Make a Circle Skirt from a Tablecloth

A Fabulous Spin Dress from One Piece of Fabric

Jan 29, 2010
Melissa Howard

Twirling in a Circle Skirt - Melissa Howard

A pretty tablecloth makes the perfect skirt for spinning, dancing, or hanging out.

Have you ever seen a tablecloth that was just too pretty to put on the table or one that is the perfect color that you can never find for clothes? Does your little girl (or you, yourself for that matter) like to spin and twirl in the perfect twirling skirt? Why waste the beautiful fabric on a table where food stains are sure to happen, instead use it to make a fabulous, flirty skirt.

Supplies

Circular tablecloth
Measuring tape
Scissors
Co-ordinating thread
Co-ordinating grosgrain ribbon
Elastic
Materials for embellishing if you so desire.

Instructions

Measure your waist and hips.
Divide the hip measurement by 3.14. Divide the preceding figure by 2. This is your radius for what you will cut as your opening.
Fold the tablecloth in half and the fold it in half again so you have something resembling a quarter piece of pie.
Pin it securely in place.
Use a rule and measure and mark your radius distance from the point of the tablecloth several times. Hint: Make at least three marks; once straight from the point along each edge and one straight from the point into the middle of the angle.
Connect the dots in a curve so that if you imagine them multiplied on all four segments you would have a circle.
Cut along the line.
Apply a fray checking solution to the edge of the cut or use an overcast stitch along the edge to prevent fraying if the weave of the tablecloth is prone to fraying.
Use 1.5-inch wide grosgrain ribbon to create a casing for the elastic. Fold the ribbon in half, lengthwise and use an iron to crease a fold. Fold the ribbon over the raw edge of the waist and sew it on like binding tape. Hint: Sew the casing from the inside then if you don’t catch the opposite (outside) you can use some 1/8-inch wide ribbon as a decorative touch and catch what you missed.
Cut elastic to the measurement of your waist plus one inch. Feed it through the casing and sew the ends together overlapping them by the extra inch.
Decorate or embellish the skirt if you feel it is necessary.

Ideas and Suggestions

A great place for finding tablecloths is your local thrift store, charity shop, or yard sale.
Vintage tablecloths often have wonderful patterns and borders that just beg to made over into a circle skirt.
A plain t-shirt and flirty sandals will complete the outfit.
A large square of fabric can be cut and sewn the same way to make a circle skirt, you will simply need to trim the hem and sew it instead of it being ready made like it is in this tablecloth refashion.