Dress doctor - a sleeve fix

A fixed dress!

A few weeks ago I was having a Skype conversation with my son and daughter-in-law.  They were coming soon to visit on their way to a wedding near by.  She was a bit stressed, because she needed a blue or green dress to wear as one of the attendants.  Everyone else had chosen their dress and she didn't have much time left to find one that would look good with the others. I suggested a blue dress she already owned, but she said the sleeves were too tight and she couldn't lift her arms to toast the bride and groom or dance ... and she loves to dance.

I said "I can fix that! Bring the dress and we will figure something out."

So, one afternoon during their visit, the guys went out to play racquet ball and we got to work on the dress.

It's a lovely, really well made dress that fit her great, but ...

I wanted to try just opening up the armpit area to put in a gusset, first.

Releasing the sleeve under the arm helped, but not enough. You can see how it pulls.

this really is the highest she could lift her arms. These were the skimpiest sleeve caps I'd ever seen and on top of that, she has broad shoulders!

As I said, this dress is really well made. Everything is lined and the stitches are really small AND the fabric is dark. I had to be very careful picking open that seam.

You can also see how it has extra fabric at the shoulder. The sleeve cap is so tight that it makes the whole bodice rise up. The only solution is turn it in to a sleeveless dress, which she thought would look good.

I dove into my bias box to see what I had for an armhole facing. This bias was the right width, but too light in color.

This bias was a better color, but was too wide AND there wasn't enough for both armholes.

So, I pull out all my blue cottons to cut my own bias, but nothing matched better than the second navy bias tape.

So ... "make it work!" I carefully cut the wide bias down the center ...

Mobility problems solved!

and sewed it with the smallest seam allowance I felt comfortable using (1/8"), I was able to make a nice finish for the armholes on her dress. I then pressed it to the inside and slipped stitched it to the lining.

And here is the pretty gold belt she will wear with it.

You know, I think the way modern sleeves are cut is really silly.  You can't lift your arms without lifting the entire garment. Back when dresses fit really tightly and ladies were corseted sleeves had lots of extra fabric in the underarm area to allow for movement.  When I was working in professional costume shops they developed a special sleeve for dance costumes that had a gusset built into it to allow for full arm movement. 
 
Tomorrow I'm going to show you how sleeves use to be.