winter sewing: several long-sleeved Kielos

So the main reason I put this dress on my winter list is because I wanted to make one for my mother for Christmas. I already had the idea of a burgundy dress in my mind, and decided to make it another Kielo when I found out that she was still trying to wear the sleeveless one I made her in November. In England. There's only so much work a cardigan can do.

I went to Fabric Store in Walthamstow and bought three metres of burgundy jersey and three metres of some random stuff to make a test version. I found it hard to imagine how the sleeve add-on would work, so I was a bit nervous about launching straight into a version for someone else.

Here's my test version:

It's great. I hadn't been at all sure that this would work, but I should have trusted that Named knew what they were doing in the sleeve department. 

As well as the sleeve itself, the add-on comes with new armholes to trace onto the original pattern. They're not that different, but they do reshape things slightly so that there is, y'know, an actual armhole there. It remains an incredibly simple dress to cut out and make. 

This version is longer than I had figured it would be, but I deliberately cut it a lot longer than I thought I wanted it so I could experiment. I'm glad I did; when I pinned it up to the length I thought I wanted, the dress lost a lot of its drape and just looked a bit odd. I actually really liked the way it looked at midi length, but my wardrobe just isn't set up for that. I'd never have found an occasion I'd be comfortable wearing it. This length is a bit more versatile without losing the drape. 

I've worn this dress for a New Year's Eve party and also for a day touristing around Belgium, and it works equally well for both. I'm really pleased with it.

Here's Mum's version:

I think she likes it. 

This is almost exactly the same as the first one, except that it's longer (Mum is generally not here for short dresses, but also isn't here for ones she might trip over either, so there's a sweet spot region somewhere between the calf and the ankle), and also it looks like I made the sleeves shorter, though I don't remember doing that. Looking at all three dresses in this post, I think I must have made the sleeves longer than the pattern on the first dress and slightly shorter than the pattern on this one. I did not like this fabric at all and I'm quite glad you can't really see how bad the twin needle hemming looks on this. Mum assures me it doesn't bother her, but it bothers me. Stupid twin needle. I WILL master you, dammit.

After I'd made those two, I decided that what I needed most in life was a long-sleeved, maxi length sweater knit Kielo. I once bought a winter maxi and never wore it because I was too busy trying to disappear at the time, but I think about that dress regularly and it's one of the few things I regret getting rid of.

BEHOLD. I have managed to create a slightly stylish wearable blanket. 

For some reason I'd got it into my head that it had to be white, which is very unlike me. I found this stuff in The Textile Centre; it's quite thick, very stretchy, and unbelievably soft. It's also really annoying to work with, but ain't that always the way.

(Sorry these photos are so overexposed. The weather changed dramatically in between outfits and I didn't notice until I came to edit them.)

I put pockets in this one, but not in the other two. My thought was that winter Kielos are more likely to be worn with jackets and thus less in need of pockets, but that this one will probably be worn mostly around the house and it'd be handy to have a place to keep my phone. This turned out to be exactly the case; I tried wearing this out of the house once and it didn't go well. Partly because I was wearing boots with buckles and they ripped away at the bottom of the dress, but also because this dress is way too warm to actually be worn outside. I was too warm going for a walk in this on Christmas Day. I put this dress on for these photos, stood still in front of a camera for two minutes in a house where the heating was off, and then had to take it off because I was sweating. It's a ridiculously warm dress. It's going to be great for sofa days, though. 

I was originally planning a fourth sleeved Kielo in black sweater knit, but now I'm thinking that might be one too many and I should try something else instead of getting stuck in an endless loop of repetition. I will certainly revisit this pattern at some point, but I think I'll put it away for now. 

(Also, nope, I didn't tidy up for these photos, and nope, we still hadn't taken our tree down. There's a reason I'm not a lifestyle blogger, alright?)

Next up: if I can get photos of my boyfriend's dressing gown, then that's next in the queue. If not, it'll either be hats or melons. Heh. Melons.