I DESPISE being hot and sweaty. Whether I’m trying to exercise, working outside, or at a sports event, I HATE being hot and sweaty. It makes me cranky and uncomfortable. It limits my activities because feeling THAT miserable makes most things not worth the trouble. They say “necessity is the mother of invention.”

A temporary fix is a cooling vest. There are commercially made cooling vests but they are very expensive. There are also commecially made fabrics for the same to make your own, but they are again, very expensive. The thought of “cutting” something that costs so much makes me sick.

Material that is “breathable” but not too stretchy, washable and 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.

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. The “apron” then becomes basically a two-layer style with the inside layer built with “channels” into which the freezer pops slide. 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).

And away we go…

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

*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.

*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 accomodate your pattern.

*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.

*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).

*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.

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

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.

One a side note…

For you truely frugal folks, I highly recommend buying drapes or shower curtains at your local GoodWill, Salvation Army, yard sale or flea market. 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 I can share, unless you live in Alaska.  (One of our girls got married not long ago.  Her husband is in the military so she moved to Alaska to be with him.)

We hope you enjoyed this trip down DIY lane.   Hope it has been helpful and given you ideas of your own.  

Thank you for visiting and please come again for another edition of Out Standing in the Field.