wicking material for pajamas

micro-fiber

I have no idea what to get, but I think your choice of a first project is absolutely outstanding!

powerdry by Malden Mills

I beg your pardon, but I wouldn't recommend any synthetics for nightwear, especially if you tend to sweat heavily. It'll stink terribly after a while, and the smell will not wash out. Moreover, but this is, of course, my very personal opinion, I wouldn't want any synthetics that close to my skin. Perhaps you should try some linnen fabric, which is said to be somewhat cooling. As for the night sweats, perhaps pyjamas are a bit too warm anyway. Why not try a nightgown? I always found that much more comfortable when I was feeling too warm in bed. Hope I didn't offend. Cheers,

U.

Some of the wicking fabrics used for outdoors gear - base layer kit - is much better at wicking moisture away from the skin to where it can evaporate than natural fibres, and the washing properties are excellent. Some of the latest ones have silver embedded in them! Takes care of any smells. Mind you, with proper washing (cool wash, Persil non-bio powder and NO FABRIC CONDITIONER!), smell is never an issue.

I get very cold at night, but tend to roast near dawn, and I wear skiing long-johns in bed. Light, comfortable, and if I wake in a sweat, they dry off in a couple of minutes leaving no pong. Mine are dirt cheap ones from Aldi.

Ordinary synthetics (including microfibre, which is only a denier description after all, and no indicator of fabric properties) no, but performance fabrics with wicking properties, yes, excellent. Penny has a list of suppliers:

/I hate traditional pj's: the legs are too wide, and ride up, leaving knees exposed and cold, and wrinkling into horribly uncomfortable lumps further up! Long live long-johns! ;)

I have fibromyalgia: I get 'cold flushes'! :( So I go to bed feeling like an iceberg, with the electric blanket on and a 13 tog duvet, and DH putting out heat like a log stove, and I SSSSHHHIIIVVVEEERRR!!! And I wake up cooked! Once the cold flush is over, I warm up to a more normal temperature, and with all this lot toasting me, I feel like a Sunday joint!

I'm just waiting for the hot flushes to coincide with the cold flushes and even things out a bit! But they do say you will take after your mother in this, and she sailed through with no problems, so maybe I'll just stay cold.

Dear Sara,

I may be somewhat out of date on this, but the best wicking fabric also happens to be a synthetic. The generic name is olefin, made from a parafin base, so its melting temperature is very low.

I was asked some years ago to test olefin fabrics for Daymart. It had planned to offer thermal underwear made of this fabric. Because it has to be laundered by hand, and in long underwear, would be a real pain to maintain, I advised Daymart to think of other uses for it. I couldn't see a public taking time to maintain anything that needed this kind of special care. But the fabric really was warm and wicked well. I think it's still used for profession winter athletes' cuffs, necklines and hoods.

Teri

Teri, no offense but I do think you are a bit out of date. All the "newest coolest most high tech" wicking fabrics such as Maldens' Powerdry and Patagonia's Capilene are highly engineered polyesters, and not olefins. Olefins, also called polypropelenes were highly touted in the 80's as the new wonder wicking fabric but the big drawbacks are major odor retention and a harsh hand as the fabric ages. The newest generation of polyesters are soft and comfortable, and do not retain odor to the degree that polypropelenes and olefins do. Plus many of the Malden fabrics are generally available to the home sewist.

the fabriclink tech site is an excellent reference for technical fabrics I love this site. You can look things up by fiber, fabric, brand name or end use:

can see there is very little listed in the olefin/polyolefin category as comparted to the polyesters the Patagonia site on Capilene. Capiline is Patagonia's proprietary engineered wicking polyester, very representative of the new generation of base layer fabric. Plus, you can find capilene at OWF and RCT if you hit it right. "Capilene products are comprised of polyester fibers. Untreated polyester is hydrophobic or water repellent. But the surface or skin of Capilene polyester fibers has been chemically altered to make them hydrophilic. This fine skin on each strand of polyester attracts moisture away from the body, while the inner untreated core repels it. Moisture lifts, spreads and disperses, evaporating into either the air or outer layers. This process is chemically bonded to the fabric and will not wear or wash out (we recommend avoiding fabric softeners)."

~Penny S

I make my nightgowns out of 100% cotton batiste. Not cheap, but well worth it for the comfort IMO

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Thanks for bringing me up to date on the new wicking polyesters. I haven't had to teach textiles for many years now, and my preferences are natural fibers, so I don't "keep up" with the new inventions. The last wholly "new" fiber I saw while teaching was Tencel.

Teri

Thanks for all the tips! I got some very helpful advice, here and by e-mail.

Handkerchief linen. Fabric.com had strawberry-pink and watermelon-pink handkerchief linen on clearance sale the last time I looked, but may have cleared them out by now.

At other stores, you'll want a notch coarser than handkerchief linen -- fabric.com tends to grade light, and true handkerchief linen doesn't end up at an overstock purveyor. True handkerchief linen is too flimsy -- and too expensive -- to make into pajamas.

Linen is more comfortable when wet than any other fiber except wool (which will absorb a lot of water but doesn't wick worth a nickel). Linen is also cool to the touch.

A blend of cotton and linen musses less than either fiber separately, but isn't as cool as pure linen. On the other hand, it's cooler than pure cotton, which is fairly cool. And my cotton-linen shirting is quite thin without being sheer; whether that's characteristic of the blend or this particular weave, I'm not sure. (I'll never again see cotton-linen shirting at a dollar a yard; I'm *so* glad that I bought thirty yards!) (On the other hand, I'm getting so tired of blue-and-white work clothes that I refuse to make dress-up shirts out of it!)

In hot weather, I prefer pajama suits to daygowns -- and for dressing up, dresses over linen drawers to pantsuits. Elsethread someone preferred gowns for sleeping because pajamas ride up -- I prefer pajamas because gowns ride up! Milage, as always, varies. And a lot depends on how your pajamas fit. One could, I suppose, put a drawstring at the ankle. Or gather the leg into a cuff that's smaller than the calf, but bigger than the heel.

When you've basted your pajamas together and are sure they fit, come back here for a lecture on flat-felled seams.

Joy Beeson

Great links. Thanks! The powder dry site says it can be used for shirts. Never thought of that before. Is it woven or a knit?

Sounds like good stuff to make into some summer blouses for doing heavy, sweaty work in the garden. I've used wicking underwear for cross-country skiing, the one sport I like because it's the best time of year to get into a sweat. I hate sweating. And Pennsylvania summers provide many humid opportunities. It almost makes me move back to Wyoming. Yes, a powder dry shirt sounds very good. Sharon

If memory serves me, Pennsylvania has a Wyoming of its own. :-)

How about sleeping in your good old-fashioned birthday suit! LOL

Nope. That's what I used to do, but night sweats make it awful; I end up in a puddle of sweaty sheets. (I'm pregnant, if anyone is wondering why I've suddenly got such extreme sweaty grossness.) I need something that'll take the sweat away and not let it back at me.

And... I found it, and it didn't involve sewing, ah well! I've taken to sleeping in workout clothes, and they do the job wonderfully. Still, thanks to all for the responses!

Seeker wrote:> Great links. Thanks! The powder dry site says it can be used for

knit