Green Velvet Christmas Dress

The last time I was in Oklahoma, my mom gave me a few of her old clothes.  When she pulled this dress out of her closet, I got really excited.  Although it wasn't quite my style (and a little out dated), I fell in love with the gorgeous green velvet.

Looking back, I should have taken a before photo of the dress without the jacket.  I decided to transform only the long shell dress underneath.  Oh well... 

The first thing I did was cut off a foot or so.

My vision for this dress included quarter length sleeves.  The cut off bottom part would work lovely, but I'll get to that later.  I first put the dress inside out on my dress form, and sized it up.

I needed a quick sleeve pattern, so I removed the sleeves from the jacket.

I re-sized this new sleeve pattern by pinning it to the outside of the dress armhole. 

I then marked the edge of the sleeve, where I would need to trim.

Now that I had my new pattern, I used it on the cut off part of the dress.

I had just enough fabric for two sleeves.  Lucky!

 

To finish off the sleeves, I hemmed the bottom edges, and stitched them up the seams.  I then turned my dress inside out and put the sleeves, right sides inside with the armholes matching. I then sewed around the edges. 

 

Lastly, I hemmed the bottom of the dress by stitching the edges down and then turning them over again and stitching another round. 

Done!  This dress turned out beautifully, and it's perfect for Christmas.

 

 

I still have the lacy jacket (now sleeveless), and I have not idea what to do with it.  Any suggestions?