Altering Waitress Dresses for "Bus Stop"

For my waitress looks I knew exactly what I wanted, and I was not going to compromise on my designs. I found great light blue and white checkered dresses that buttoned all the way down the front and had short sleeves. After my first fittings I knew I needed to add a little bit of wiggle room for the actresses to be comfortable and to guarantee that none of the buttons would have gaping in the front. I also needed to add plain white trim to the sleeves to get the exact look I wanted for the diner dresses.

First I needed to remove the ties that were attached at the side seams of the waist line. With aprons over top the attached ties were in the way and created a more lumpy look at the waistline. Armed with a seam ripper I removed the ties. Since I didn't have matching fabric and I didn't want a solid color addition to the side seams. I then ripped the ties open, ironed them flat, and serger the edges. These pieces are what I used to add an inch to each side seam on both dresses. I opened the side seams from the edge of the sleeve all the way to the waist line.

Left: After removing the ties.
Right: After sewing one side of the pieces to a side seam.

Once I had sewn all of the additions to the side seams I moved on to adding the plain white fabric to the hems of the sleeves. First I measured the sleeve openings and then cut out my white fabric. I sewed it so it was three layers thick, enough for the white to be bright and really pop against the pattern. I pinned the rectangle along the edges and stitched it together. I pressed the seams up and then top stitched along the sleeve hems so all of the seams would lay flat.

Left: Pinning the white to the sleeve hem.
Right: Finished look at the sleeve and side seam
where additional fabric was added.