What do you get if you cross a Kielo and a Gable?

Peanut butter and jam. Joe Pesci and slapstick. Cocktails and umbrellas. And now, the Kielo and Gable. Sometimes, two things that work so well separately can join together to double up the awesome and create something unique and brilliant.

Last summer I made my first Kielo wrap dress from Named Clothing and it was a game changer. It’s comfy and feminine but still a bit edgy, so I basically lived in the few I made (alongside the Nina Lee Kew dress) all summer. I also discovered my favourite jersey top, the Gable from Jennifer Lauren Handmade, an everyday basic with a lovely 50s style high neckline.

Come winter and it was time to make a fancypants dress for a black tie Christmas party. I had almost 5 metres of deep red stretchy velvet that I’d found in a charity shop that I thought would work great as a long sleeved Kielo. The free sleeve add-on just hadn’t looked right on me, so I took a punt and combined the neckline and sleeves of the Gable with the dress of the Kielo, and thus, the Kieble was born.

As is obligatory with making outfits for parties, I left it to the last minute (hence rubbish low-light photos, sorry!) so I didn’t re-trace and cut the patterns to combine them, I just folded down the top part of the Kielo and lay the Gable on top of it. Rebellion of the highest order.

As you can see, I made sure to keep the whole sleeve section of the Gable there before blending it in to the Kielo, this was so that the sleeve would fit in properly. I shortened all previous Keilos I’d made to a midi length but for this one I went full length with long sleeves to maximise the formal-ness. This made for the longest side seam to sew in the history of all side seams.

I’m not going to lie, when I first tried on the dress I was a bit worried it had a weird dressing gown-meets-geisha vibe, but I hoped that when ‘styled up’ for the evening it would miraculously look better. Luckily, with whopping heels and a face full of make up, it all came together perfectly for a comfy but formal outfit, hooray! Here are the only photos we managed to get on the night (of course holding booze)…

I had a great time sashaying about in my handmade dress at the event’s welcome drinks, and then we walked through to the main room for the meal and saw a hundred tables covered in…red velvet. Yep. I was wearing a tablecloth.

Tableware matching aside, I love this dress. Definitely a grower; so much so that I made another to wear casually, this time back to the midi length and with short sleeves.