Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Its the alien family from outerspace! No…its the family of green turtles ready for Halloween! Well, no, its just really warm, extreme winter clothing, and it happens to be made from foam.
Foam under clothing…What in the world is that? You may ask. It sounds…well pretty much straight up ridiculous and strange, but oh, no, I tell you to the contrary that it is about the warmest thing…around.
As the winter cold sets up here in MN, and its gotten C.O.L.D. I think about our foam clothing, and how, this foam clothing really becomes a blessing, especially when I am sending little children out in those low temperatures to feed the chickens.
. It was developed by a guy named Jim Phillips who was heavy into scouts but poor and couldn’t afford the gear. He was quite the genius and foam is almost like whale fat! You sew fabric onto the top and bottom of every foam piece you use to make under clothing (a pant and top set) and this fabric sewn on to the top and bottom, can’t be wool or something that makes sense, of all things its swim suit stretchy lycra type fabric, the synthetic stuff. Why? It has to do with air going through this layer to let the foam breath, or something like that. The link I send, with Jim Phillip’s links, explain way better.
These foam clothing act as long johns because the wind can rush through, but indoors they don’t need anything on top. (You would wear them indoors if your house were cold and drafty or if your power went out.) If you wear these puppies under water proof layer you can literally sweat. But what is so genius where with name brand winter gear such as Patagonia and such your sweat freezes to you in extreme weather, but with foam clothing, the sweat actually breathes from all the air of the foam, so you stay nice and warm as your sweat evaporates.
Our outer layer is really thin and holey/porous stuff. It wasn’t quite a swim wear, and I found it really cheap from a friend who sold it to me like 25 cents a yard, they got it on a deal. It works, its just a bit more fragile than I’d like, prone to tearing at the seams.
Foam clothing, isn’t actually tough to make they are just really time consuming. For example, if you were making pants, you sew the swim fabric piece onto the foam piece which is cut out in the pattern of a pant let, using a zig zag stitch, over the top and bottom of the piece. You then sew those big bulky pieces together.
Wow thanks for sharing. This is really intersting.
Wow Em! those actually look really cute and comfy! You did an awesome Job babe!!
I was staying in a fifth wheel trailer in November/December and those foam suits are what kept me a live. Later, I had a job that frequently took me inside the meat freezers of a food wholesaler, again, foam jacket to the rescue. I tested other coats and the foam one was the best. Also, when I stepped out of the freezer, in other coats I would immediately build up sweat and feel chilled. this never happened with the foam. And then the heater went out in my car and I was using another (okay I admit it, cuter) jacket and F-R-E-E-Z-I-N-G. I remembered my good old bright green foam jacket and was totally warm (but i still got my heater fixed). If you have a serger and can serge around each piece, making a foam/tricot “sandwich”, that helps that part go quickly. when I started it took me 12 hours to make a suit. After making several suits, it only took eight. I would still consider myself slow at it. During the war, the Russians and Germans were burning their fine wood furniture to stay alive because of the cold. It’s a good feeling to know that my cheap garage sale furniture is safe.
Wow, that’s fascinating! I am SO impressed that you sewed all those foam suits! That is true dedication. I love how you point out that your foam suits aren’t just good for winter recreation, they’re essential for emergency preparedness (in cold climates.) When Cory and I were first beginning our emergency storage, he added a snow suit (for me!) to the list. Honestly, the thought had never occurred to me, but I went ahead and bought snow pants and a warm snow coat. And now they’re sitting in a box in our attic! Of course, that’s only because we now live in a sub-tropical climate. Maybe someday those snow clothes will bless us again!
Stay warm!!!
Wow! I love these! Now I know if I can’t find snow clothes for the little ones at the thrift store, I can make them quite inexpensively (minus the pain it is going to be to sew on the foam…) Thank you for posting this! Do you think it would work to sew some waterproof nylon type stuff on the outside so that it could act more like snowpants and a coat?
Kourtney,
Sad to say, that your local thrift store will be much cheaper. Unless you have some foam it is quite expensive, not in comparison to extreme winter gear, but as far as warmth goes, it can’t be beat. So if you were in a three day power outage and your children wore their foam suits the whole time they would stay perfectly warm. Otherwise just for snow outfits go I am positive that they can be bought cheaper from a thrift store. As far as sewing a nylon layer on I think both layers need to be breathable and then an extra water proof or wind breaker even worn on top would be perfect.
Sorry that its not as frugal as it sounds!
Thanks for commenting! Have a good weekend,
Emily
wow! who would have thought- foam suits!