Adding a Flutter Sleeve Question?

Maybe you could find a soft pink chiffon for the sleeve that will go with the purple and put a small machine hem in the sleeves and maybe sew a narrow pink or lavender lace on the sleeve hem. HTH Barbara in SC

Adding a sleeve to a finished sleeveless armscye will be ...challenging. To be done right, the existing facing should be removed, the new sleeve sewn in, and the raw edges finished, either with serging or Hong Kong finish. I *would not* just insert the sleeve into the finished armscye.

Finding chiffon to match will probably be impossible. Ask me how I know... For DD's wedding attendants, each woman was free to choose her own design, and I created patterns from sketches. I looked locally for over five months at every shop large and small plus online and finally found "close enough" chiffon to match the Duchesse Satin for two of the dresses:

Have you considered having all the dresses custom made?

Good luck!

Beverly

I was wondering if instead of adding a sleeve to a ready made if they would consider a short jacket or cape with a flutter sleeve.That would be a lot easier to do and you could probably get away with a slightly different shade of purple.Here's a couple of ideas. The second one is for a shrug.

Excellent suggestion! I like that McCalls pattern.

Beverly

Beverly

Thanks! Juno

And, if OP found a pretty lace in a close color match, the result might look like:

I like the lace idea for the shrug also. Very pretty, very elegant. That will work if the dresses are very sipmple. Juno

Here's a few more designs I thought might work

Another style that I've used before is view E in Simplicity pattern 5252. Make in lace of a coordinating color or if possible, the same color. Emily

I have one pattern that is for either a sleeveless or flutter sleeve dress. What I did for that dress was once I was to the point of finishing the armholes, I hemmed the sleeves while they were still flat with the narrow hemmer foot for my machine. It does a 1/4" hem. That looked really nice. Then once the sleeves were hemmed, I set them in the armholes. Then the armhole and the seam allowance of the sleeve got bound with bias tape. So it's very feasible that you could do this to an existing dress. You would have to first strip the armhole of any facings or bindings on there. That's a PITA, but if you're careful, you can do it. Just don't stretch it.

Matching a solid purple is going to be a major pain. A couple of things you might look at doing. If the Mfg. offers wraps to go with the dresses, order a few of those. They will come closer to matching than anything you will be able to buy. Remember that all the dresses were cut and sewn out of a "job lot" of fabric the Mfg. got from a fabric mill just for those dresses. Most likely, you will never match it exactly.

OR...suggest to your DSD that you look for a Printed chiffon that comes *close* to the color of the dresses, or at least compliments that color. What I would do is not only make the flutter sleeves out of the print, I would do other accents on the dresses with it. Make some bias binding and do the necklines. If they have an empire waistline, then make more bias tape, turn it into wide piping and put it between the bodice and the skirt. Yes, it's a major overhaul on the dress to do something like that (the waist is; the neckline would be easy.) But that would tie it all together and make the dresses appear to have been designed that way.

Prints and patterns are pretty "in" for formal wear right now. So that might be the easiest way to solve the problem. Those are the only two things I would suggest to a client that came to me with this challenge. And I would probably push for the print. Printed chiffon is pretty easy to find. ;) Way easier than finding a solid chiffon that matches the color exactly.

Good luck and let us know what she decides to have you do!

Sharon

The bride-to-be decided to go with a bolero type jacket. She found a net material with silver thread running through it. Since the sewing will be straight forward and won't need any difficult finishes, she will be doing the sewing.

Sounds like a very nice solution. She might want to test that "net material with silver thread running through it" against her or their skin to be sure it's not scratchy.

Beverly

I'm glad she decided on something easy to do. Pre-wedding is always a jittery time in a young lady's life. Emily