d apart. So with the depth typed in, the number of pleats is the waist ÷ d for knife pleats or the waist ÷ 2d for box pleats, rounded to a whole number; with the number typed in, the depth follows the other way. The rectangle is the waist plus the number of pleats × the fabric each one folds away, plus a side seam allowance on both ends, by the waist seam allowance + the length + the hem allowance.

A worked example. A 70 cm waist with knife pleats 3 cm deep: 70 ÷ 3 = 23.3, so 23 pleats, 70 ÷ 23 = 3.04 cm apart at the waist. Each folds away 2 × 3 = 6 cm, so the skirt is 70 + 23 × 6 = 208 cm wide before pleating (2.97 times the waist; the 3:1 rule alone would say 210 cm) and the rectangle is 211 × 52.2 cm for a 50 cm skirt. One pleat repeat (3.04 + 6 cm) is 9.04 cm of flat fabric, so 150 cm fabric holds 16 pleats with a seam allowance at each end: the skirt is cut as 2 panels of 12 and 11 pleats, 111.5 and 102.5 cm wide, laid one after the other, with the waistband beside them. That is 104.4 cm of fabric: buy 1.1 m or 1¼ yd. With box pleats 3 cm deep each pleat folds away 12 cm, so there are 12 of them, 5.83 cm apart, and the skirt is 214 cm wide flat.

Where the panels join. Each panel holds whole pleats and both of its seams fall on an inner fold, the crease at the back of a pleat, so after pleating the seams are hidden. The marking strip shows the waist edge of the widest panel at true size; a narrower panel stops at the long dashed line.

Where the pleat rule comes from. The 3:1 ratio for knife pleats, and box pleats as knife pleats back to back with the same ratio, from Wikipedia's article on pleats (fetched 2026-10-21). Treasurie's pleat sewing guide (fetched 2026-10-21) puts most pleated projects at two to three times the finished width, the lower end being shallower pleats with gaps between them, which this page does not draft.

Questions

What is the circle skirt formula?

The waist is the inner edge of a ring, so the waist radius is the waist divided by the share of a full circle the skirt uses, times 2π: full circle waist ÷ 2π, three-quarter 2 × waist ÷ 3π, half waist ÷ π, quarter 2 × waist ÷ π, double waist ÷ 4π. The hem radius is the waist radius plus the length. A 70 cm waist gives 11.14 cm for a full circle, 22.28 cm for a half and 44.56 cm for a quarter.

How many yards of fabric do I need for a circle skirt?

It depends on the hem radius and the fabric width, so this page lays the pieces out on your width and measures the run. A 70 cm waist, 50 cm long full circle with a waistband takes 1.5 m (1⅝ yd) of 150 cm fabric folded, but 2.4 m of 112 cm fabric, because the pieces no longer fit across and the skirt is cut in four panels. The total is rounded up to the next 0.1 m and the next ⅛ yd.

How do I add seam allowance to a circle skirt?

Add it outside the stitching lines: take the waist allowance off the waist radius, add the hem allowance to the hem radius, and move every straight seam edge out by the side seam allowance. The defaults here are 1 cm at the waist, 1.5 cm at the seams and 1.2 cm at the hem, from a published half-circle skirt tutorial; change any of them. The radius formula itself uses the stitching line, so the finished waist is the waist you typed.

When does a circle skirt need panels?

When one piece is wider than the fabric. On folded fabric each piece lies against the fold, so it has to fit in half the width. A full circle with a 62.3 cm cut hem radius fits 150 cm fabric as two half circles, but on 112 cm fabric (56 cm folded) it becomes four quarter-circle panels. Each extra seam adds seam allowance to both panels it joins, and the page says why it split.

What is the difference between a full circle and a half circle skirt?

A full circle skirt is a whole ring and hangs in deep, even folds; a half circle is half a ring, with a waist radius twice as big, so it is fuller than an A-line but flatter at the hips and needs much less fabric. A quarter circle is close to an A-line. A double circle is two full rings joined, very full, and takes the most fabric.

How much fabric does a pleated skirt need?

About three times the waist for full-depth knife or box pleats, the 3:1 ratio, plus seam allowances. Each knife pleat of depth d folds 2d of fabric out of sight; a box pleat is two knife pleats back to back, so it folds 4d. A 70 cm waist with knife pleats 3 cm deep has 23 pleats (70 ÷ 3, rounded), each taking 6 cm, so the skirt is 70 + 23 × 6 = 208 cm wide before pleating, 211 cm with two 1.5 cm seam allowances. On 150 cm fabric that is cut as two panels of 12 and 11 pleats, and a 50 cm skirt with its waistband takes 1.1 m.

Can I make a half circle skirt with an elastic waist?

Yes. Choose Elastic casing: the waist line is then drafted to your hip measurement so the skirt pulls on, the casing depth is the elastic width plus ¾ inch, and the elastic is cut to your waist plus 1 inch for the overlap. With a straight waistband instead, the page gives the band's cut size.