Summer linen Kielo Wrap Dress

Kielo wrap dresses have been my go-to garment for the summer.  I've made three for myself and one for my daughter.  I've also had more requests to make these for other people than any other clothing item I've made.  I've made one for my daughter- next on the blog post list, but I don't tend to sew commissions, it's a minefield of pricing and fitting.  

Each Kielo I've made has been from a different fabric.  The first was a rayon blend jersey, the second was woven rayon and now this version is sewn in linen.  Purported to be Ralph Lauren by the seller at Preston market last year, it is a beautiful quality fabric.  It's been sitting waiting for a pattern that will make the most of it's picture print and although cutting out a Kielo dress on a single direction fabric is a little wasteful, it was worth it.

This one definitely looks better loose and with the ties at the back.  The print design is better displayed and the informality suits hot days.  It's still fitted at the shoulders and the rest of the dress flows as I walk  When tied to the front, it looks a little bulky and origami like- almost Kimono style.    I made it in the same way as the woven rayon version, including the jersey binding. 

I was in London last weekend visiting my brother and I took three Kielo's as my wardrobe for the warm weather.  I was even stopped in the street by a stranger wearing this Kielo and I undid the ties to show her how it worked!

Thanks to my bro for taking the pics.  This followed a lovely afternoon spent at St Pauls cathedral followed by a walk by the canal and a walk through London Fields, a beautiful park in Hackney filled with people barbecuing, playing games and enjoying the weather.

Happy days, the peak of late summer, good times.

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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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Kielo Wrap Dress in Daisy Cotton Rayon Jersey

This post first appeared at the Girl Charlee  blog and as I've now made two more of these dresses I thought I'd post it here before following up with some more info about the pattern, plus a rather lovely giveaway is coming up shortly too.  Meanwhile, this is a Named Clothing Kielo wrap dress in some gorgeous ditsy floral cotton/rayon jersey from Girl Charlee.  since Girl Charlee UK was launched last June, I've collaborated regularly with Mark and the team.  They are a lovely company to partner up with- no pressure, lots of freedom and great service.  Mark got in touch recently to ask if I'd like to sew anything up fromtheir newer arrivals.  I like having a big range of different knit fabrics to choose from and I'm a sucker for ditsy florals whether in quilts or clothing so this mint/pink daisy on navy fabric was definitely calling my name so I said yes, I had a week off work and a pattern idea...

At Maddie's bra making workshop a few week's back I met the lovely Shiona and she was wearing a Kielo wrap dress by Named Clothing  in a Ponte grey/black wide stripe.  I recognised the design straightaway but it was the first time I'd seen it in person.  It looked so elegant and easy to wear, I was smitten.  It shows what a difference it can make to see something in real life.  I always like seeing Named Clothing's new season look-books and admire the freshness and modern look of their designs but from the original pattern picture, it was not a dress I imagined on myself.  It looked narrow and restrictive  in the skirt - not what I like in a dress.  And then when I saw Shiona's I realised that is was quite the opposite, fitted at the top, flowing elsewhere and a dress that I could happily sit sewing in, walking Lottie or wear going out in the evening for drinks (a rarity but you never know!).  Girl Charlee are currently expanding their pattern range and this will include stocking PDFs of Named Clothing designs.

Stats:

• Named Clothing Kielo Wrap Dress.  Sewn in size EU 36/US size 4/UK size 8 size.  Length reduced by 6¼" measured upwards from the original hem to maintain the curved hem shape.  Mark for the top of the split moved upwards accordingly.
• Fabric used: Pink mint daisy on navy blue cotton/rayon jersey blend, 142cm wide 2.5m.  Width is just under the required 150cm but pattern pieces fitted with a little room to spare. 
• Because the pattern pieces are placed to fit together in opposite directions to make the most economic use of fabric length, this dress is  best sewn with non-directional prints, prints that work vertically in both directions or solid fabrics. This print is mildly directional but is so busy that you cannot tell the back is running the opposite way to the front.  Stripes would look good but require a lot of accurate pinning.  Drape and lightness works well with this style as it reduces bulk round the waist and hips.
• Pattern: Needs to be traced.  Pattern is nested, two sizes at a time and for the front and back you  trace the top of the dress, make a matching mark, then switch the tracing 180 degrees to match up and trace the skirt section.  There are only three pieces so the tracing didn't take long and there are only 12 pages to print and join together so although it's not for everyone, I like this method a lot! (I hate printers and printing!)
• It is a bit of a challenge to trace between sizes because of the way the PDF patterns is arranged on the page.  However on this style,  it's the bust measurement that is most critical as the waist hip area is very wide to allow for the wrap.  The lower skirt could be tapered out easily for extra width at the hem.  
• As the fabric is quite slippy for marking dart lines with chalk, I used tailor tacks and soft pencil for the front and back darts.  I have a tailor's tack video here.

Handling and Sewing the Fabric

Prewash - Always prewash clothing fabric following any manufacturers instructions if you can find them!  Some knits benefit from a light press but this one was fine.  The fabric is very drapey so it will slide off surfaces easily.  I cut it on the floor, laid out on a Durabac board equivalent to this.  Take time to get the fabric flat and even and the selvedges together- this step can take a long time with knits.  This fabric does roll at the edges.

Sewing - Sewn on a mix of Bernina record 830 sewing machine with walking foot and size 75 stretch needle and using a small zig zag (length 1, width 1) for open seams/split and a Brother 1034d serger for closed seams and edging.  It could be sewn entirely on a sewing machine and edges do not need finishing as they won't unravel, it just looks neater. 

Instructions - The pattern instructions are quite brief as is the Named style.  There is a lot of detail in the first few pages covering methods which apply to most garment sewing, assembling PDFs etc.  There are only a few pieces to fit together so not a huge amount of instruction is needed.   There are a few diagrams which are most relevant to sewing up with a woven fabric.  There are no particular instructions for knit fabrics.  I sewed the neck and arm band edges using an excellent tutorial on Colette pattern's website.  using a zig zag stitch to catch the binding. A double needle hem would've been a struggle to sew with the layers.   I raised the armhole by approx. ¾" as the weight of the wrap was showing a lot of side bra!  I was careful at all times to support the fabric as I was sewing.  The drapey fabric has a bit of weight to it so use your knee, table or ironing board to help hold up different sections as you sew.

Stages in making the back split:

• Applying stretch interfacing- ½" wide strips along length of split plus ½" above
• Serging the split edges starting 2" above the split notch/mark on each side
• Serving the centre back hem to the point where the separate serged edges begin
• Stitching the spilt down using straight stitch- following pattern instructions, then turning hem
• Adding hem using double needle, ¾"interfacing and sewing the hem approx. ⅝" from folded edge.

Extra techniques

Interfacing for knit fabrics (Perfect fuse sheer) used on split and hem.  For the hem, I cut the strip so the stretch is horizontal to create extra 'give' in the hem.

Interfacing tape (Vilene) used on back shoulders.  This has a line of stitching built into the interfacing to stop the shoulders stretching.

This seam can then be pressed to the back to prevent irritation.  You could also use woven tape or clear elastic.   

Binding tutorial: Colette's excellent 'How to Bind Knit Edges": 4 Complete Methods for neck and arm holes.  I used the 'clean finish' method and cut the bands cut according to their calculations and sewn using a ⅜" seam allowances (as is the rest of the dress).

How you hem jersey garments depends on three things:

1. The fabric- how thick, how stretchy?  
2. The hem function- does it need to be strong enough to stretch?  Straight stitches will pop one when stretched. 
3. Appearance: how do you want it to look?  Zig zag?  Copying ready to wear garments with two lines of stitching, created by using a double needle for stretch fabrics?  I use Hemline (Klasse) size 75, 4.0mm (gap between the needles) twin stretch and a wooly nylon thread hand wound on to the bobbin to help with elasticity and stretch.  For more details on this technique, see here. 

I sewed up five different hem samples to show you the difference when adding stretch interfacing, using wooly nylon, how close to the raw edge the hem is stitched, cutting away excess, using a double needle, using a zig zag.  All samples were sewn using a walking foot and Gütermann thread on the thread spool and all were pressed- click to see extra large! 

Hem details

1. Double needle

Interfaced

Tension increased.  On my machine it is a +/- wheel (see below)  Most machines have 4.5 as their average tension setting, the increase would be to around 6 or 7 maybe higher.   On my Janome Horizon, my tension is set at 9 for a double needle knit hem.  The aim is to have the wooly thread forming a well-defined zig zag stitch on the back, not pulled too tight and two lines of straight stitching on the front

Stitch length 3.5

Wooly nylon in bobbin (hand wound)

Sewn at edge of 0.75" (three quarter inch) hem turn up

Note the tunnelling- the bumpy ridge between stitching line, even after pressing.

Tension- arrow shows wear the vertical line is usually positioned

2. Double needle

Interfaced

Tension increased

Stitch length 3.5

Wooly nylon in bobbin (hand wound)

Sewn edge at approx. 0.5" (half inch) of 0.75" hem turn up

Excess hem then trimmed off

No tunnelling!  This method used on the dress,

3. Zig zag stitch

Stitch width 3, length 1.5

Interfaced

Extra thread on surface for tension whilst sewing- the zigzags sew over the top of this whilst you are holding it tautly,  pulls out for easy removal afterwards (this idea came from my  1974 Bernina 830 record handbook)

Normal tension setting

Sewn edge at 0.5" (half inch) of 0.75" hem turn up
Excess hem then trimmed off

Sewing zig zag using a surface thread for tension, removed afterwards

4. Zig zag stitch
Stitch width 3, length 1.5
No interfacing, no extra thread tension as in example 3
Normal tension setting
Sewn edge at 0.5" (half inch) of 0.75" hem turn up
Excess hem then trimmed off

5. 4. Zig zag stitch
Stitch width 3, length 1.5
Interfaced
No extra thread tension as in example 3
Normal tension setting
Sewn edge at 0.5" (half inch) of 0.75" hem turn up
Excess hem then trimmed off

It's a great summer dress, flowing because of the width of fabric at the wrap area but elegant and column shaped from the tapering side seams.  I raised the split to compensate for shortening the hem and it is easy to walk in- I am a strider!  The dress can be bundled in a ball and thrown into a case- perfect for holidays so I know it will be going to the beach with me in a few weekend's time.  I've worn it for dog walking, hitching up my skirt to scoot up a hill with no problems and in hot weather it is light and airy and benefits from the cool-to-feel touch of rayon in the blend.  It's a dress to store in a drawer or on a shelf rather than hang as the weight of the fabric could stretch it out of shape.

I would definitely sew another knit version- potentially suitable fabrics from Girl Charlee would be:

Plum grey rose floral,  

Floral Garden on Navy blue

Mint coral daisy on grey- watch out for the placement of the larger flower over the chest!

Sparrow in the woods

sherbet stripes (lots of stripe pinning) 

Sunrise Stripe (lots of stripe pinning)

These all chosen because they are lighter in weight, have a cotton component, and some have rayon in the blend. I've avoided lycra as I didn't feel this dress needed it but maybe it would work?  A lighter Ponte might be good too.  It's a versatile pattern as I've seen woven versions as well as knit and for stretch fabrics, different amounts of stretch seem to work as well as the lower stretch fabrics.  It's a flattering and forgiving fit- the ties can also work wrapping to the back or just loosely fastened for a tent-like fit on sultry days. 

Thankyou to Mark for sending me the fabric and Laura from Named Clothing for supplying the pattern PDF.    Fabric and pattern provided for free, all opinions are my own. 

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