Old Goretex Jacket Repurposed

My 12 year old broke his hand yesterday...I will probably never understand boys. Anyway, because the bone needed setting, the cast is not waterproof.

Five years ago my parents were in a bizarre accident and ultimately much of their clothing was cut in order to treat them. One item was my mom's Goretex jacket. I couldn't bear to throw out such nice fabric.

I've used parts of the jacket for other projects. One was to have a "jacket" for my mom's exposed broken leg and external fixator five years ago.

I looked and found the remaining fabric. I had the hood and one cut sleeve. I thought the sleeve would work well. The Velcro part at the bottom of the cuff worked for around my son's upper arm, then I decided to use more Velcro to insure it could go on easily. The rest I sewed up and around and then folded the seam over and sewed again. Hopefully this will make the seam waterproof enough.

Goretex Cast Cover

This was one of my favorite kind of projects. It fulfills a need, uses fabric I have around, and took less than 30 minutes! I realize we could go the plastic bag route, but I hoped with this waterproof cast cover, my son could be fairly self sufficient. And I do enjoy a quick project.




We had a weekend planned at a hotel with a pool.  I knew the Gortex cover wouldn't be ideal for actual swimming and found a cast cover by DryPro.   It creates a vacuum around the cast preventing water from coming in.  Because of the rubbery material, it's important to keep sharp things away.  The fiberglass cast isn't very smooth, but I had read using a sock with the end cut open is a good layer.  We tried out that method at the pool.  It worked pretty well but did get some water in at the top opening at the arm.  It got the cast a little wet, but not the part around the actual break.  The second swim time we opened, checked, and revacuumed the sleeve regularly.  I think the final improvement would be to use a wool sock to help repel the water more.  Using cotton just kept any moisture that got in close to the cast.  I should mention too that he was swimming, pushing off the sides, and going underwater.  For someone just floating around and playing gently in the water, they might not need to check the cover as much.

Goretex cast cover at the beach

DryPro waterproof cast cover for swimming

Our weekend also included time at a beach.  The Goretex sleeve was perfect for playing in the sand with the occasional water play. It kept the sand out of the cast and kept it dry.  After all the covering and sock use this weekend, my son had the idea to just wear a cut sock on his cast while playing outside too.  It would just keep the cast cleaner.  Now we have the perfect use for all those unmatched socks!