making sleeves from a sash

while shopping yesterday my sister found this dress at old navy. when she tried it on she loved everything about it besides the sleeve (or lack there of) it doesn't flatter the arm, and shows your shirt underneath in order to make it modest. (hence, the white shade shirt i'm wearing in the above image) so... i told her that if she bought it, i would make the sleeve for her out of the sash/tie belt. here's how:

supplies:
dress with a matching tie belt
unpicker
matching thread
pins
something to make a pattern out of (wrapping paper)
scissors
measuring tape

First i unpicked the sash. if you didn't care about the width of the sleeve you could just cut it at the seam, but, i wanted to save as much width as possible so i unpicked it.

next i made my sleeve pattern (i use wrapping paper for all my patterns because it has the one inch grid on the back which makes it really easy) to make the sleeve pattern you measure the armpit hole from shoulder to bottom of hole, then double it. (mine was 21 inches) add 10 inches extra for the gathering (optional), then add a seam allowance of 1/2 inch. which means it was 31.5 inches total in length. and 5 inches wide at the widest part (5 inches was because that was how much width i was given after i had unpicked the sash) from there i just sketched the bell curve of a standard sleeve. and cut two out (view images below)

next you do a rolled hem on the straight edge of the sleeve.

then do a basting stitch all along the curved edge of the sleeve about 1/2-3/4 inch in from the edge of the material (not on the very edge)

gather your material by pulling on just the bobbin thread of the basting stitch, gather until it measures 21.5 inches long. (or as long as your armpit hole plus a seam allowance)

sew the two small ends of the bell curve together making a loop. do this to both sleeves.

then flip your dress inside out, and flip your sleeve right side out. place the sleeve inside the dress arm hole.

pin together (try it on to make sure it looks right before you sew) if everything looks right, sew outside your basting stitch.

trim the excess so that the armpit is not bulky

flip dress right side out, iron the sleeves so they do not have the crease from when they were a sash and your done. I think it looks better with a belt anyway. :)

other news: my best friends are having their birthday today!! so, instead of writing another gushy post about how much i love them, go ahead and just click here to see what i wrote to them last year. :)