My wardrobe continues to suffer from climate change. Insufficient styles for cold weather and too many quite worn out summer clothes. Something must be done. Summer isn't really summer here, shorts and T-shirts a rarity, so long base layers seemed like a good idea.
Leggings
The leggings that I use most for running and cycling cost about 35USD and they are full of holes from when I've fallen off my bike. How hard can it be to make them? The difficulty is actually in finding really good fabric, and I have yet to find a nice 2-way stretch cotton lycra. That's the power that these big sports companies have - they get to specify their own fabrics. Anyway, I had the nice colourful synthetic quite gently (2-way) stretchy fabric and also some violent pink and black stripes in a fabric that would probably be classed as dancewear fabric. So, I drew round a pair of lycra leggings, and adjusted the inside-legs on the pattern so they would match, and that was about it. I made one pattern piece as I thought these patterned fabrics would be better without a side seam. Inside leg seam, crotch seam, 2 cuffs and an elastic waistband and that's it. Made it first in the pink stripes and have used them both running and cycling. The fabric is quite thick for lycra and so they are a bit warmer than normal lycra leggings, which is a good thing as standard lycra leggings are usually a bit cool for round here. The second pair are in the colourful fabric. It is a very pliant fabric so quite soft, and probably less suitable for sports. Hope they are warm enough to be worn at least occasionally in Yorkshire, but they may also come in handy for travel, being light and comfortable.
Rollneck
I have quite a lot of t-shirts, and although I wear them under things, they don't often see the light of day any more. I usually wear 2 layers over them, even in "summer". I seem to be short of middle layers, and I want something that looks nice under jumpers with a variety of necklines, and for that reason I thought rollnecks might be a good idea. So I revisted my long sleeve t-shirt pattern. There is something wrong about the underarm on all my home made t-shirts which fell too far from the body so I moved the underarm point in quite a bit (4-5cm - I basically made the underarm and hip fall at the same width which makes sense in that my bust and hips are about the same circumference), and then walked the seams to make sure everything would line up. It is much improved, and seems close to perfect fit but I wonder if I should make a slightly less drastic alteration for a less stretchy fabric. I guess I will have to try and see!
Ensemble
I don't really intend to wear the ensemble in public. Lucky that no one reads this blog. I think it might scare the sheep. I already get comments from people in town on the brightness of my trousers!
