Project: Merino baselayer retool

First off, I want to give a big shout-out to my supporters from January and February: Sam C., Rich F., Tamara A., and Chelsea C.! Your support and kind words mean so much to me – THANK YOU! Now, onto this month’s project!

Always on the lookout for cool military surplus items to use in my various living history kits for outdoor adventuring, I got very excited back in January when Major Surplus started carrying these quarter-zip ‘undershirts’ for $15!
Now, they’re probably fine on their own, but the thruhiker in me got Really excited when I saw they were made of merino wool! Wool by itself is already great for outdoor purposes (it’s durable, insulating (even while wet!), fire-retardant, and water-resistant), but wool from merino sheep is especially soft. It’s just about all I wore on the Trail last year (props to Montana-based Duckworth for their awesome base layer shirts!), and as soon as I saw this garment I immediately thought of Dass Jennir (from the excellent Dark Times comics) who was pretty frequently depicted wearing what look like blue-gray, knit v-neck tops!:

Since I want my Star Wars wardrobe to be three-season adventure-ready—and the reviews said the shirts ran small and only Medium sizes were left in stock—I quickly snagged one up to try and retool it to be a little more GFFA compliant.

When the shirt arrived, I found the material was super-comfortable as expected. The only marking I could find was an ‘M’ tag at the neck, which suggests it was actual military surplus, though I’m not sure country of origin.
The zipper, of course, would have to go (no visible fasteners in the GFFA), and the collar liked to flop open if not zipped up, so I decided to shorten the collar and add interfacing to stiffen it. Removing the zipper was very straightforward, as was reinstalling the inner facing (something I’ve done a half-dozen times making 18th century trade shirts). The one hurdle I didn’t see coming was the material itself – unlike the woven fabric I’m used to working with, knits stretch in all directions and are always trying to unravel…I’m going to try and avoid sewing with knits in the future if at all possible! Despite the difficulty, the shirt transformed very nicely!:

The merino wool is a darkish gray, but I might still dunk it in some RIT Slate Blue dye to add just a little bit of Dass Jennir color. Even without dyeing, it performed superbly on an 18-mile backpacking trip last month.
If you’re a crafty and smaller-built individual looking for a legit garment to use in your GFFA reenacting kit, this piece is highly recommended! If you already have one of these but find the idea of converting the zipper a bit overwhelming, I’m always available to commission 😉
See you next week!

Crafting, photographing, and writing this site takes a lot of time and energy. If you’ve enjoyed reading, have learned something from this post, or will use it as inspiration for a future costume, please consider supporting my work with a small donation below! Thank you!