A wound dressing including a nonwoven absorbent layer including a layer of fabric comprising gel-forming fibers. The absorbent layer is gathered in a longitudinal direction by stitching through the layer of fabric using one or more resilient threads or yarns and an inelastic thread or yarn. The resilient and inelastic threads or yarns gather the layer of fabric so that the layer of fabric in use is configured to maintain close conformability with a wound during movement, and to elongate by 35% to 85% and then recover.