I’m so delighted with this CashmeretteClub Gilmore Skirt and I’ll be making it again. I’ve never owned a circle skirt before so I was pretty excited to try it on when finished and it didn’t disappoint. I know you can calculate a circle skirt yourself but this pattern does all the work for you. And because it’s in 3 panels cut on the opposite to the normal grain, you don’t need hugely wide fabric.

https://www.cashmerette.com/pages/club

I’m wearing the skirt with the Cashmerette Concord T. The necklace is made by Corrie, another sewist:

https://corriesfancygoods.bigcartel.com/product/large-half-moon-necklace

I found it easy to get a perfect fit

The Cashmerette sizing advice and calculator are very helpful. I measured myself sitting down as suggested and I made size 20 waist grading out to size 22 hip. And the fit is perfect – first time! I particularly love the fit of the waist because is not too tight nor slipping around all over the place.

I added 3” to the length but I underestimated how much extra fabric this would mean I needed. So I had to piece the front panel. The only symmetrical way I could do this was to use it as the centre front panel and it worked out well. I don’t think it’s noticeable. I kept all the fabric pieces on the same grain.

One of the other things that made this easy to make was that I used Liberty cotton, a bit heavier than Tana Lawn. And it is so finely woven that even after I left it to hang for a day or two, it didn’t stretch out, so I didn’t have to even out the hem. I bought the fabric from http://www.craftystudio.ie when it was on sale.

I knew circle skirts can be tricky to hem so I looked through dozens of tutorials and blogs to look at techniques. I ended up using my tried and trusted method for hemming curves by moving the differential up one notch higher on my serger and going right around the hem. This gathers the hem almost imperceptibly and makes it easier to iron up without puckering. You need to test how many notches to go up – on some I’ve needed to go up to the highest differential.

With this method I don’t need to measure how much I turn up for a narrow hem. I Iron using the curving I’ve introduced with the serger to guide me – and I only turn up about 3/8” so it’s easy to see if it’s consistent.
I used two techniques I’ve learned from Muna and Broad. The pattern doesn’t include pockets so I drafted some based on the pockets in the Willandra Pants. They are anchored to the waist and assembled fully to one skirt piece only. This means they don’t flap around – they point towards the centre front.

Willandra Pants Sewing Pattern PDF

And on the waistband facing, instead of folding it up, I bound it with bias binding. I trimmed a bit off the facing when doing this to compensate for the seam allowance. The first time I did this was on the Muna and Broad Noice jeans. I find this method much easier because when you are stitching in the ditch you don’t have to worry about exactly catching the folded-under edge. No matter where you catch it there will be no raw edge – if you know what I mean!
I haven’t done many invisible zips because mostly I use elastic waistbands so I did have some trouble with this due to my inexperience. I had to redo it a few times as first I had my stitching so close to the teeth that I couldn’t open the zip, then I had it so far away you could see the zip from the right side. I got it the third time around. This is something I need to practise more.
The only instruction I found confusing was number 2 under ‘Finish waistband’. In the illustration, the zip is closed, but I eventually figured out that I needed to open the zip to complete this step. The only other non-elastic waistband I’ve done, I think, is on the Noice jeans, so I’m sure other people would know how to do this anyway.