TL; DR – This pattern is a cult classic for a reason: it is awesome.

The weather turned cold in late January 2021. I still wore dresses to “work”, learning early in the pandemic that I needed to still put on work clothes (and then take them off at the end of the day) to mark time and keep my sanity. My bedroom/office/sewing space/workout area doesn’t get much sunlight, only in the very early mornings, and there are a lot of trees out there shading it. Needless to say, the room can get cold. I wanted a dress that I could wrap around myself like a blanket.

Enter the Kielo Wrap Dress by Named Patterns.

I had read far and wide about how popular, how flattering, and how easy this pattern was to make. I love a good wrap/tie to get my waist in some sort of shape, as thick as it is. It is there and I will accentuate it. I had this lovely slate grey ponte that I had just enough yardage to make the dress.

What can I say? Everything just worked! No neck facing (THANK GOD), the sleeves were simple enough to set, just sewing a whole lotta straight lines that took longer than they should because now the top thread in my sewing machine snapped every couple of stitches.

Why didn’t I just switch to the new sewing machine I had bought specifically because my current one was about to get tossed out the window? Because my new machine didn’t have a stretch stitch. I could use the zig-zag, but wasn’t feeling super-confident in it, so I stubbornly stuck to the old machine, cursing as I went.

I am a Leo with ADHD, what do you want?

Anyway, I love the result, I’m going to make one without sleeves in a lighter jersey for the summer, and maybe I’ll even try the jumpsuit eventually. It even looks good wrapped backwards! Look at that booty!