soakers

[Sk8Bunny]

At a recent competition I was at, I noticed a lot of skaters had 'homemade' soakers, with fabric prints reflecting their favourite things(sports, flowers, colors, etc). I'd like to sew my own pair of soakers(the super soaker kind), but dont know where to start! Has anyone ever made their own soakers before? What type of fabric do I need, and what type of stuffing goes in the soakers? Are there patterns online I can use? Thanks!

[sk8er1964]

I can't help you with the homemade ones (I can barely sew a button), but mine are Sponge Bob! Yeah! :D

Seriously, though, I do remember seeing a pattern for soakers in one of the patterns we got for my last dress. I can't remember which maker it was, but I think if you go to the sewing/pattern store you will be able to find it. Good luck!

[Mrs Redboots]

It's basically terry-towelling inside. You cut a piece of terry-cloth about 2" longer than your blades and about an inch more than twice as high, if that makes sense; if you are going to have an outside, you cut that, too. Sew together, wrong sides facing, make a casing for elastic, and there you are.

One of the skaters at our rink, who is also a seamstress, made sets of matching skate bags (i.e. for each individual skate), soakers, and wipes, with the wipes being made from the same terry-cloth as the insides of the soakers. She sold the sets for £10.00 (about $18.50 at present rate of exchange) each, and very popular they were, too.

[flippet]

Are you certain that the soakers were homemade? They may very well be, however, I've seen lots of store-bought soakers that had various fabric prints like you describe.

I think Mrs. Redboots' suggestion is pretty accurate--if you want to make them a 'supersoaker', you can probably just cut an outside set from printed cotton fabric, and an inside set from terry, and add foam padding in between, with a sleeve for elastic arount the top. Of course, you wouldn't need to double the width for each piece--but I would add probably an inch, or inch and a half for seam allowance and room for the foam.

[TashaKat]

I used to make my own (Annabel described it well so I won't repeat it!). I did tend to put some foam in and used 'fun fur' for the outside :roll: ..... such a child!

[mikawendy]

I used to make my own (Annabel described it well so I won't repeat it!). I did tend to put some foam in and used 'fun fur' for the outside :roll: ..... such a child!

Would low-loft (thin to medium thin) quilt batting work as well as foam? I have batting but no foam handy...

Is it better to use natural fibers rather than synthetic? I would guess that some synthetic fibers would wick better, but the quilting shop ladies once told me that synthetic fibers dull scissors (??and perhaps, to a very small degree, skate blades??) quicker than natural fibers do.