Plus Size Figure Skating Dresses, Made to Your Measurements

Why we draft, instead of grading a pattern up

A ready-made plus size is almost always a small pattern enlarged by a fixed percentage. That maths works on paper and fails on a body: the armhole deepens in the wrong direction, the waistline climbs higher than it should, the bust dart points at the armpit instead of the apex, and the skirt gets wider without getting deeper. The dress fits the hanger and not the skater.

We do it the slow way. You send eleven numbers - height, weight, girth, bust, underbust, waist, hips, back length, sleeve length, upper arm and skirt length - and the pattern is drafted from those. The waist seam lands on your waist because it is cut to your waist, not to a percentage of someone else's. That is the whole difference, and it is the reason a made-to-measure dress sits properly at a size 6 and at a size 26.

What actually changes on a larger dress

• Bust and support. Soft cups or an inner support band can be built in at no extra cost, and the bodice is drafted to your underbust so the band sits under the bust instead of across it.
• Waistline placement. On a graded pattern a larger size sits higher; here it is placed where your natural waist is, which is what makes the torso look long rather than short.
• Upper arm. The first place a scaled sleeve fails. We measure the arm separately and cut the sleeve to it, so you can raise both arms without the seam pulling.
• Skirt depth and hem. Panels are calculated for your height, so the hem lands where you want it and the skirt keeps its swing instead of standing out stiffly.
• Illusion mesh tone. Sheer panels are matched to your skin from a photo - on deeper tones the mesh is chosen slightly warmer so it does not read grey under rink lighting.
• Crystal placement. Density is planned around the line of the dress, not used to cover it. More is not automatically better on a larger canvas.

Any style, cut in your size

There is no separate plus size range here with three safe shapes in it. Every dress is cut to order, so a large size figure skating dress can be a sleeveless practice dress in black or a fully stoned competition dress — the size does not decide which designs you are allowed. Long sleeve, sleeveless, high neck, open back, lace, velvet, ombre: all of it is drafted on the same table, from the same numbers.

The same applies to what the dress is for. A plus size competition dress, a plus size ice dance dress and a plus size practice dress differ in fabric weight, skirt depth and how much the bodice is boned — not in whether we will make them. Tell us the level you skate at and we will say what that changes.

How to measure, if you have never done it

Measure over the underwear you skate in, keep the tape level, and do not hold your breath - a dress cut from a sucked-in measurement will be uncomfortable for four minutes and unwearable for a programme. The size guide walks through all eleven points; if a number looks wrong to you, send it anyway and tell us, and we will ask before we cut.

If your measurements do not fit neatly into any standard row on any size chart, that is not a problem to solve - it is the exact reason this page exists.