Kielo Wrap Dress

The Kielo wrap dress is a pattern that has been on my sewing bucket list for such a long time. Seeing it come up time and time again on my Instagram feed and falling in love with everyone that appears. It is the most beautiful dress and I have never seen anyone look anything other than stunning in it.

If you have somehow never heard of it, the Kielo wrap dress comes from Named Clothing. The concept of it is so simple, a long jersey dress with extra fabric at the waist that goes into two ties that wrap around creating a really stunning shape. The way it wraps at the waist means that it doesn’t matter if you’ve got a tummy you’re trying to hide as the way the fabric below the ties drape creates this wonderfully flattering shape. The dress is sleeveless but named clothing have a link on their site to a free sleeve pattern to give that extra option. There are also lots of pattern hacks available all over the internet for neckline variations and even a jumpsuit variation.

For my first attempt at the Kielo I used this beautiful jersey fabric that I picked up in a Minerva crafts sale. I refer to this sort of make as a working toile, as I use a cheaper fabric so that if it goes wrong I’ve not wasted much money on fabric but if it goes well I have a wearable garment. The other advantage to this is that generally speaking a toile should be made of a similar fabric to that which you intend to use which for non-stretch projects is fine but when a stretch project needs a toile I don’t always have suitable fabrics to hand. So the moral here is always check the sales for pieces of fabric like this as the fabric for this dress cost me a grand total of £6!

The pattern is available in both a printed and pdf version. I love a pdf pattern because of the instantness of it, I like to be able to spontaneously decide I want to make a garment at 9am on a Sunday or 9pm on a Wednesday when the shops aren’t open and pdf patterns have enabled me to do this several times now. I predominantly use them for childrenswear as it requires less pages to be printed but for the Kielo it was great to just be able to go for it. If you’ve never used a pdf pattern the concept is simple, you print it at home and stick all the pages together to create the printed pattern (some pattern companies provide a version that can be printed on larger format printers at a print shop but I’m usually using them because I don’t want to wait so that never suits me)

This pattern is super quick and simple to make, it’s just 3 pattern pieces (front, back and tie) and because it’s jersey I sewed the majority of it straight on the overlocker. With just a few darts and the neckline and armholes finished with a narrow hem, you’ll be done in no-time at all. There is nothing hiding in the instructions that will fill you with fear. I would thoroughly recommend this pattern for anyone from beginners to expert sewers as the style is wonderful and its such an easy sew.

The only thing I will change before I make another is the size I chose. After measuring myself against the size chart I was between sizes (unsurprisingly) and decided to go with the size that best fit my bust (as it is my largest part). What this resulted in was more of a crossover with the wrap than I’d have liked, I should have gone with one size down to get a better fit on my waist as due to it being jersey the fabric would have stretched easily over my bust (as in the size I did there is definitely room on the bust).

This dress leaves me longing for the summer, its going to be such an easy and comfortable wear. I’m also excitedly planning my next one!