I bought this beautiful silk from the fabric store about two years ago to make a dress for my eldest daughter’s Grade 6 dinner – she didn’t like it and we ended up getting something else.
Soooooo……. its languished in my stash ever since.
Until I happened upon the lovely Keilo and did a little skip of joy. Perfect!!
I think it looks fab and guess who’s sorry now, hehe. Mind you, she’s grown taller than me and will probably wear it anyway.
I made this dress in a hurry because I wanted to wear it to Melbourne Frocktails back in January (I know I’m a slack arse with my blog posts, oops). Anyway, I was in quite a rush and didn’t read the instructions properly until after I sewed it but its such a simple style and the pattern pieces are all very clearly marked it didn’t really matter. I french seamed all of the seams because this fabric is quite sheer. (I’m going to have to make a slip to wear under it or I’ll have to stand in the shade if I wear it during the day lol)
I used some navy blue silk lining fabric to make some binding to hem the neck and armholes, mainly because I seem to be really bad at turning curved seams such as these. I can never get them to sit nice and flat and using some sort of bias makes everything right for me.
The hem and back split I did as per the instructions.
I only had two metres of this fabric and the instruction says to buy 2.45m. This didn’t matter for me because of the way the pattern on the fabric ran I had to cut it across the grain instead of down the grain as would normally happen.
Photobombed by the muttdoggy!
Frocktails was a fabulous night, it was so lovely to stand around drinking the ‘Tailors tack’ and chatting about all things sewing without worrying about boring my family and non sewing friends stupid! And the dresses…. and the shoes…. Here are some photos from the lovely professional photographer on the night. Thanks to Kat, Libby and Renee for organising such a wonderful night, you girls are awesome!!
I have since made another Keilo out of some grey jersey from Tessuti’s. I only bought 2 metres and it wasn’t till I went to cut it out that I realised why it needs 2.45m. I ended up doing the same thing and turning it around to cut it across the grain too.
Gotta say I love this version too. I’m not normally a maxi dress fan because I’m short and I think it makes me look shorter but I have to say I’m a convert to the maxi dress style, its just so so comfy and I don’t have to shave my legs. Win!
The only alteration I made to this pattern was to take about 20cm off the hem, like I said I’m short. I think I could have taken the jersey one up a bit more because I’m probs not going to wear heels with that one.
Materials
Pattern from Named Patterns
Printed silk from the fabric store, navy blue silk lining from the stash and some cotton.
Cotton jersey from Tessuti’s. I made some bias binding using the scraps to hem the neck and arm holes.
elizathreads 
Really lovely – one of my favourites from the night, and lovely to meet you.
That silk is gorgeous! Perfect for this dress!! This gives me hope for my stash will met it’s perfect pattern eventually. Love the second version too, this style really suits you.