How to Make a Cooling Vest for Summer

This is the banner for How to Make a Cooling Vest for the Summer. The title is in black at the top. There is a picture of the finished vest to the right side and the ice pops to the left. There is a sparkly border around the page.

Today we have a reboot of one of our first talks, How to Make a Cooling Vest for the Summer. Like some of the other talks that we have rewritten, we have ungraded, improved, added, subtracted, and given this talk some bling. We hope you enjoy this rewrite talk and the cute graphics that we have made for this talk.

Originally this talk was, Making a cooling vet for summer.

This is the table of contents for How to Make a Cooling Vest for the Summer. The title is in black at the top. There is a picture of the finished vest to the right side and the ice pops to the left. There is a sparkly border around the page.

We DESPISE being hot and sweaty. Whether we are trying to exercise, working outside, or at a sports event, we HATE being hot and sweaty. It makes us cranky and uncomfortable. It limits our activities because feeling THAT miserable makes most things not worth the trouble. They say “Necessity is the mother of invention.”

Well, that is true. We can not speed the summer heat on but we can come up with a ways to endure it.

A temporary fix for the summer heat is How to Make a Cooling Vest for the Summer. There are commercially made cooling vests but they are very expensive. There are commercially made fabrics to make your own, but again they are, can be very expensive. The thought of “cutting” something that costs so much makes us sick.

A. Materials

Cloth:

Material that is “breathable” but not too stretchy, washable, doesn’t shrink much, and has enough backbone to hold it’s own shape is ideal. Then you have to decide what style vest you want. My initial prototype was modeled after a 1950’s era pull over apron. Easy off, easy on, easy to load, and not complicated to sew.

Choosing a Cooling Agent:

With my husband’s innovative mind, we then cycled through cooling materials. My initial idea was ice packs (made of salt water) in seal-a-meal type bags. But they aren’t very durable. We moved on to drink packs (kind of heavy and unwieldy). We finally settled on freezer pops, re-freezable and kid/pet safe.

B. Style

The “apron” then becomes basically a two-layer style with the inside layer built with “channels” into which the freezer pops slide. On the “back” of the apron the channels run vertically. The “front” of the apron the channels run horizontally (to allow you full range of motion).

C. Making the Vest

And away we go…

1. Choose a cotton fabric similar to quilting material. Choose thread and binding/trim (because I hate hemming literally every raw edge to keep it from raveling).

2. Lay out your fabric and cut out your apron/vest shape. If you already have a vest pattern you prefer, use it. Don’t re-invent the wheel if you don’t need to.

This picture show a piece of blue cloth being traced with a chalk to make a layout to make a Cooling Vest for the Summer.

This picture show a piece of blue cloth being cut to make a layout to make a Cooling Vest for the Summer.

This picture shows two pieces of blue cloth spread out to make a Cooling Vest for the Summer.

3. Measure and cut the inside panels for the front and back of the vest. Here you can customize size and shape as much as you need to accommodate your pattern.

This picture show a piece of blue cloth folded to make a Cooling Vest for the Summer.

This picture shows four pieces of blue cloth being traced, cut, and sewed into pieces to make the Cooling Vest.

This picture shows the blue cloth being sewn together on a sewing machine.

4. Pin the inside back panel to the inside back of the vest. Sew the sides and bottom (not the top or you won’t be able to “load” the pops) of the panel to the vest. Next sew your VERTICAL channels. I left mine wide so I could use whatever size freezer pop that I bought.

5. Pin the inside front panel to the inside front of the vest. If you want to add pockets, do it now, but be careful that when sewing your pockets or your channels on the opposite side of the fabric that you don’t occlude your pocket or your channel. Sew the top, ONE side and the bottom of the panel to the inside of the vest. Then sew your channels HORIZONTAL (across your body, not up and down, if you’re having trouble visiualizing it).

This picture shows a piece of blue cloth traced with a chalk to make the channels to hold the cooling agent in the vest.

This picture shows a piece of blue cloth with the channels on it being added to the back apron part of the vest.

This picture shows the pieces of the vest being sewn together on a sewing machine.

6. Lastly, the tedious part, the trim or binding. If using cotton, or anything else that likes to ravel, you must hem the raw edges. I don’t like to hem ALL the edges. Binding or trim looks very tailored and clean, it’s my “go to” for raw edges. It’s very easy, it is a straight line…but there is a lot of it. Don’t forget your ties. For my retro apron/vest, I used side ties out of the same trim.

This picture shows the finished Cooling Vest from the front. There is a white border sewn onto the vest for trim.

This picture shows the finished Cooling Vest from the side. There is a white ribbon used to tie on the sides.

This picture shows the finished Cooling Vest from the back. There is a white border sewn onto the vest for trim.

D. Add the Cooling Agent

Now just freeze your pops and your vest will be ready to keep you cool while you work, or whatever. Load it before you work and put your pops back in the freezer when you’re done…or eat them if you like.

This picture shows a row of frozen freezer pops in different colors. Some of the freezer pops are pulled apart to be added to the channels in the cooling vest.

It does take a little while, but the sewing isn’t complicated (it’s all straight lines). It will greatly increase your activities in the hot months. And it isn’t expensive.

This picture shows the finished Cooling Vest from the front. There is a white border sewn onto the vest for trim. A set of pockets has been added to the vest.

One a side note…

For you truly frugal folks, I highly recommend buying drapes or shower curtains at your local Good Will, Salvation Army, yard sales or flea markets. Sewing material has skyrocketed in price over the last few years. You can pick up material in shower curtains or drapes for a few dollars. One drape/curtain is more than enough for a vest, skirt or shirt. The fabric lends itself to costumes, aprons, handbags, yoga bags, etc very easily and it’s inexpensive.

Stay cool and stay active, that is the best advise we can share, unless you live in Alaska.

And there you have How to Make a Cooling Vest for the Summer in a quick, compact talk. It is really not hard if you have basic sewing skills. If you do not have basic sewing skills, try it out and see what happens. You may find that you like sewing. At the very least, you will have freezer pops to eat.