Add sleeves to a sleeveless dress

My Aunt Cathy is such a beautiful lady. The dress she picked out for her daughters wedding was stunning. It was made of cotton with a draping chiffon deep purple fabric. It had silk and pretty sparkles at the top. Gorgeous!

before

Front view of the top of the dress

Back view of the dress

The only problem was that it was too low in the front and in the back for her liking, and she really wanted to add sleeves. When I pulled up the chiffon overlay that the dress had, I realized the cotton material underneath was more than large enough for me to steal a piece out of it. If that's not the case for you just take your dress or shirt or whatever with you to the fabric store and match it up with some fabric that would go well with the piece you are adding to.

I simply found the seam on the cotton skirt, un-stitched it all the way up to the bodice, and placed the same sleeve pattern that I used for the bridesmaids dresses right on top of it and cut out 2 sleeves.  Then I cut all the way up the seam and down to the bottom until I made the skirt seam a straight line again and stitched it back up. No one ever would have noticed that I took a large piece out of the skirt. Then I just flipped the dress inside out, then pinned the sleeves on and attached them to the dress. I hemmed the sleeves and that was it. I did also attach more material to the top of the silk in the front and the back to make it more modest, per Cathy's request.

It turned out beautiful.  I do wish I would have taken more pictures of the work in progress. But she looked absolutely gorgeous..

The above picture of the bride and her mom was taken by Andrea Tuft Photography. Check out her website here. She is the very best photographer around!!