Neutral Wardrobe Basics etc

Over the last couple of weeks or so, I’ve been sewing a few neutral wardrobe basics. What’s a wardrobe basic? Well, according to Google, basics tend to be things like a long-sleeved tee, underwear, a pair of jogging bottoms for loungewear, or a sleeveless tank. Essentials, on the other hand, can be different for everyone, but they can be the core items in your wardrobe that you enjoy building outfits around. An essential could be a white blouse but in varying styles), a midi-dress, a fitted blazer, etc, but these pieces could be unique to each person. An essential for me is a slim-leg pair of trousers or a cropped cardigan. Admittedly, the lines do blur a little between basics and essentials, but a little black dress will never be an essential for me, yet it could be for someone else. I feel like the basics are a bit more universal.

Anyway…enough of me waffling on, let’s get on with the blog 🙂

First up are two cream tops for everyday wear. I used a very soft viscose blend lightweight jersey with a fleecy back. It came from LouLou Designs, but I think it’s sold out now. I have Grasser 913 in my stash, so I used that as my base pattern for the tops because it fits me well.

Both tops have long sleeves, but I did a different neckline on each, which makes one more suited to winter wear and the other for the in-between transitional seasons.

For the V-neck top, I had to have seams at each shoulder and centre back besides the mitred centre, because the fabric doesn’t have a lot of widthwise stretch and it wouldn’t stretch around the curves of the beckline, whilst lying flat. It’s simply attached with overlocking.

I made the pattern for the taller roll neck, too. First, I measured the neckline and worked out how deep I wanted the roll neck. I created a curved shape so that where the tube stitches onto the neckline, it becomes deeper at the front and shallower at the back. I’ve also put in a centre front seam that contours following the shape of my neck. At the back, I’ve put a short concealed zip so that I can get a fairly snug fit. It’s not a perfected design yet…I feel like I could make it a bit more fitted around my neck, but for a first attempt, I’m fine with it.

This is my very rough-looking neckline pattern piece:

Next up, I designed a camisole underlayer to wear under tops and blouses for extra warmth. I usually buy basic camisole jersey tops, but they always have the same design with a plain body, slightly curved front neckline, straight across the back and skinny straps. But this style can give you what I like to call “mono-boob”. So you pop it on under a blouse or jersey top and you don’t get a nice dividing line between your boobs. It’s all just mushed into one. So I thought, why not design something better?

I got out my original moulage pattern, which was drafted to fit my body. I chose my moulage because it’s meant to be very close fitting, whereas my sloper generated from it is more suited for use drafting regular tops and blouses. I figured the moulage would be better for drafting close-fitting knit tops.

I did some dart manipulating to create shapes that fit over my bust, plus a front and back midriff piece. Here’s my pattern:

The first thing I had to do was to add a bit of binding down the front edges of the bust pieces. Then I gathered those pieces onto the lower fronts. A quick whizz down each side seam with the overlocker was next, and then I needed to sew on a continuous length of knit binding that went across the back, up each side front and then over each shoulder, forming straps and down to the lower back where they were sewn in place. Quite an easy make and one that uses up leftover knits from other projects. This was my prototype, and I wouldn’t look too closely at my stitching, but now I know it works, I can make more.

And finally, I decided to make a new bra and undies set. I’ve got a stash of various ‘kits’ that I made up myself by sourcing laces and elastics, so I rummaged through and found a pretty peach and green combination. I used the AFI Atelier Maya pattern (it’s free to download), which I’ve used several times before. The green elastics pick out the green stems on the floral lace and add a nice pop of colour. The jersey I made the undies in is the same as the camisole above, so I have a complete matching 3-piece!

It’s a very comfy set and fits so nicely. I’m glad I put in all the hard work last year to get the bra fit sussed. My underwear drawer looks very fancy these days, hehe! I plan on making a couple of more sets, because I’ve worn my current batch of undie sets a lot, and a few more would be welcome.

I enjoyed sewing the bra set, but I wouldn’t exactly score the sewing experience for the tops and camisole as a 10 on the creativity happiness scale (maybe a 6?), but it was so worth it. How about you? Do you prefer to always be making more fancy things? And how do you feel when making more basic things? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading, see you soon!