Thursday, November 18, 2010

Nothing up my sleeve...except the rest of my jacket

For what it's worth, I came up with this simple, obvious way to turn my wind jacket into a streamlined bundle for easier carrying on the rear rack of my wet weather bike.

As easy as 1

2

3

I usually just roll it and tie it around my waist, but the day was a little warm and I didn't want to block my jersey pockets.

Sleeve-stuffing turns the jacket into a more tubular bundle than any other method, and perfectly restrains extraneous flappy bits.

5 comments:

Steve A said...

Do you have an equally elegant pants folding scheme?

RANTWICK said...

I am ashamed to say I couldn't figure out the steps. I had to play around with my own jacket to figure it out. I am a genius.

cafiend said...

@Rantwick: Yeah the trick is that there's not much of a trick. I was just mushing the jacket in different ways and sort of absent mindedly started stuffing it into its own sleeve. When I saw how it worked, I wondered why I had not done it long ago.

@Steve A: Depending on the weight of the material, you might be able to do a pantleg stuff similar to the sleeve stuff. For heavier fabric (like most trousers) the shape of most pants lends itself to neater rolling than jackets do.

My father showed his whole family how to roll and stop clothing so it could be stuffed into soft luggage and still emerge looking quite presentable. Even dress shirts emerge unwrinkled. He had learned this in the Coast Guard, when uniforms had to emerge from a seabag looking neat and tidy without access to an iron.

You can roll trousers by first laying them flat as if preparing to put them on a hanger in the closet. Make a diagonal fold in the bottom end of the pantleg that will be on the inside of the roll, so the hem makes a 45-degree angle. This keeps that inner leg from protruding when you roll the pants down tightly from the waistband. Secure the roll with rubber bands or straps. Not as tricky as sleeve-stuffing, but it does the job.

Leah said...

Nice! Have a pleasant holiday shopping season.

cafiend said...

That last comment is basically spam, but it links to a site selling utility cycles, so I'll let it pass.