Welcome back to our Sewer Feature, aiming to highlight great sewing being done in the Irish dance community and to inspire those who may be considering sewing Irish dance costumes for the first time. Watch our blog and social media for new interviews dropping periodically, and share your own experience in the link at the bottom of the page!
Name: Samantha Nation
Where do you live?
Chicago, IL (US)
Tell us about your sewing experience. How long have you been sewing? How did you start? What do you usually sew?
I learned how to sew right after my daughter was born in 2015. My mom is an amazing seamstress and taught me the basics. For a few years I sewed baby/toddler clothes, and some things for myself, but I went back to work when she was two and then really didn’t have a lot of time to sew for years. I only recently got back into it when I became interested in making her Irish dance dresses! I also made the waistcoat pattern for a young man that dances in her dance school-first thing I’ve made for a boy so that was a little intimidating!
What’s your favorite thing you’ve ever sewed?
Definitely her most recent solo dress!
How did you/your family get involved with Irish dance?
My daughter took ballet and tap from age 3 to 9, but I took my daughter to a trial class at an Irish dance studio where we used to live when she was four – she enjoyed it but not enough to continue with it at the time. Then we saw Riverdance in 2023. Back then we lived in Arkansas and the March 2023 tornado had hit our neighborhood. Our house was okay, but we didn’t have power for a week and were staying with a friend, so Riverdance was really the highlight of the week. After the performance she wanted to try Irish again and really fell in love with it! She did her first feis in November 2023 and became hooked on competing. She earned her first solo dress in May 2024 but we purchased a lovely used one for her to start in. She got to wear that to do Nationals in 2024 but then we moved and she had to do a six month ban, so she then wore it from March – October 2025.
What pattern did you use for the costumes you’re sharing today?
4th Edition Solo Dress, Waistcoat, + some embroidery files
What method did you use to achieve your designs?
For both the waistcoat and the solo dress I used my embroidery machine – I embroidered the lapels of the waistcoat, and the dress of course is heavily embroidered. The flourishes are the [Earnest Threads] flourishes but the dragons and waistcoat lapels are from two other creators on Etsy. I used Inkscape and a free trial of Hatch to put everything together and figure out the multiple hoopings. Both pieces are made from microvelvet with satin linings. I gemmed the dress almost entirely with Maxima Preciosas and used some of the Dreamtime gems in the dress and the crown. The collar has some SS30 sized pearls and then also some teeny tiny pearls. The crown is also one of the [Earnest Threads designs].
What was your favorite part of the process?
I loved figuring out how to give my daughter the vision she wanted. She really wanted it to look like she was wearing a shirt under a sleeveless dress but still have it all be one dress. I had to brainstorm and troubleshoot out how to do that over several weeks-I would just lie in bed thinking about it, and talk to my mom A LOT on the phone about ideas for how to pull it off. Definitely could not have done it without her to bounce ideas off of and give me tips and tricks. She even spent a few hours on the phone with me one night teaching me how to put a zipper in because I have avoided doing that in all the time I’ve known how to sew! I also knew I wanted a skirt that had more movement than some of the stiffer skirts in irish dance, so I enjoyed experimenting with that and ended up slicing up the skirt pattern to make it a more circle skirt style, and then used horsehair braid in the hem instead of any stiffener. It made for a much lighter, more comfortable dress that my daughter enjoys wearing much more than her old dress.
What was the most challenging part for you?
The most challenging part was 1000% getting the embroidery to line up. The front dragon is an asymmetrical design and for about a week I really struggled with getting it to line up between the multiple hoopings with the filigree in a way that looked symmetrical. My machine can do 8×11 inch designs which is great for a home machine but not big enough to do this all in one hooping! I ALMOST gave up and changed the design but I finally, finally got it and I’m so glad I pushed through.
Where do you get your design inspiration? Where did you get the inspiration for this costume?
For the last year I’ve been saving pictures of dresses that we like even one element of in my phone to use for inspiration. Sometimes it might only be a sleeve, or the collar, or the embroidery design. For instance, we saw one dress that had beautiful copper embroidery and I knew that would look so beautiful on the teal color my daughter loves, then we saw another dress that wasn’t in the color scheme we liked, but had sort of an undershirt look to it, and then another dress that we didn’t love the overall dress, but it had chiffon bishop sleeves. Put that all together with some fantastic embroidery files and you end up with the Franken-dress of my daughter’s dreams!
What would you tell sewers thinking of making a costume for the first time?
1. Absolutely make a muslin. I’ve actually made two muslins and two dresses-back in April my mom visited and we made a blackout version of the dress that has no gemming and that was great for sort of getting a good understanding of the dress. It also showed me things I needed to do differently when I made the fully glammed out dress (making the skirt longer in the back! Doing a sway back adjustment!)
2. You don’t have to have an embroidery machine or even do the freehand embroidery-you can absolutely achieve a beautiful look with fancy fabrics or appliques and gems.
3. Half of making a beautiful dress is getting a perfect fit and it’s worth taking the time to get it there! Your seam ripper is your friend-don’t get discouraged if it takes a few tries to get it right, and don’t be afraid to phone a friend (or a mom if you’re lucky enough to have a super talented seamstress mother like me!) for advice!
What’s your next sewing adventure?
I have no major plans ahead-planning on taking a nice rest after Oireachtas! but I have enjoyed sewing again so I imagine there might be some clothes for myself or my daughter in the future.
–
Interested in being featured? We’d love to hear from you whether you are a first-timer or a seasoned sewer! See details and submit your story in the form below. Chosen profiles will receive a 20% OFF coupon to use on our website.
https://buff.ly/3KibsVf
