Hello Hive

It's needlework o'clock and I decided to try my hands to some needles and threats. Having had some good nap yesterday I decided to decluster my wardrobe and I found this pretty dress sitted idle.
I have bought the dress at a thrift store but it had some challenges that is restricting me from rocking the dress.

First the necklines were too deep in a fashion that I do not like

And then secondly sleeves were too long and also has some form of lace at the lower end of the sleeves that are not comfortable and often scratching my skin.

To transform this, I first took out the sleeves.

Next I stitched up the shoulder part with half an inch so that it can pull the dress neck higher up. This will reduce the deepness of the neck as we already have the neck much wide enough.

I unstitched the sleeves and thought about why to do with them for a while, then the idea of embellishments of the dress with the lacing came to mind.

Cutting out the lacing part of the sleeves I placed it in the plain dress in different directions to see how best this will sit on the dress.
I carefully graced out the lace part of the sleeves and separated them from the full length sleeve.

This is what a fabric gum looks like. When working with this ensure that you spray enough water on the clothes after placing the gum where you want it to be.

Then I got a thin slice of fabric gum and attached it to the lace on the dress and ironed it out neatly.
A steam press iron is perfect for this task.

From there I didn't want the dress to remain as sleeveless hence I got another piece of net fabrics I can use as sleeve.
After measuring out about 19" length of the fabric and according to my width I cut out the sleeve here.

The initial sleeve has a handband at the top and while I was trying to attach the sleeves go the dress my machines gave way. Both the manual and industrial refused to work and at the edge of tearing my dress.
My machines need servicing from an engineer after using them for about two years now.