MAKE YOUR OWN COLD-WEATHER CLOTHING
If you life the fill of winter wind on your cheeks but don't want to spend your last dime, here are some sewing patterns, including making pants and a vest, warm advice.
If you love the feel of winter wind on your cheeks but
don't want to spend your last cold dime...
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When most of us think of a winter vacation, we dream of
sunny tropical islands with white sand and gentle breakers.
When Jim Philips headed off on his snow season voyage,
though, he went several hundred miles above the Arctic
Circle ... to a deserted place on the frozen ice north of
Point Barrow, Alaska.
To make this "dream trip" more unusual, Jim Philips didn't
dress in the latest cold-weather wear from L.L. Bean or
Eddie Bauer. Instead, he and his father wore winter
clothing (and even used sleeping systems and mukluks) that
they developed and made for under $100!
The pair started to design their own clothing when Jim was
a boy. "When I was in Boy Scouts," Jim says, "I could
barely afford what was offered on the market for winter
camping. Then, when I did spend a lot of money on
something that was supposed to be 'winterproof' and it
didn't do the job, I was so disappointed that I decided to
make some gear myself."
Jim adds that he didn't just get out of bed one day and
decide to go camping on the polar ice cap. In fact, that
expedition was the ultimate challenge after years of
testing. Previously, Jim and his father had camped in
subzero temperatures at 13,000 feet in the Colorado Rockies
and in blizzards on the infamous Mount Washington in New
Hampshire, to name a couple of chilly spots.
I asked Jim how he could stay warm without the standard
equipment that seems so essential to winter survival.
Immediately he corrected me. "Survival," he said, "is the
wrong word. I prefer to use the word living in
reference to arctic conditions. A person can
survive but be uncomfortable, perhaps get
frostbitten and lose limbs. That's not good enough for me.
You should be able to stay warm and not suffer adverse
effects. The clothes I've developed aren't fancy, but they
work because they insulate, they breathe, and they're
practical."
Making cozy-in-the-cold clothing like Jim's is both easy
and inexpensive. You need no special tools or sewing skills
for the job. Just gather up a 4' X 8' piece of 1" supersoft
polyurethane plastic foam (foam rubber and other
substitutes will not work), a very large shirt and
pair of pants, a sharp knife, a supply of Velcro strips,
and an aerosol can of urethane glue.
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