Your Everyday Skirt Starts Here: 8 Best Skirt Sewing Patterns

Store-bought skirts are made for a standard body, and very few of us have one: the waist fits and the hips pull, or the length is just wrong. A skirt is also one of the easiest first garments to sew, because it only has to fit at the waist and the hips, and you can make one in an afternoon. The right skirt sewing pattern makes the rest easy, with a clear size chart, a waistband that suits your skill level and a length that suits you.

What separates the eight skirts here is mostly the cut and the way each one closes at the waist: a pencil skirt with darts and a zipper sits next to a wrap style that needs almost no sewing. Once the list is done, I go through how waistbands differ, where each shape has to fit, the math behind a circle skirt and which fabric weight suits which skirt.

Skirt Sewing Pattern Picks from Mini to Midi

Matching sets stayed off the list, as did listings that sell one size without instructions. Each pick is a different silhouette, from a mini to a midi.

TL;DR: Eight cuts, from a wrap skirt that needs almost no sewing to a pencil style with darts and a zipper: a tiered midi, a full circle in 26 waist sizes, plaid and denim A-line minis, a jersey midi drafted to your measurements and a fitted style with a ruffle hem.

• Abbie Midi Skirt – Best tiered skirt
• Full Circle Skirt Sewing Pattern – Best circle skirt
• Plaid Mimi Skirt – Best A-line mini
• Denim Mini Skirt Sewing Pattern – Best denim skirt
• Pencil Skirt Sewing Pattern PDF – Best pencil skirt
• Jersey Midi Skirt Sewing Pattern – Best knit skirt
• Ballet Wrap Skirt – Best wrap skirt
• Ruffle Tiered Skirt Pdf Sewing Pattern – Best ruffle hem skirt

Quick Comparison

Elastic, Flat or Wrapped: How the Waist Closes

The waistband is where a skirt gets easy or tricky. An elastic waist pulls on, so it needs no zipper and forgives a size in either direction. A flat waistband sits smooth and looks tailored, but it has to match your waist and it needs an opening, usually a zipper. A wrap skirt overlaps and ties, so one skirt can fit a range of waist sizes.

Two elastic-waist tutorials in the top of Google use elastic 1 to 1.5 inches wide, cut to the waist measurement or an inch shorter. The right length also depends on how much your elastic stretches, so thread it through, pin the ends and try the skirt on before you stitch the elastic closed. The skirt piece, and the elastic at full stretch, must still pass over your hips.

In this list the pencil skirt is the only one that names its closure: darts, a waistband and a zipper. For the others, check the line drawing and the materials list before you buy notions.

Where Each Skirt Shape Has to Fit

• Pencil: fits at the waist, the hips and the vertical distance between them, so the waist measurement and the hip measurement both matter. A slit or vent gives walking room.
• A-line: an A-line skirt is fitted at the waist, then widens in a straight line and skims the hips. Both A-line minis on the list are in this group.
• Circle and half circle: these fit only at the waist, which is why the circle skirt pattern is sized by waist alone.
• Gathered and tiered: often built from plain rectangles. A gathered skirt with an elastic waist is sized by the hips, measured around the widest part, because the fabric has to pass over them before the elastic draws it in.
• Wrap: the overlap adjusts, so the fit is the least exact of all.

This is also why a skirt is a common first garment for a beginner. The fit happens in one or two places, not all over the body the way it does on a dress. If the short skirts here are your style, my mini dress sewing patterns carry the same length into a whole dress.

The Math Behind a Circle Skirt

A full circle skirt is a ring of fabric. The waist opening is a small circle whose radius is your waist measurement divided by 2 x pi (about 6.28), and the hem sits one skirt length further out. A half circle skirt uses a radius of the waist divided by pi, so it takes far less fabric and swings less. These are the bare geometry: before drafting, patterns adjust the number for ease, seam allowance and the way the waist is finished.

Fabric width limits the length: a long full circle rarely fits in one piece, so patterns often split it into two halves or quarters. The 26-size pattern on this list does the radius for you, which is the main reason to buy one instead of drafting.

Parts of a circle skirt are cut on the bias and stretch as they hang. Let the skirt hang for a day before you level and hem it, and use a narrow hem, since a deep one will not turn up smoothly on a curved hem.

Fabric Weight for Each Kind of Skirt

Gathers and tiers need a soft, light woven with some drape, such as rayon challis, cotton lawn or a lightweight linen. Stiff quilting cotton gathered at the waist tends to stand out from the body rather than fall. The pencil skirt lists cotton, twill or suiting, which hold the narrow shape.

Denim is a bottom-weight fabric: sew it with a denim needle and a slightly longer stitch, and go slowly over the thick layers at pockets and the waistband. The jersey skirt asks for stretch jersey, finished with a stretch stitch or a twin needle so the hem does not pop. Prewash all of them the way you will wash the skirt.

Waistband and Fabric Questions

How many yards does a simple skirt take?

A simple A-line or elastic waist skirt to the knee often fits in 1 to 2 yards of 55 to 60 inch fabric, depending on your hips and the length. Tiered and circle styles take more. The fabric chart in each pattern is the number to buy by.

What is a basic skirt pattern?

Usually three pieces: the skirt pieces are a front and a back, plus a waistband, with a zipper or elastic to close it. Pockets in the side seams are a common add-on.

Which of these skirts are A-line?

Two of them: the plaid mini with side pockets and the high-waist denim mini with front and back pockets. A longer A-line can be made from a midi length by keeping the same angle at the side seams.

Are there plus size skirt patterns here?

The circle skirt goes up to a 120 cm (about 47 inch) waist, and the jersey skirt is drafted from your own measurements, so it is not limited by a size chart. The pencil and ruffle skirts stop at XL, so check their charts. All eight are drafted as skirts for women, though the jersey steps also work for a child.

A Rule for the Waistband

Compare your waist and hip sizes on the chart first. If they fall two or more sizes apart, an elastic casing or a wrap is the safer pick here, because a flat waistband would need grading and fitting at both points. If they match one size, a flat waistband with darts, as on the pencil skirt, is a fair skirt sewing pattern to learn fitting on. For trousers with the same waist choices, see the skirts and pants section.

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