Some projects in life require a lot of trial and error. This dress is one of those projects.

The entire dress ended up being made twice, and not to be outdone, the photoshoot required a reshoot as well. At least there was consistency throughout!

I have loved this navy and tan houndstooth fabric from the first moment I received the swatch. It is a knit wool and it is as soft as could be. No itchiness to complain about here!

I sketched out this design a couple of months ago and was motivated to put it into production by a friend’s wedding. There was a full day of events planned, including a bridal luncheon and rehearsal dinner. I wanted something that was comfortable and classy that would carry me throughout the day. This dress certainly fit the bill and it left plenty of room for all of the yummy food 😉

The intent of this dress was to play up the dual-sidedness of the fabric. Originally, the dress was going to be reversible. I am not going to lie, I thought I was a genius when I thought this out. Sadly, it did not work out as planned. There was too much bulk to fit into the french seams I originally wanted to do. I couldn’t figure out how to get the reverse edging to work on both sides. The knit also wasn’t quite stretchy enough to go without a zipper. Scrap bodice #1!

I moved along and remade the bodice. It highlights the houndstooth with bias strips of the reverse side runnning along the seams and hems.

I then got to work on the skirt. Ah, the skirt. It was originally cut on the bias, but that ended up adding too much movement and weight. Then I couldn’t figure out how to get the pleats to hold the way I had envisioned. That was until I was working on a set of drapes that had inverted pleats!

It was like a lightbulb went off in my brain! I love when different projects coordinate together to help you figure things out. That was the ticket. Once I recut the skirt on the straight of grain and stitched in the inverted pleats about 3″ down, it was perfect. It turned out just how I had imagined the whole dress to look. Success!

To finish the look I added an exposed metal zipper to have a little surprise pop in the back. And of course I put pockets, because pockets are one of the greatest inventions to mankind.

Let me know what you guys think of the dress!