Today's Homemaker - Clothes for the Handicapped, Part 4

back again for the last program in our series for clothes for the handicapped and here again is alpha Roberson who is our extension textiles and clothing specialist here at Iowa State University opal it's been a lot of fun we've already gotten many requests on some of the information that we've made available to the handicapped and we hope that we'll be able to help them even more today well I think it has certainly been a satisfaction to be able to work with these people I feel like always they are part of our audience right here and I think the first day helpless because they were all so considerate and kind to us and thanked us for everything we did we really I didn't think I was doing very much so I feel like we're going to have some extra special friends out of the state well you know we have talked about women in the programs before and we haven't really meant to leave the men out of it because they too are an important part of our program so let's see Darwin Erickson who is wearing a brooks brother Ray flannel suit that is designed specifically for a handicapped man and then actually has some features that we've talked about and shown you I believe in hose for the boys but it is especially nice to have a man here full of heights so you can see how these hoes operate first of all while his clothes are all intact there before he goes to showing you the different features you will know the subject jacket is a little shorter than a manager suit jacket this is made on purpose of course because most fabrics around the waist line would be difficult to operate those who zippers and the belt hook and bar also there are a little more fabric sometimes too much and getting in and out of chairs and cars and casey's driving a car so that he's going to show you now how these the side seam opens with this zipper all the way down to a pass a hip line it is a hip line that is important because that's where the slowest part of the body is here on both sides this zipper opens and also fastens very securely at the top 30 of a zipper passing is most important for us in this garment I believe also that those trousers open from the bottom up so that if a man is wearing ankle braces or something like this he would have the full spread of that trouser leg open and then of course it is not any more difficult for him to close that and it was one of the topics that you noticed he's going to show us now that this also has a vest and this seems quite important to men to finish their outfits as we wear blouses with ours practically it just puts him in a class of being a well-dressed man to go to work or to take his life out at night shall we say you'll also notice that he's wearing a four-in-hand tie and we're going to show you a little bit more about ties over here the belt of this valve waistline of his trousers there he goes pulling that pressure tape open again you see this is easy for him to do and I think it will also be easy for him to get it back into place sometimes the men when they're working in offices I'd like to undo that top button anyway just to get a breath of air once in a while this is an easy way to close it I think you'll notice that he did it with one hand yes and that's a very handy I think because it's difficult for many of us to tighten that a tiny button around our throat and if we have a stripper velcro there we can do it very easily you know the static I was the clip-on type which of course makes it very easy for a handicapped person to manipulate instead of having to tie the tie just using these would have been on the market for many years I think show you how the manufacturers have made advancements to help us in the ease of dressings we mentioned velcro let's just very briefly tell them may I suggest that the brand name of this is velcro the real name is pressure case since of the cause is more than one company that puts the tape out and you may get it in a different brand name in your community this we brought just to show you that it comes like this and you can buy whatever length you want to have to show that handle it those who do not handle it looks like they would if you would request it you can bite like you do elastic or ribbon let's say and as far as I know it comes in this with we've never found it here in ames and any other western this but this is what you've been seeing out all week on these different garments to make the closures it's a very simple a process of just fishing around the edge just to get this in the flat cats and seam lines of your garments now although it does come in this with it can be cut off in tiny pieces in the hood under buttons let's say under buttonholes so that the garment will appear like all the other garments particularly and something is sanded as a man as a man's voice shirt I'd like to say a word about the designer of the undergarments that we're going to be seeing van Davis o'dell was struck by a stroke herself and she realized how difficult it was for her to get into undergarments having been a dress designer she was particularly interested in this and so she has designed under garments that are easier anyway for the handicapped person woman to put on and I'd like to show you some of the methods that we use for getting into each of these garments I'd also like to impress you with the fact that these garments are important to people first of all we need these for protection of our other garments but also to help keep our body in shape as close in this country are mass-produced and that's reason you and I can have so many of the prices we have you will find also in women's and girls garments bust darts well in order to fit into these garments and are made or adaptation from patterns that are made we need this bus phones in the right place and the bras here helps to give us that kind of a figure well this one is made with hooks up and down the front of this bizarre as you see this could be a little velvet for people who have finger couple so we will show you some others far those who do not who might not be able to reach for instance around the back of the broad and get in shape this would be quite adequate for this kind of a closure this environment would not be hard jalandhar it could go right through the washing machine those hooks and eyes will well stand that sort of thing now let's take a look at the back women are often divided unless this Garmin fits very especially to this particular figure that's wearing it are these straps dropping off the shoulder line this cost wise peaceful astok here gives you see with body movement and would also help to keep these straps in place I think this isn't as important in this garment as the front closure is important now here's another way of getting the straps in place and this is a little different here as it sanctions with velcro or pressure tapes on each side now in order not to lose all these straps as we would find it difficult to reach around the back and get those you can just expand the line here by putting and but still holding in place by releasing this and giving you more wet to get into this and if there is no difficulty with the arms this could be slipped on over the head or you could keep one of these loosened and have some control of this garment while you kept the other one back it crosses in the back with two pieces of soft elastic and then bathrooms in the front I'd also like for you to notice that these straps are stretchable this seems to be of the coming feature is already here in our foundation garments it is not a strong stretch it just moves with a body let's say this also would help to keep the garment in place not only the straps but the garment itself I wanted to talk just a minute about a padded bra for the reasons that I suggested to you minute ago the ready-made dresses are but are made with less fullness and so are all the patterns that we get now patterns can be altered but this particular alteration is not the easiest one that we make in our soul with a bust operation and as a matter of fact we've been studying alteration of patterns here at the University and we haven't come up with all the answers yet well shy also adds that no other university has either you might also be interested to know that we have a doctor for me gineering department working on pattern alterations in the meantime until we've worked out more few more of the answers perhaps a padded bra would help some people not only that but psychologically I think sector women feel better when their proportions are as near right as we can make them in some instances this padded bra might just help in this direction now let's show the girdle because I think that this is almost a struggle for anyone to get on well sometimes it is and you'll see in this garment this is a very fine garment here it's lightweight and sent yet it has control of the figure we don't like a Balkan sickness in these garments in order to get in to these garments with some handicaps you see this one is made to open through the legs they're up to just about the middle of an of our figure at this place and then these suggestions are made that it might be easy for some women to put on their holes and sit on the edge of the bed while they unzip the zipper and stick their limbs down from here and this they will know then if when they're down into this zippers they can zip them up and open this part so that their body will go into it to the waistline I think some women have said that they are really can manipulate their bodies better and this depends I think on on their handicap whether they just lie flat on the bed and put their feet into this I think it might be a child either way the first time you put it on but both of these zippers do open you see and it gives you the maximum amount of width here to get your lamb sitting fee 3 now if we can going to look at the one-piece garments which would even be more of a construction feature for us it has a zip that goes down through the bra through the midriff area and also it lifts up the legs there is a Velcro closing so that it would be easy for you to put the garment on and then zip it up and the first you would need the zipper so that's that you would get the firmness and the foundation to remain stable the zip up on the leg would make it a much easier garment to put on show us the slip with a zipper down the front ogle I think this is this interval for anyone it's quite a nice garment and this is nylon you know the strength of nylon I think to remind ourselves sometimes we must remember that nylon goes in car tires so it is very strong it has just terrific abrasion resistance so if you have slept like this I'm not sure it would ever wear out even the lie so it looks delft it is also nylon and equally as strong so unless you catch it in something this this clip we'll just last a lifetime now this does open down over the bust and partway through the waistline so that this would give us an opportunity to get the most difficult part of the body into it the zipper is lightweight but firm and very strong but I don't think you'll feel that you have any difficulty and keeping this garment like it is now thank you guys it's beautiful thank you very much opal and that's about all the time we have to talk about clothes for the handicapped but I hope that you enjoyed our series I particularly wanted to thank opal Robertson who is our extension specialist in textiles and clothing here at Iowa State University for helping you to dress easier and feel just much better in your clothes we'll see you tomorrow on today's filmmaker Oh