Several years ago I made a Kielo wrap dress from Named in bargain basement jersey. The jersey I chose for that Kielo wrap dress was a loud, horrible 70s-esque geometric swirly print in pink and purple. It was horrible. I don’t know what I was thinking except to say that I made some poor decisions in the first few months after my son was born.

I plead baby brain.

This earlier experience left me confident that I loved the Kielo wrap dress pattern. But my first Kielo had long since been binned.

Time for a “Do-Over”

So, for this project, it was a nice feeling to start something new, safe in the knowledge that I like this pattern,  it fits me and the pattern is already traced out.

Isn’t it the best when you already have a pattern traced out?

Really, this Kielo wrap dress was just all about having a “do-over” in which I actually exercise good taste!

I have had the idea of a good taste ” do-over” of the Kielo wrap dress in the back of my mind for a while. And versions on Diary of a Chain Stitcher and Wanderstitch made me think: there’s no time like now.

And so, here she is, a lovely cosy Kielo wrap dress.

I basically directly copied Fiona Parker’s version over on Diary of a Chain Stitcher and also made mine up in the gorgeous merino jersey of The Fabric Store.

My Kielo Wrap Dress: The Details

My Kielo wrap dress is a size 42 and I’ve added sleeves. You can download a sleeve add-on for free and follow this tutorial from Named to make the necessary pattern adjustments. It’s all very simple. Further, instead of turning and folding the neck, I cut out a neckband, which I made about 15% smaller than the length of my neckline itself.

I also added some cuffs.

Because cuffs. ‘Nuff said.

Moi je préfère les maxis

Although I had been planning on making my Kielo wrap dress knee length, I decided to cut it out as a maxi-version and shorten later, out of sheer curiousity. When I laid the pattern out on the fabric, I saw that the width of the fabric meant that I would basically have the same amount of usable ” leftover fabric” regardless of whether I cut it out knee lengthed or maxi. So, for a change, since my ’70s horror Kielo wrap dress had been knee lengthed, I was curious enough to want to see it in maxi-length, even though I thought it probably wouldn’t be for me.

Also, in an act of complete laziness, I cut out the back pieces of my Kielo wrap dress along the selvedge so that the selvedge would be the vent. This way, I wouldn’t actually have to sew or finish anything for the vent.

How’s that for lazy sewing?

Once I had it all put together, I actually loved the  Kielo wrap dress at maxi length. It felt so dramatic.

Anywho, for now I will stick with this length. If I start to worry that my Kielo wrap dress is too “dressy” to wear to work, I can always shorten it later. But on the first day I wore this to work, I got multiple compliments (which, I guess, may mean that it is indeed a bit over the top for work and people noticed it for that reason, but I’m going to choose to take the comments at face value).

Sticky, sticky, static

And finally, I need the collective wisdom of the internet. Please help me! This merino jersey tends to cling to my legs (whether in tights or not), which is not the most flattering thing.

Is there anything that can be done to stop certain jerseys clinging or is this just an inevitable fact of life?

I thought of a slip, but that won’t work with the back split, it will be visible. In the absence of a slip the only thing I could think of is, logically, lining, but that would be a tragedy. Since there is no separate skirt piece, it would require lining from neck to toe. But the whole point of using this luxurious merino is that I want to feel its soft warmth against my skin. Or, at least against my upper body. So lining my Kielo wrap dress entirely kind of undermines one of the main objectives of sewing with lovely high quality fabrics.

So I’m at a bit of a loss. Am I missing something? How do you stop fabrics from clinging???