Finally used my jacket this past wkd. I liked it just as much as I thought I would if not more. Skeeters were fairly bad at camp so I wore it for bug protection, with the hood up. It's light enough that I didn't get hot, even though it was warm enough without. It also fared excellently in a fairly good 10 min rain, took the chill off in my sleeping bag at 4:00 AM, and was perfect to stave off the cool temps later that morning while cooking breakfast. I didn't get to test it as a windbreaker but I'm betting I like it for that as well.

Out of all the things I have modified or made, this jacket is one of my favorite pieces. Superb fit for me, feather weight, supple and super comfy. Best of all was the $10 price tag and the joy of making it.

Mosquitoes couldn't bite through tyvek? That'd be a big plus for tyvek.

Just a question. Are the dri ducks similar to the tyvek material? I have been thinking about getting a pair of the dri ducks, because of the weight and cost, but this thread has me thinking about trying the tyvek suit. I would have an added bonus because my wife sews as a profession and could probably do this very easily... Humm

DriDucks material is not Tyvek. It is a waterproof/breathable film over non-woven support fabric. Durability is about the same - maybe higher than the thin Tyvek. I used a DriDucks rainsuit as rain/wind/bug protection through an entire AT thruhike with no problems. It is sufficiently breathable to wear as bug protection around camp in warm weather. I have even put it on during mosquito ridden rest stops and dried my sweat-soaked clothing. It also worked as my outer windsuit at zero Fahrenheit.

"Mosquitoes couldn't bite through tyvek"?

I'm not sure if these were just wimpy mosquitoes or what, but they were no bother at all on my body parts this jacket covered.

Thanks Vic for sharing your experience with the driducks, I appreciate the information.

I just bought a couple of these suits to make the same modifications. Thanks for the ideas and insight!


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0008F4HP6/ref=ox_ya_os_product

So cheap!

Let us know what you come up with, Rem.

Funny, I just placed an order yesterday for these for use in the same purpose:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0008F5HGY/ref=pe_175190_21431760_3p_M3T1_ST1_dp_1

I wonder what the difference, aside from size, is?

I'll post results when I'm done. Don't know if I'll be making chaps, too.

I've heard that the clothing type Tyvek fabric is by itself only somewhat highly water resistant (wheras the Homewrap is noticeably more so), wouldn't it be a good idea to coat it with some kind of DWR type repellent? Or would it still just wet out anyways if in an extended downpour?

I ended up making a pullover. The material was easy to work with and much more water resistant than I imagined. I did all the sewing by hand because I'm a college student and I was away from home while making it. I would post a picture, but now I'm home and the jacket isn't...

I took the hint from above to seam seal the entire thing - which added strength to the places where I did some hand sewing.

My process went as follows:

1. Put on the tyvek suit (my roommate was very confused)
2. Mark the suit with a marker about waster high to know where to cut
3. Cut the suit with scissors (make sure the zipper is above the cut so the jacket will zip)
4. Rip the seams about halfway up the jacket
5. Cut the zipper with scissors
6. Sew the pullover back together where the zipper used to be
7. Seam seal (I used standard seam sealant used for tents and the likes)
8. Try on the jacket - at this point I noticed the hood did not fit well
9. I marked the hood with a marker, cut it to make it smaller, and stitched it back together, then seam sealed it

I eye-balled all the measurements. I'm not experienced with this stuff and it took me about an hour and a half, plus the time for the seam seal to dry. In January when I'm back in school I'll post a picture. I'm sorry I forgot to either snap a quick picture or bring the jacket home with me.

I did not make chaps.

I like how the jacket turned out, but I realized that I may not end up using it. My houdini likely fulfills the same function.

I also have not weighed it yet - I was in a rush to get home and this project fell off my radar.

Hopefully some of this response is helpful.

Thanks again for sharing the idea!

I hesitated to dye my jacket and chaps due to the limited success I had read about from others. However, it dawned on me that this is a different Tyvek than that of used on buildings...so I gave it a go.

Knowing the end result is rarely the color of dye you purchase...particularly with synthetic materials, I went for black hoping to get a dark grey. It ended up gray with a bit of a bluish tint. Not exactly what I was hoping for but it's far more subdued than the stark white. I was pleased with the evenness of the dye. Not blotchy at all. Over all, I'm pleased. Below is how I went about it:

I prewashed everything by hand then threw it in the solution: A full package of RIT dye in 1.5 gallons of near boiling water with 1/2-3/4 cup white vinegar. I thoroughly swished this around every 10 minutes for 3 hours, hand rinsed, then washed in the wash machine with a small amount of liquid detergent with a double rinse.

The total cost of this sexy get-up is now $12.

Bump for a great idea. Thanks Will, Rusty and everyone else, now I have a super light $8 rain jacket / mosquito jacket / pillow thing.

I got the XL for my ape arms, cut in super long (mid thigh) and took it in at the waist. 3.3oz. I may dye it, I may go to town with a sharpie.

Good job to both Rem and James!

"I've heard that the clothing type Tyvek fabric is by itself only somewhat highly water resistant (whereas the Homewrap is noticeably more so), wouldn't it be a good idea to coat it with some kind of DWR type repellent? Or would it still just wet out anyways if in an extended downpour?"

Wind shirts normally have zero hydrostatic head and only can be considered water repellent. Tyvek has some hydrostatic head. For 1443R Tyvek the Hydrostatic head is 850mm. Some tyvek versions have more than 3,000mm hydrostatic head. Tue DuPont TY127S Disposable suit mentioned above has a hydrostatic head or 1,000mm according to a quick google search. Most water proof fabrics have a hydrostatic head of 17,000mm or more.

So in a rain storm that would cause a wind shirt to completely soak through in a minute, tyvek can still keep you dry. Only in very heavy rain will a limited amount of water get through tyvek. If a fabric has some hydrostatic head mosquitoes cannot bite through.

Please note there are versions of tyvek that are pin perforated. Pin perforated Tyvek, like a wind shirt, also has no hydrostatic head.

Also Tyvek is made from Polyethylene plastic which is inherently DWR. There is no need to add a wash in DWR to tyvek. Besides wash in DWR coatings will not add any hydrostatic head to any fabric.

If the forecast is 100% chance of rain and I had a choice of Tyvek and a wind shirt, I would take the Tyvek.

Edited by Surf on 06/15/2013 01:46:20 MDT.