A daunting task

As you know, I do Irish dancing and I'm to the point where I've had a solo dress for about the last year.  While owning a custom solo dress is a dream come true, as with most things, I start thinking about a more updated model.

After this last St. Patrick's Day, I decided that there was just something about my dress that needed to change, and that was the green sleeves.  I love the green and the lace pattern but I started to think that a solid colored top with green accents would be more 'mature' looking.  The problem? I don't have the money to go out and buy a new dress.  These dresses generally run between $1000-$2000 and I just can't justify that cost.  How could I update my current one?

I started to peek at the seams and thought it might be easy to just replace the current green sleeves with black velvet, but could I find the same thing?  The dressmaker had sent me a swatch for each fabric she used so I took the black velvet to the store.  JoAnn's was a bust so I decided to postpone my search for another day. We were off to buy food for the pets, when lo-and-behold, there was a Hancock Fabrics in the same parking lot!  I didn't know there was one within even a 10 mile radius so I begged the hubby to drop me off while he picked up animal food.

I promptly located the velvet section but alas, the black they had didn't match and mine had a bit of a stretch to it.  As a last resort, I asked an employee if they knew where I could find a similar fabric.  He started to lead me to what I assumed was the same velvet section, but no! There was a stretch velvet row!    I practically squealed with joy and instantly picked up the fabric to make the sleeves.

Draping the fabric over the current sleeve. Trying to gather courage.

Now, the hard part, do I really want to slice and dice my pricey dress?  I laid the fabric out but just couldn't bring myself to it. So... I called my mom.

My mom is a sewing master.  She went to fashion design school and while I was embarrassed by her skills when I was a kid (why couldn't I have a cheap, grocery store costume at Halloween like everyone else?) I've learned to value her expertise.

She came over and we instantly set to work.  She removed the old sleeves and traced a new pattern for the velvet version.  I removed the black embroidered cuffs from the previous sleeves and my mom reattached them to the new velvet sleeves.  It took a couple of hours but...

Voila! The new and improved dress!

I love the 'new' dress.  I think it looks sleeker and more elegant.  I'm looking forward to my next competition in a couple of weeks and testing out the revised dress.  What do you think?