Turbans, Tassels and Tattoos! - Costuming

The Tiered Skirt

Materials Required, Calculations & Cutting Layout

This three tiered skirt pattern makes a nice full skirt with the classic "ten yard" hem.

There are two versions: a plain skirt in one solid colour, and a skirt with a 7.5cm (3") coloured trim along the bottom edge.

The top tier has a casing for elastic. There are no curves in this skirt - just straight seams and a LOT of gathering!

Selection of Fabric:

Skirt - Medium weight rayon, rayon challis, cotton or cotton blend
Contrast trim - Bright coloured brocade, jaquard satin, satin, rayon brocade, etc. (preferably without metallic threads)
Some fabrics shrink when washed. ALWAYS pre-wash your fabric before cutting out the pieces and making your skirt.

Materials Required:

Skirt - approximately 4 to 5.5 metres of 112cm fabric. (4 1/2 to 6 yards of 44" fabric). The exact amount of fabric needed depends on the length of the skirt. You will need to do your calculations before you buy your fabric. See below for calculation instructions.
Contrast trim - approximately 1.5 - 2.0 metres of 112cm fabric. (1 3/4 - 2 1/2 yards of 44" fabric)
Elastic - 20mm wide (3/4") non-roll elastic. Your hip measurement plus 10cm (4")

Calculations - Tier Widths:

In a classic three tiered "10 yard" skirt, each tier is twice as wide as the previous one. The bottom tier is approximately ten yards wide - just over 9 metres.

So, the width of each tier should be:

Top tier - 2.25 metres (2 1/2 yards)
Middle tier - 4.5 metres (5 yards)
Bottom tier - 9 metres (10 yards)

Please Note: I am just explaining about the width of each tier now. We will work out the actual length for each tier later. The length that you will need to cut will depend on the final length that you need for your skirt.

Many fabrics are 112cm (44") wide. As it turns out, that is a really useful width for making a tiered skirt, because...

2 widths = 2.24m (88" - 2.4 yds) which is about the width needed for the top tier
4 widths = 4.48m (176" - 4.9 yds) which is about the width needed for the middle tier
8 widths = 8.96m (352" - 9.8 yds) which is about the width needed for the bottom tier

I make use of this and cut the following equal sized fabric widths:

TWO widths for the top tier
FOUR widths for the middle tier
EIGHT widths for the bottom tier

What if your fabric is wider than 112cm (44")? Your skirt will be fuller, but you can still apply the exact same rule.

If your fabric is 122cm (48") your skirt will be 9.8m (10.7yds)
If your fabric is 145cm (57") your skirt will be 11.6m (12.7yds)
If your fabric is 154cm (60") your skirt will be 12.3m (13.3yds)

Calculations - Tier Lengths:

Now, we just need to work out the length of your tiers. All three tiers are the same length. The final length of the tiers depends on how long you want your skirt to be. There are two sets of calculations. One set is for a plain skirt. If you want a coloured trim on your skirt then it changes a little. The second set is for a skirt with a coloured trim on the bottom.

Plain skirt:
Length of skirt (hip to floor)	............. cm / inches
Add 10cm (4") for tier seam allowances, elastic casing and hem	............. cm / inches
Divide total measurement by three	............. cm / inches
This final measurement is the length you need to cut for all of your tier pieces
Skirt with coloured trim:
Length of skirt (hip to floor)	............. cm / inches
Add 10cm (4") for tier seam allowances and elastic casing	............. cm / inches
MINUS 7.5cm (3") for the coloured trim	............. cm / inches
Divide total measurement by three	............. cm / inches
This final measurement is the length you need to cut for all of your tier pieces

How Much Fabric to Buy?

Now that we know the tier lengths, we can work out how much fabric you need... simply multiply your tier length by 14. That's it!

As an example, I am 167cm tall (5'6"). My tier length worked out to be 32cm (12 1/2").

32cm (12 1/2") multiplied by 14 equals 4.48 metres (4.9 yards). I bought 4.5metres (5 yards) of (112cm / 44") fabric for my skirt.

Cutting the fabric:

Please note: Some fabrics shrink when washed. ALWAYS pre-wash your fabric before cutting out the pieces and making your skirt.

Skirt:

Pre-wash and iron the fabric.
Lay your fabric down flat on a smooth surface.
Measure out 14 tier lengths - as calculated previously
Mark with a pin or tailor's chalk. Do not cut yet.
Re-check your measurements and make sure you have enough fabric for all 14 lengths.
Now cut FOURTEEN full width strips of fabric for your tier pieces. All pieces are identical.

Coloured Trim:

Your coloured trim might be a different width to your main fabric. So, you need to calculate the correct yardage needed. Here's how:

Width of the hem of your skirt	............. cm / inches
Divide the hem measurement by the width of your trim fabric	.............
This tells you how many pieces you will need to cut to make your trim. Round the number up to the next whole number. For example, if it worked out to be 8.2, then call it 9 widths. Now, you need to allow extra fabric for your seam allowances (0.6cm / 1/4" seams), plus an extra 2.5cm (1") for overlap of the final seam. This is usually only about an extra 15cm (6") or so. If the number you calculated was rounded up to the next whole number, then that should give you plenty of extra fabric for those allowances. If however, your number was really close to a whole number (like 8.8 or 8.9), then it won't give you enough extra. In that case you'd need to add in a whole extra fabric width. For example, if my calculation worked out to be 8.2, round that up to 9. That is plenty. However, if my calculation worked out to be 8.8, round that up to 9. That little extra 0.2 might not give me quite enough fabric, so I'd need to round it up to 9, and then add a whole extra width, making it 10 in all.
Round up your calculation to the next whole number. (add 1 extra if necessary)	.............
Multiply this number by 18cm (7 1/4")	............. cm / inches
This is the amount of fabric you need to purchase for your trim.

Pre-wash and iron the fabric.
Lay your fabric down flat on a smooth surface.
Measure out the required number of 18cm (7 1/4") lengths
Mark with a pin or tailor's chalk. Do not cut yet.
Re-check your measurements and make sure you have enough fabric for all lengths.
Now cut full width strips of fabric for your trim pieces. All pieces are identical.