A lined dress is a tailored garment that needs to fit perfectly in order to get the full effect of the high quality of craftsmanship put into its creation. If you have a lined dress that fits pretty well, but seems to have armholes that are too big or needs to be taken up in the shoulders, you can remedy this problem fairly easily without compromising the tailored look. The key is to undo the current stitching very carefully and then to resew the seams after you alter the shoulders. With a little patience and attention to detail, you can do this with ease.
Put on the dress and stand in front of a mirror. Pinch the shoulders to the desired adjustment. Place a pin in each pinched shoulder seam to hold it in place. Check your adjustment in the mirror to be sure it is correct.
Take off the dress and turn it inside out.
Mark the lining on both sides of the pins. This mark will be where you will make the new seam later. Take the pins out.
Rip open the shoulder seam of the lining plus about 3 inches down the armhole seams using the seam ripper. Be careful to catch only seam stitches in the point of the seam ripper and not any of the threads of the fabric.
Mark the point on the dress where you need to make new shoulder seams by folding back the lining and matching the marked points on the lining with the same point on the dress.
Pull the lining down and out of the way of the dress. You may want to pin it down to the dress to hold it out of the way as you work.
Rip open the shoulder seams of the dress plus about 3 inches down the armhole seams using the seam ripper.
Match the marked points on the dress and pin the shoulder pieces of the dress together. Machine stitch.
Trim away excess fabric. Press the seam open.
Match the marked points on the lining and pin the shoulder pieces of the lining together. Machine stitch.
Trim away excess fabric.
Open both the lining shoulder seam and the dress shoulder seam and pin the two together. Pin the lining and the dress together around the armhole as well.
Slip stitch the lining to the dress.