Easy Cap Sleeves

Today I've got an easy way to add some cap sleeves to a sleeveless child's dress. (Note: You could do the same thing with an adolescent or adult dress as well if you can find lace trim wide enough).

I bought this lovely purple dress (pictured to the left, sans the sleeves) on Walmart.com for $5.

Alas, there were no sleeves, but I bought it knowing that I am capable of making sleeves if I put aside my laziness. Still, I really wanted to do this the easiest way possible (read: laziest way possible - I mean, the dress has been hanging in the closet unaltered and unworn for a month).

So to minimize effort, I thought that if I could match the lace trim around the neckline with some trim I have in my lace hoard I wouldn't have to 'make' my own sleeves - I could just sew the lace in place and voilà!

And this is what I found in my lace box, right on top:



I thought it was pretty much perfect and I only had to spend a total of two minutes in what I have endearingly christened 'the Pit of Hell' - our storage unit - finding it.

Double win.

I took a few minutes to position it the way I wanted it (you can gather it if you want - I didn't on this one. You can see in the picture that this particular lace already has gathering stitches in it - a lazy sewers dream). I just laid it in there straight and tapered the ends in at the underarms so there wouldn't be chafing.

Tapering under the arms:


I actually sewed it to the little lip on the innermost edge of the hem fold, if that makes sense. It only gave me about 1/8 of an inch worth of fabric to work with so it was pretty tight. But you can't see the stitching from the outside, which is exactly what I wanted!

Serger-like stitch on hem fold:



Front:


Back:


Sweet and perfect. My girl just looks radiant in purple.

Shirt Alterations

A friend of mine came to me a few weeks ago and asked me if I'd be willing to make some alterations to three shirts she had bought for her daughter's upcoming mission. Two of them had sheer sleeves and the other was one of those really long button up shirts that need to be six inches shorter.

Now, I've never done any alterations before but I looked at the shirts and I decided that yes, I could do it despite having zero experience. So, I accepted the challenge and did an exceptional job - if I do say so myself.


The first thing I did was the new hem since it was the easiest and I've done some hemming before on the dresses I made for the girls. I did have to figure out how to replicate the curve at the bottom of the shirt but that turned out to be not too hard at all.

And then came the sleeves. I wouldn't say I was dreading it, but I definitely wasn't looking forward to possible total failure. Thankfully I have a certain book to help me out a bit on where to begin.


I had to make a pattern that would match the existing sleeve. I took some measurements and made a sketch of what it should look like. Then I made an actual sized version on paper, which I then cut (as you can see in the picture) to add room for gathers. I added 1/4 an inch between the pieces when I laid them out on the pattern making material and added about 1/4 an inch on the top and bottom where I had the gathers. I finished the pattern by adding 5/8 of an inch sewing allowance around.

Then I made a test sleeve.

And it was perfect.

I can't tell you how good it feels to get it right the first time.

From there I cut out the real sleeves and sewed them in as a lining.Voila!

You can see the new lining below, hiding in the sleeve. And I pulled the lining out a little bit.


And there you have it. My first attempt at clothing alterations which turned out to be highly successful.