DIY spring ready houndstooth dress

Unfortunately living in the Northeastern part of the US requires a summer and winter wardrobe, so lately I've been on a quest to maximize that concept by making dresses and skirts with removable and expandable hemlines and linings. The idea of packing all my winter clothes away for the summer just really doesn't sit well with me. While thinking of a concept for this dress, I kept thinking spring but considering January is in full swing that wasn't going to work, so I came up with a way to transition this dress nicely into spring with it's removable sleeves. The fabric I used was this wool blend houndstooth left over from this skirt. The pattern used for this dress was this Butterick 5948 view D shirt pattern with the following alterations:

Added 8" to the hem
Added a 9" invisible zipper
Added a 2" hem band
Added a 2" crescent seam at the neck
Cut the sleeve 10" from the top, added 8" to the width of the sleeve, interfaced the sleeve and add pleating to create a puffy sleeve
Add 3" to the bottom of the sleeve, sew the sleeve together adding elastic at the top of the sleeve.

Dress-DIY
Clutch- Botegga Veneta
Cuff- Lanvin & AV Max
Boots-Givenchy


Shop the look




Glamorous Day Dresses · Carnet de Mode Clutches · Roberto Cavalli Boots