One of my biggest pet peeves in Irish dance dresses is how we have lots of seams and areas in the bodice that we can let a dress in or out, but we can’t match this in the skirt! If the skirt portion of the dress can’t be let out, that means we can’t adjust the bottom of the bodice either. Lots of dress-wearing Irish dancers are of an age where they are continuously growing, but that doesn’t mean we want to make or buy a new dress every year. Even us adults may find ourselves growing outwards, even if we’re not getting any taller 😉
I went to let out my old dress last year only to discover that ‘Past-Mattie’ had seemed pretty optimistic I would stay that size forever. I was able to squeeze out a shy inch in the hips, but there really wasn’t any more seam allowance to be found. Luckily it was enough, but that isn’t always the case!
A couple years ago I came across a used dress with a construction detail I hadn’t seen before. I don’t know if this was done by the dressmaker or in the course of later alterations, but I loved it. I’ve since worked this into a number of dresses and would like to share it with you!
This is a technique for adding “side-seam” let-out to the skirt of your solo dress. Now the first problem with this is that the skirt doesn’t have a side seam! It has the ‘side pleat’, which does join the front and back skirt pieces, but it’s too shaped and structured to be truly alterable. And if we put a traditional seam somewhere in the skirt, we’d see a big stripe of “outside” fabric against the (usually contrasting) lining every time the dancer kicked.
What I’ve found to do instead is to draft an extra 2-3 inches (5-8 cm) of width into the back skirt panel, just a bit behind the pleat. This is similar to where the side seam of the bodice lines up, and is usually covered by the dancer’s hands. This extra width can be folded into a tuck and stitched all the way down, so you still maintain that close fit over the bum.


To draft this, find your skirt back (styles and pattern #’s shown for 4th edition):
– Style I = Piece 17
– Style II = Piece 19
– Style III = Piece 21
– Style V = Piece 27
– Style IV (There is so much width in this skirt that you should be able to let out with what already exists, and adding more may make it too bulky to sew to the bodice. Alter the frame only, not the skirt panel and use Method 2 below).
As we will cut the pattern, you may want to trace a copy to preserve the original. Measure 2-4 inches to the left of the Side Pleat fold line, and draw a line down to the hem. It’s best if the line is fairly perpendicular to both the top and bottom edge (it will be impossible to be perfect in both regards, just get close). Cut the pattern along this line. Pull the pieces apart 2-3 inches, and tape other paper into the gap. Ta-da, this is our extra let-out! Preserve both sides of the drawn line, so that when you cut out your fabric, you can mark the placement of this tuck.
You will need to do the same thing with the Skirt Frame Back A (piece #13). To make sure you’re cutting in the same place, line up the “Dropped Waist Seam Line” indicated on the frame with the top edge of the skirt pattern piece.
Once our skirt panel is constructed (after Step 30 in the 4th Ed.), we will fold the skirt back along the line closest to center-back, then bring that fold to meet the other line. Thus all of our extra has “disappeared”.
[The dress shown below used Skirt View II, which has a small pleat in the middle. This is unrelated to the task at hand – remember, we are working closer to the side pleat!]
Now, when it comes to the sewing/construction, you have two options:
Method 1. You can baste the skirt panel to the frame (such as in step 32 or 42), then tuck the entire thing frame included! (photo below)
PRO: To let the skirt in or out in the future, you only need to unstitch a small portion from the bodice rather than the whole skirt back.
CON: This creates a bulkier tuck in an area that can already be a bit bulky because of the bodice side-seam. You may want to press your bodice side seam to one side rather than pressing open, to move the bulk away from this skirt tuck.


Method 2. You can create the tuck in the skirt panel only, not the frame. The excess drafted into the frame will end up in the center-back, as shown below.
PRO: This is less bulky at the place where we are doing the tuck, making it easier to sew the skirt to the bodice.
CON: In order to let out this area in the future, we will need to unstitch the entire skirt back from the bodice, in order to access that extra frame circumference.


Regardless of using method 1 or 2, you will top-stitch down the edge of the tuck from the outside. I like to use a machine baste (longer stitch) so that it’s easier to remove in the future. Both methods will look the same from the outside, and because the dancer’s hands will be here, it’s likely no one will ever know!
As much as I like this technique, I don’t use it on every dress.
This technique works best for dresses that:
– Use Skirt I, II, or V (in the 4th Edition). These are flatter panels without extra pleats to compete with.
– Are made with thinner fabrics, like gabardine, satin, crepe, etc.
– Have a design at the center-back of the skirt you don’t want to interrupt by letting out or in at the center-back seam.
I don’t recommend this technique for:
– skirts made out of velvet, sequins, or other bulky materials
– dresses being sewn on lightweight machines that struggle with bulk

Best of luck and happy sewing! If you have tried this, I’d love to hear how it worked for you. Comment below with your experience!