Kielo Wrap Dress: From Knit to Woven Version

Every now and again I come across a pattern that is a wardrobe changer and this summer, Named Clothing's Kielo Wrap dress has been my dress of the summer.  I haven't worn my vintage style fit and flare dresses hardly at all.  Instead I've been flowing around in a couple of Kielo dresses and each time I wear one, I receive lots of lovely compliments- what's not to like!

So far I've made three, including one for my daughter which will make an appearance here so, and I have another woven one cut out.  I made a few changes to my original pattern to allow for a drapey woven rather than a jersey fabric so I thought I'd share the details and a few tips.

I wanted to allow a little more room to account for woven Joel Dewberry rayon challis that I was using.  I won this fabric from Rachel Pinheiro a couple of years ago, it came from Chrstine Haynes and I've been saving it for a summer dress- I was just waiting for the right pattern.   It's a lovely quality fabric in glorious colours and the print is called Dainty Daisies.

I cut the fabric on a board on the floor as rayon challis is very drapey and easily falls off tables and raised surfaces.  I added a generous quarter inch on the front centre line which is placed on the fold and the same on the back pieces which are cut separately.  Rayon fibres easily snag - so I tried some Merchant & Mills Entomolygy pins that I've had for a while.  They are long, sharp and flexible and until this point I hadn't found a particular use for them although I do fancy them for pinning lace when sewing bras.  The name is mysterious and alluring until you find out that Entomology pins are classically long, black, delicate pins used for displaying insects - Merchant & Mills intend them for silks not butterflies.  Anyway, I found them perfect for rayon. I also used a size 70 Microtex needle.

The construction was the same for the seams, darts and split as my jersey Kielo.

When it came to the neck and armhole bindings I knew that there was no way I was going to cut lots of bias rayon strips- it slips and slides too much for me to make a good job of it.  Instead, I had a couple of metres of pink viscose jersey binding- Eternal Maker stock this in lots of colours.  Viscose and rayon are related fibres so it worked well with the rayon.  It is creased and folded like woven bias binding so I unfolded it and re-pressed it along the length to make double folded binding and followed this Grainline Tutorial for flat bias necklines.  To allow for the stretch, I cut the binding a ¼" shorter than the neck seam measurement (for woven it's usually ⅛") and it made  a soft, neat finish.  I use a stiletto tool to hold binding away from the seam when under stitching.

A Kielo dress is a pleasure to wear. It's cool and breezy, the waistline is forgiving and very handy for summer celebrations - July is a big birthday month for us so there's lots of family meals and cakes to fit in.   Both my Kielos roll up and easily fit into overnight bags so are perfect for holidays and travel. Thanks to my husband for these pics, our local beach made a great location for a very quick fashion shoot!

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