Feeling Cold? alter a men's Thermal Vest.

[Elnnina]

I really feel the cold and living in a 100 year old cottage with solid walls when the fabric of the building gets cold it really does get cold – a bit like today, it is warmer outside than inside. Quite often in the deepest/darkest winter the temperatures up here in the Chilterns is considerably lower than in the lower towns and villages, and of course I live on top of a hill!

I am a generously sized person, and find that lacey thermal vests are far  too skimpy, so my answer to try and keep warm is to wear Marks & Spencer’s men’s thermal vests – the tee shirt type  as these come a long way down right down to the top of my thighs.  However I am not keen on the traditional tee shirt neck.  So I have doctored them and they are a great success.  So if you too feel the cold, why not try these.

The alterations I have made are as follows.  Carefully unpick the neck band, and once off the vest, open up the joining seam and give a good stretch pressing with the iron.  I then cut the neckband in half, along the original fold line,  make a neat little join and then fold this much narrower length of neckband in half.

Next I mark about 5/8” down from the original neck on the vest, and cut this away.  Then take the new neckband and cut to around 30” or 75cm long, make a tiny seam so that the neckband is in the round. To make it easier to handle I fold this narrower strip in half so  it is now probably 5/8” wide and run the sewing machine around the edge, this helps hold it all in place.  I then apply this to the vest, another row of machining stretching as I go, and then overlock this, and finally a final row of machining on the right side of the vest so close to the neck band it keeps it all in place.  The finished neckband is now about 3/8”  so a very nice finish to the garment.

Over the years I have noticed that M&S have changed the rib style of these vests and also the neckband material – once it was a rib neckband.  I find that by only cutting off 5/8” is adequate for me and gives a lovely scoop, not too low, and because of the length of the vest I do not get any draughts around my middle, they stay tucked in all the time.  Of course nobody but myself knows what I am wearing under a sweater and I keep nice and warm.

[jen]

Good idea. I'm a fellow chilly mortal with no central heating and have used the following - pure silk thermals, got mine from Patra selections, pure wool thermals bought from an outfit called Classic British styles, and made by me thermals in natural silk jersey from Whalleys. There's  a place I haven't investigated yet but looks promising http://www.baselayer.co.uk/Icebreaker-cat-288 advertising merino wool base layer clothes.
The natural silk jersey I got from Whalleys was at the time of purchase around 6 pounds a metre and in a tubular knit. I haven't found a good source of pure silk jersey in the brilliant range of colours sold on so many USA sites.