Kielo Wrap Dress Nursing Hack
PROJECT: Nursing friendly maxi dress with wrap around ties and a slit at the sides and centre back hem.
PATTERN: The Kielo Wrap Dress by Named Clothing
REASONS FOR MAKING: Ireland had a bit of an early heatwave and with Lockdown in place, I’d no quick fix for a summer wardrobe by popping down to the shops so I knew I needed to make something for this warmer weather. Also, having recently had a tiny human, I wanted something that would accommodate breastfeeding. The Sewing Weekender was also being made into an online event due to Covid-19 so it was the perfect timing to get myself sorted and make the dress while interacting with other sewists for the weekend.
FABRICS: Steph at Fabric Romance is stocking the latest Atelier Brunette must-have fabric. It’s their SHADE design on viscose in colour Cactus and I knew as soon as I saw it, it was going to be on many a maker’s lists. Its eco-credentials were right up my street too. Steph explains that it is “...Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certified and woven from Lenzing™️ EcoVero™️ certified fibres. This viscose is free of harmful substances and the manufacturing cycle has been optimized to drastically reduce the environmental impact compared to traditional viscose”
TRIMS: @modistasewing on Instagram was selling “made in self-isewlation” labels to raise money for front line workers in the NHS. I’ve been spending my money carefully during the pandemic, trying to spread it around local business and towards charities so I was really happy to get my hands on these.
HOW TO: Since I’ve already made a Kielo Wrap Dress, I knew it was a nice speedy make. The difference this time was that I wanted to hack it and I wanted to make it using woven fabric instead of knitted fabric so it was going to require a little extra planning.
I had discussed all things Kielo with @deirdre_makesitup before making my previous version as she’s made a few fab ones. She had pointed out that the bust to waist measurement might need reducing since this pattern is drafted to taller folks than us! This means I had already adapted my pattern to hit my waist correctly. She also mentioned she had hacked one as a gift to leave a gap for breastfeeding. That idea had stuck with me ever since so I don’t, for one second, claim to be the genius behind the hack! The other addition would be side vents.
I decided to add side vents to the hemline so that there was room for walking. Since this was going to be made in a woven fabric, the centre back vent wouldn’t give quite enough room for a good stride length. It also turns out that having a mini person means you’re likely to be down on your honkers quite a bit so the extra slits were ideal. Probably fine if you’re using stretch but in woven, that centre back seam would likely rip.
To add side vents, I simply traced the vent from the C/B seam and added it to my side seams.
This fabric was crying out to be sewn with French seams so I needed to find a way to do this while allowing the seam line to split into the vent. A few tests and some googling later, I managed to take a little info from a few different sources to come up with a solution. You can find a step-by-step guide for this little trick HERE.
Now for the genius hack of the year so far. To make my Kielo ready for feeding, I simply left a gap of about 20cm on the seam under the ties. If I were to do it again, I would add fusing tape or a bit of interfacing to the seam first as I think it will stretch out a bit over time but no harm. Not the end of the world. It still works a charm.
To finish the opening, I just folded the seal allowance back and stitched, like a rolled hem.
Then I added a simple snap to the gap to close the seam over between feeds. Ta-Dah!
The reason I left the bottom seam open instead of the upper seam was that I felt it would look a bit neater. I figured that the opening could fold downwards so at least if it was the bottom seam, this wouldn’t be an issue.
I finished the neckline and armholes using bias binding. Bias bound anything is not my strong point! But I managed to do them ok. It gives it a nice clean finish in fairness.
The final piece of the puzzle was making sure I included the awesome ‘made in self-isewlation’ sew-in label since this was made during Lockdown 2020 and I have this fun notion that in years to come if this dress still survives, it’ll be a reminder of what was going on in the world at the time it was made.
WHAT WENT WRONG: I botched the side vents by trimming back the extra allowance too much. I managed to make it work though!
LESSONS LEARNED: I can see now that I should have either interfaced or used fusing tape at the feeding gap to avoid them stretching out since the seam is off-grain.
VERDICT: Having already worn this dress twice since I made it, I’d call that a huge success. And it’s only the start of the summer so I’m thinking this is going to get a lot of wear. The fabric is a dream to sew with. It’s not slippy like I was expecting so it’s really nice to work with. It’s also lovely and breathable so ideal for toasty summer days.
Oh and sizing wise, I stuck to the same size for the stretch version and woven version. I measured my bust before hand to make sure there was enough room and it worked fine. If you do find it a tiny bit too tight, try opening the armhole seam a little. This will give you a bit more room across the chest.
Have you tried to hack Kielo? Let me know in the comments below. I’m sure there’s been plenty of success stories.
Happy Sewing!