Cool wraps,
cool ties, cool packs, neck coolers and spin coolers.
Sew
a piece of light cotton cloth as a container for dry Water Crystals. It could be in the
shape of a necktie, head band or a pad to drape over a portion of your body or as a pad
with cells or pockets for a pet to lay on.
Either sew-in a quantity of dry crystals, or
place a desired amount of hydrated crystals inside and seal by sewing a
closing seam. Use as little as a quarter-teaspoonful of dry
crystals per cooler or 18-inch long cell.
We advise people new to
making cool wraps to first fully hydrate a teaspoonful of dry Water
Crystals to determine the desired volume of polymer to work within
individual pieces.
After this test, you can
cut back or add product accordingly. Too many crystals
fighting for the same space to hydrate can create an unpleasant wrap,
looking more like a leaky sausage than an pleasant evaporative cooler. What
may have worked for one cool wrap maker, may not work for another.
That's because not all polymers have the same characteristics. We recommend testing.
Each ounce of dry
crystals contains 6 level teaspoons. Some large neck coolers that we've
seen incorporate a full teaspoonful; others, a half; still others, less.
Each dry
Water Crystal should swell to approximately 1/2 to 3/4 inch when
completely hydrated. If yours do not, you need to keep adding water to
your container until the crystals are that large.
So, from each (dry) ounce
expect to make
from 6 to 12 neck coolers, each using a half- to a full-teaspoonful. From a
pound of Water Crystals, expect to have enough material to make between 96
and 192 coolers, depending
on your fabric size. (That is
based on one pound yielding 6-12 neck coolers per ounce multiplied
times 16 ounces in a
pound.)
When sewn, soak in cool water, and you've got a cool
wrap, cool pack, cool tie or cool pad for your forehead in the summer heat. When it
dehydrates, soak it again. And, it's perfectly safe to use cold water or
even place your neck cooler in the fridge to get even cooler.
Read an excellent article that details another way to
sew a neck cooler in the July 2004 issue of Sew News Magazine. Or,
select this link for a
printer-friendly version. (A new window will open.)
