OK, so following on from yesterday, I’m going to suggest that as a base layer for your wonderful outdoor experience in the cool season, you want long underwear in a wicking fabric that is also lightweight and odor resistant. The current favourite for this is fine knit merino wool, which is not itchy and is often made super wash so you don’t need to worry about machine washing (though you should still line dry).
Currently there are a bunch of exciting commercial fashions but really for underwear you don’t need to worry too much about fashion. You are looking for something that covers you to the ankles/wrists/neck and that doesn’t rub you in horrible places. I tend to wear through my trousers etc at the inner thigh so I’d also like to be able to reinforce that area.
A simple tee shirt pattern is all you need for the top. Jalie 2805 is available in paper and PDF, in four neckline and sleeve length variations, for children and women. Is there a better value-for-money tee pattern? I doubt it. Make sure you fit it beforehand, of course.
Leggings are slightly more troublesome because of the seam placement of many basic patterns. Jalie 2920 for tights, stirrup tights, and a miniskirt is a strong contender, apart from the seams down the inner leg, which may rub. You can do a mock flatlock seam by using the honeycomb stitch on your standard sewing machine to mimic the flatlock seam on high end RTW. Have a look though at the commerical sites listed below – playing with the location of the seam seems to be quite common.
I also have a basic tee and leggings patterns from Ottobre, and you may well have them somewhere as well. In my opinion, you don’t need much to make them work. You probably won’t be showing the waistband of the leggings, so a waistband of 1″ elastic, as shown on the Jalie miniskirt instructions, is probably the right choice. Here’s a promising looking blog post on drafting leggings too.
Having said you don’t need to look at fashion — maybe you still want to? Fehr Trade, an independent pattern designer, offers a cool pattern in her Steeplechase leggings (and, I am not affiliated and get no goodies for recommending anyone in this post). This pattern has no inseam and a back yoke, plus curved seams, AND she gives instructions for common fitting alterations. These leggings are intended to be sewn in activewear/spandex type fabrics so you might have to go up a size for merino knit to work. I have never sewn one of these patterns but have heard nothing but good about them.
I have recommended merino knit as the base layer fabric, and a fabric you might want to consider to go along with this if you sweat a lot is merino pinhole or mesh fabric. I have actually seen this on eBay, and I’ve seen commercially that it is used for example at the back waist of leggings, in the side panels of shirts, and in panels behind the knees — wherever you sweat more than average.
Merino then: on Etsy, look for “merino wool fabric” and then find the knits. I found that “etsycraftshop” (in Canada) had 150 g/m sq, which is very lightweight, good for summer, maybe a little light for very cold weather?. They have it in white, which leads to the idea of dyeing…OK, rabbit hole. And a very interesting looking double-sided merino. Ottobre’s fabric shop (from Finland) on Etsy also carries it in 10 colours, at 220g/m sq, which is a nice weight for winter unders. Etsy seller “nzmerinofabrics” (New Zealand) has some different weights and some patterned merinos.
The website New Zealand Merino and Fabrics has tons but there is the shipping from New Zealand to consider. Nature’s Fabrics in the US, which is primarily a baby care shop, has a range of qualities in natural colours – scroll down to the end on their wool fabrics page. So in summary, it looks like merino should be available to you near where you live.
You want jersey or rib fabric, not interlock, for underwear. Rib is stretchier than jersey and will be a bit thicker and warmer. But perhaps a good choice for very curvy people, or for curved panels. Some merino fabric has spandex or lycra built in; but this is usually not included in the high-end commercial garments, so it may impair performance in some way, I’m not sure.
If you want to look at commercial garments (and see how much they cost), Icebreaker has an interesting line. Woolpower, based in Sweden, also has a range of merino wool garments as base layers.
Oh – also adding these references to my Pinterest hiking patterns board.
