Is there a way to make a weight paint deform the mesh from a view in edit mode

I can’t figure out weight painting for the life of me. Every time I try the characters knees clip through the skirt. The skirt can never move out far enough to look as though its moving with the leg. Its like the weight painting isn’t strong enough. Now I was wondering if there’s a way to make the mesh deform based on the bone’s rotation and the current view in edit mode. Like to copy the vertex positions from the view in edit mode and apply that to the weight painting so it deforms the exact same way - and returns to its original position when the bone is at its resting position. Pictures included to explain what I mean.

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