Мама быстро дошила рукав рубашки, а потом домыла посуду.

The prefix до- adds the idea of finishing something or doing something to the end.

• шить = to sew
• дошить = to finish sewing
• мыть = to wash
• домыть = to finish washing

So this sentence does not just say that Mom was sewing and was washing. It says she finished sewing the shirt sleeve and then finished washing the dishes.

This often suggests that the action may already have been in progress, and now it was brought to completion.

Yes. Both are perfective.

In Russian, perfective verbs usually express:

• a completed action
• a single whole event
• a result

Here, the actions are presented as completed:

• she finished sewing
• she finished washing

Their imperfective partners would be:

• дошивать = to be finishing sewing / to finish sewing repeatedly or in process
• домывать = to be finishing washing

The sentence uses perfective because it tells a sequence of completed events.

Because the subject is Мама, which is grammatically feminine singular.

In the past tense, Russian verbs agree with gender and number:

• masculine: -л
• feminine: -ла
• neuter: -ло
• plural: -ли

So:

• мама дошила
• мама домыла

If the subject were папа, you would normally get masculine agreement:

• Папа быстро дошил рукав рубашки...

Even though папа ends in -а, it is grammatically masculine.

Because it is the direct object of дошила, so it is in the accusative case. But for many inanimate masculine singular nouns, the accusative looks exactly the same as the nominative.

So:

• nominative: рукав
• accusative: рукав

That is why there is no visible change here.

Because рукав рубашки means the sleeve of the shirt.

Russian often uses the genitive to show:

• possession
• relationship
• part of something

So:

• рукав = sleeve
• рубашки = of the shirt

This is similar to English the shirt’s sleeve or the sleeve of the shirt.

It implies that she finished sewing the shirt sleeve.

The important nuance is that до- often suggests the action was not complete before, and now it has been completed.

So it can sound like:

• she had been sewing the sleeve, and then finished it
• the sleeve still needed work, and she completed that work

It does not usually mean she sewed a sleeve onto the shirt from the beginning. For that kind of idea, another verb such as пришить might be used in the right context.

They are different verbs with different prefixes and meanings.

• дошить = to finish sewing something
• пришить = to sew something onto something else; attach by sewing

So:

• дошить рукав = finish sewing the sleeve
• пришить рукав к рубашке = sew the sleeve onto the shirt

In your sentence, дошила focuses on completion, not attachment.

More exactly, it means finished washing the dishes.

Again, the prefix до- gives the idea of bringing the action to completion. It may suggest:

• some dishes had already been washed, and she finished the rest
• she was washing them and then completed the task

If you simply said мыла посуду, that would usually mean was washing dishes or washed dishes in a more process-oriented, imperfective way.

Because it is a direct object in the accusative case, and посуда is a feminine noun ending in -а.

For most feminine nouns in -а:

• nominative: посуда
• accusative: посуду

So:

• домыла что? → посуду

Yes, Russian word order is relatively flexible.

быстро дошила is a very natural neutral order. It means quickly finished sewing.

You could also hear other orders, depending on emphasis:

• Мама дошила рукав рубашки быстро...
• Мама рукав рубашки быстро дошила...

But these may sound more marked or emphasize different parts of the sentence.

In neutral narration, Мама быстро дошила... is very natural.

А потом is a very common way to link actions in a narrative.

Here а does not necessarily mean a strong contrast like but in English. It often works more softly, like:

• and then
• and after that
• then

So the sentence flows as:

• Mom quickly finished sewing the shirt sleeve,
• and then finished washing the dishes.

Using а потом can make the transition sound smooth and natural in storytelling.

Because Russian has no articles.

English distinguishes:

• a sleeve
• the sleeve

Russian does not use separate words for that. The exact meaning comes from context.

So:

• рукав рубашки could mean a sleeve of a shirt or the sleeve of the shirt
• посуду could mean the dishes or just dishes, depending on context

In this sentence, the context makes it natural to understand them as specific things.

Russian often omits possessive words like my when they are obvious from context.

So Мама very naturally means Mom or my mom in many situations.

Adding моя is possible, but it often sounds more explicit or emphatic:

• Мама быстро дошила... = natural, everyday
• Моя мама быстро дошила... = my mother specifically, maybe contrasting with someone else’s

Yes, stress matters in Russian pronunciation. Here are the main stresses:

• Ма́ма
• бы́стро
• дошила́
• рука́в
• руба́шки
• пото́м
• домыла́
• посу́ду

Notice that in дошила́ and домыла́, the stress is on the final -ла́. That is useful to learn early, because stress in Russian is unpredictable and can change from word to word.