u/Galeaaa

I bought this beautiful Zimmermann silk dress in an extremely discounted price because whoever owned it before did some serious damage to it. I know the nature of the very delicate fabric and I'm ok with a somewhat visible mend to make it wearable but I was wondering if anyone with more experience than I do can suggest how to approach this? :')

I was thinking of adding a similar silk fabric patch to reinforce the armpit areas and hand sewing it (I own a sewing machine but such delicate fabric makes me nervous). I'm open to sending it to get repaired professionally but I might get turned down bc of the damage? (I already was turned down once)