What happens when you cross a Kielo with an Adrienne?

I love the Kielo wrap dress from Named Clothing, and have made a few over the years. Here’s my latest one

When I visited the Knitting and Stitching show in October, I bought some fabric with the intention of making another.

I have a long list of patterns I want to try, and sometimes (mostly), the shiny new things take priority over a faithful TNT (Tried ‘n’ True). Such was the case here. A successful new to me pattern I tried was the Adrienne top from Friday Pattern Company.

And I loved it (even though the fabric wrecked my overlocker!).

Both the Kielo and the Adrienne are deceptively simple. Different, but effective, and cleverly constructed. Also, both are fairly beginner friendly.

One night, the idea of combining the 2 crept into my head, and refused to let me sleep, for thinking about how to do it.

So I did, and here’s roughly how. It wasn’t a simple process for me, I’m not really a hacker, preferring to have all of the work done for me by the brilliant designers out there, but I just felt inspired for this!

Step 1:

I put on my Adrienne. I held my cut out Kielo pattern up to me and marked on it where the top of the Adrienne landed. As the top of the sleeve makes up part of the Adrienne neckline, this was a few inches down from the top of the Kielo.

Step 2:

I traced off the top of the Adrienne, down to the FBA line twice. The Adrienne top uses the same piece for the front and back but the Kielo has different pieces. This photo shows how I put a folded piece of scrap paper on top of the Adrienne. Using Fabulosew paper, you can see through the 2 layers, so can trace 2 copies simultaneously.

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Step 3:

I folded the dart out of the way on the front Kielo pattern. This caused the ‘cut on the fold’ edge to distort, so I straightened it out later by adding a wedge back in, but I didn’t sew it as a dart. Not sure how this affected the fit, but luckily both patterns are fairly forgiving, I think!

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Step 4:

I stuck the top of the Adrienne onto the front Kielo pattern piece, aligning the top of the pattern with the place I’d marked on the Kielo. I fiddled around a bit and then realised that the armhole notches on the 2 patterns aligned quite well, and it looked sort of right, so I went ahead and stuck it there, then cut the top of the Kielo off to keep the shape of the Adrienne only.

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Step 5 :

I attempted to replicate this for the back pattern piece. Here I ran into problems, and thought about it for a few days. The back of the Kielo is wider than the Adrienne pattern piece. There is a join down the centre back, so I added a seam allowance for that, but it was still wider by an inch or so. Which completely flummoxed me. If I kept it wide, then the Adrienne top might fall off my shoulders, if I cut it off, the Kielo wrap (and walking space below the knee) might be distorted. If I cut it off, should I add the width to the other side of the skirt so that it still had walking room?  I decided to keep it wide. I have broad shoulders, so thought I could probably pull it off, and also, taking fabric out is easier than putting it back in! I kept the back dart in though.

Step 6:

Cut it out and curse myself for buying a fabric with a pattern than really should have been matched (I half matched, so the pattern is aligned – the pattern repeat is at the same level, but it doesn’t match)

Step 7:

Sewed it up really quickly, not really expecting it to work. Made a hash of the arm holes

Step 8:

Tried it on, amazed that the arms were in the right place, and it stayed on my shoulders!

So that was it.

A lot of thought, but a surprisingly simple sew.

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Adrielo? Kiedrienne? What do you think?