Snowboarding Base Layer (the Grainline Lark Tee)

Those of you who follow me on Instagram will know that I have just returned from a week snowboarding in the Alps. After about a  year of sewing my own clothes, it felt a bit weird to go away for a week and not wear any me-mades (although I packed me-made tees, underwear and trusty fleece-lined Linden sweatshirt for wearing off the slopes), so I decided to source some fabric to add a couple of my own base layers to my on-slope attire.

I found some fantastically-priced thermal cotton waffle fabric from Girl Charlee in a super fun, bright pattern so decided to give it a try. After making a flattering Grainline Lark tee in my favourite octopus jersey from Cotton + Steel, I thought the long-sleeved version would make a good base layer, as it is fitted enough to keep the warmth in whilst allowing for room to manoeuvre. It was a really quick make as I sewed it all on my Janome overlocker and then just topstitched the neckband to stop it from sticking out on the inside and potentially rubbing whilst snowboarding. As I had enough fabric left, I made a short-sleeved version too (with a different jersey for the neckband as I ran out of the cotton waffle), which was great for wearing under a sweatshirt as an extra warm layer.

The verdict: I ended up wearing the long-sleeved version on a quite a few days out snowboarding, preferring it to my RTW base layers. It was comfortable and really nice to have a cotton base layer as opposed to the usual (much more expensive) branded ones which are often made from man-made fabrics such as polyester. If I could get this fabric in different prints, I would definitely make more of these.