Adaptive Clothing…. What Is It?
Adaptive clothing is defined as garments specifically designed to meet the needs of people with disabilities, limited mobility, or other physical challenges, making dressing easier, safer, and more comfortable.
Hi, I’m Nancy Cunningham, a sewist with many years of garment construction under my belt. I have sewn my own clothing for years and do alterations of all sorts.
I was approached by a friend who has an aging parent in a local nursing home, about making Adaptive Clothing. Her mom who is now in a wheelchair, needed some garments that were wheelchair friendly, easy to get on and off and comfortable to wear.
I soon was searching the internet and social media for patterns and construction details.
What I found was that there are limited resources available for Adaptive Clothing. I knew I was going to have to be creative. I would need to find out how Adaptive Clothing was constructed.
The best resources that I could find were ready made specialized clothing on websites. From the website pictures, I was able to draft the changes necessary to patterns that I already owned.
One garment requested was two-piece pajamas.
Sewing Patterns from Ellie and Mac have great adaptable pdf patterns and I would love to show you how I took the free Adult Classic PJ & Nightgown Pattern and created a fully adaptable pajama set for my friend’s mom!
Redrafting the Pattern
An Adaptive Wear T-shirt or top looks like a normal top from the front but the magic all happens in the back. The back has two layers, one covering the other and fastening at each shoulder with a series of snaps. The sides are concealed by the overlapping back pieces but have no fastenings other than the shoulder snaps. The two overlapping pieces ensure coverage, discretion and easy dressing.
I use a projector for cutting my patterns and these pictures below show the top back and the modifications I would need to make.
Basically, I needed to cut two backs but redraft the left side on the underlayer and the right side of the top layer.
As per my client’s measurements, I cut the sleeve to the proper length following the pattern and the crew necklines as well.
I also used the PJ bottom pattern from the Adult Classic PJ & Nightgown Pattern for the adaptive pajama pants.
Once again, the front was cut to the client’s size with no modifications and the back was cut with no seat, just the leg from the crotch area down to the hemline. I then drafted a skirt for the back of the pants that would overlap at the centre back by about 6 inches. The skirt length would need to be long enough to cover the seat area.
Construction
I coverstitched wherever hems were required; on both back pieces, the shirt hem and the crossover skirt pieces for the pants back.
The snap insertion area at each shoulder was reinforced by an interfaced facing for stability with the snaps repeated use.
The neck binding needed to be redrafted as it was one continuous piece from one back piece, around the front and across the other back neckline. I measured the neckline and cut at 80% for a perfect fit.
The pants front crotch seam was sewn and then I clean finished the top of each back leg piece. The back legs were attached to the front legs up to the crotch and the skirt pieces were sewn to the remainder of the sides up to the waistline.
I then attached the elastic to the waistline of the pants by pinning at the ¼ marks and stretching the elastic while serging it on the raw edge, then flipping it over and top stitching it down. Snaps were installed on the center back crossover of the skirt.
There are lots of Sewing Patterns by Ellie and Mac that can be adapted for disabilities, like the
With some easy modifications you can make some too!
- Written by Nancy Cunningham
