Has anyone made their own baselayers from Capilene or other type fabric?

What pattern did you use?

And, did you like the outcome?

Considering a winter project.

Z.

I recently threw together a quick shirt mockup from some of the wool jersey mateial I recently aquired (still need to take some pictures). The hem lines are not completed yet, but that shirt was thrown together in an hour or so to act as support for a packaging pitch. Now that I have it back I will find the time to finish it.

The base pattern came from Shelby:
http://www.shelby.fi/kaava/301/301_instructions.php
and worked out fantastic. The shirt fits as well as one you could buy, and I am an XL, went with the XL pattern and it is perfect. I used the XL pattern to cut out the material and the 3/8 or so seam allowance brought the fit just trim enough. The hardest thing was getting my machine, the material and I to agree on a stretch stich. The one I have sits a little lumpy and will probably be a fail under pack straps. If you have and can use an overlock or serger I would go that way. I still need to experiment more with the 20 or so stitches my machine does to find one that works to make a seam that lays flatter. The seam I have is formed by the two pieces layed on top of eachother with an overlock style stitch run along the edge.

Much like the other MYOG, clothes are not that hard if you have a pattern and take your time. The strech is a bit of a learning curve, but not nearly as had as putting a curvred zippe rinto nylon

Start out with a pair of briefs and then a pair of pants. Then maybe a T-shirt with a hood, a pair of mittens and a pair of sleeping socks. You can buy several different weights of capilene yardage but it is not called capilene on the web site. The catalog link is still good and it looks like they have many more colors then they did when I bought mine. I may need to order some of the newer colors.

Capilene Briefs

I made a midlayer top out of some polartech powerstretch with a snug fitting hood (like for under a climbing helmet) thumbholes on the sleeves, and hidden hand warmer pockets above the level of a hipbelt or harness. I was going to use the Green Pepper Polar Hoodie pattern, but when I got it and did some sanity check measurements on it, it had really, really weird dimensions. Snug hood and baggy body. I would recommend avoiding that pattern.

I ended up making my own pattern in a CAD program. I can send you the pattern if you want ideas, although it is customized for my body dimensions (I'm 5'9" and ~160lbs).

I do really like the powerstretch fabric for midlayer or warm baselayer. Easy to work with, warm, comfy and stretchy.

And yes, I liked the outcome :)

Edited by lettheguydance on 10/03/2011 15:09:02 MDT.

I've made my own base layers

Started with a shirt that was the right size, made a pattern out of it

I always make everything a little baggier. More room for air to circulate to reduce sweating. I make the sides straight and the same width all the way from top to bottom to make it easier. Except the arms and legs are tapered.

Used Supplex fabric. That is really good because it offers UPF 50 sun protection, fabric too dense for mosquito probes to get through, and is lightweight so it absorbs little water so if it gets sweaty it quickly dries. Supplex is not advertised as "wicking" but I think that may be more marketing hype than anything useful but a lot of people swear by it so for this reason Supplex may not be the best.