Elastics

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

Over the years, people have complained about the elastics. A C Medical had kind of rough elastics,Comco had wide elastics covered in cloth Gary elastics are a bit hard as are Babykins rubber panties, as well as very tight. Most of the early rubber baby panties by companies like Playtex had wide, what was more like gatherers and some of the other rubber panties had regular elastics. However, I saw one kind of elastic in the late '60's that might do. It was a long piece of white rubber sewn onto the panty with some kind of what looked like monfiliment line. It appeared to be folded in half over the top of the waist and leg openings and sewn in place, it was about 3/4" wide and quite soft andmoderately tight. The body of the panties was long enough at the side seams so that the diaper was well covered by the material so that the needle holes, quite small, were no problem

Forward-facing leg openings are only an advantage if the body of the panty is not sufficient and they are trying to get as much coverage in the back as possible. Contrary to being an advantage, they are acover-up for a design defect. Old time rubber panties were stretchy and early plastic panties were larger of body than they are now and could swallow up 3 diapers (the very early ones were homemade from what we can find) As such, they allowed several ways to diaper the baby since both the front and the back were full-cut and equal so you did not need ultra-tight elastics Prefold diapers kind of ended all of that. Little just wore extra large baby panties unless one were willing to try and find panties made for them, which took some doing

At any rate, rubber panty elastics can be made differently

[vvp39]

"Forward-facing leg openings are only an advantage if the body of the panty is not sufficient and they are trying to get as much coverage in the back as possible. Contrary to being an advantage, they are acover-up for a design defect."

I suspect that you're in the minority here; most everyone prefers forward-facing elastics, which after all are the norm on underpants for either sex, being a concession to the fact that most humans spend a good deal of their time sitting.

The elastics of plastic panties or rompers are part of their appeal whether you actually need them for dealing with incontinence or not. For me the feel of the waist elastic on a full-cut Gary or InControl panty definitely adds to the overall pleasure of wearing it, giving me a secure comfort vibe especially when I'm wearing it all day, while the elastics on a bikini-cut panty give a bit of a racy feeling and seem to hold the plastic a bit tighter on me.

Since I wear my plastic panties next to my skin for pleasure, I like a fairly snug fit. My thighs are larger than usual, so a snug fit often means that the leg elastics are tighter than I'd really prefer...but so far, not enough that I've gone to the trouble of getting custom-fit pants. I have noticed that InControl elastics seem to be a bit easier on my skin than Gary elastics.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

Rubber panties are not "normal" underwear. Part of the mission is to accommodate  things inside them. For the best use, those things can get to be fairly bulky and large, Forward-facing legs make the front half smaller and the panty less full. Also, a more "pantaloon" shape lets the panties be fitted and adjusted, usually by Mommy in the case of infants and children, to suit the use.  It must be understood that the old-style, front-back symmetrical panties had a longer side seam as well and even some of those with forward-facing openings had longer side seams as well 50-75 years ago

Since you do not wear diapers under them. That which makes baby panties fit for their primary purpose is of no concern to you. Those who do wear diapers, especially bulky ones, should have the  option of maximum coverage

[Alyeskabird]

I fear once more I must agree with Little Babydoll Christine, most plastic pants that I find now days are desigined to be worn without diapers, or over disposable diapers. They do not have the space to except cloth diapers, and even more so, several cloth diapers at once. She also pointed out that a lot of diferent elastics have been used over the years by the diferent companys. Kinda a odd subject, but, wearing plastic and rubber pants, you kinda do want to know things like that. Do not remember the brand, but there was one plastic pants, had really comfortable elastic, good fit, and was very roomy, ment for over lots of cloth diapers, gut the elastics would wick, and not just a little. I think I had gotten them from DPF? Was a long time ago.

I also have to mention that the forward facing leg holes was a cost saving method as well. The manufacture saved a a little money switching to that patern, cause they could use less material, and claim t he same fit and sizing.

[Marta]

Must say I prefer forward facing leg holes and not a fan of wide elastic either, and prefer elastic to be covered in plastic as well. All forward facing ones fit well over my terry cloth as I like to have full coverage at the back. But find with the others the cloth had a habit of coming out at the back of the legs, and not enough plastic to push up and under at the rear of the legs.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

The main idea of this threade was elastics and the ones I described on some baby panties from the mid/late '60's,. Since they were made of rubber, they were by nature non-wicking

As to the forward facing leg openings. They  make the panties less noticeable by making them less  full, which is fine with throw-aways, being ultra-thin or situations where you do not mind changing every two hours or so if totally urinary or fecally IC But if you are at home expecting nobody then bukky diapers mean you can go 6 to 8 hours between changes. Also, you would not be worrid about the elastics  wicking with larger bodied panties since you would have plenty of coverage as they would cover well above and below the diaper(s) or could be folded under the waist and legs of the diaper as was done in the early days of plastic panties in the late '40''s

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

Because this thread has been well used, it has made it into the "Conversation" section of RUBBER PANTIES'R'US

[Alyeskabird]

Well I am glad someone brought up this topic, as it is usefull to know. Been planing to start experamenting with sewing my own plastic pants, cause its a pain buying them. Just being reminded of diferent sorts of elastic around helps, as instead of getting whats at the local frabric store, I will give a go and do some looking around to find better elastics. Though, as the stuff has changed over the years, the elastic available now is better than the stuff we could find in the 70s and 80s.

[BabyJune]

I make my waterproof pants out of PUL fabric (polyurethane lamiate). for the leg openings, I use FOE (fold-over elastic). A little tricky since you have to stretch and sew at the same time but it works great. For the waist, I sew a casing and thread 3/4" elastic into that. Remember when washing waterproof pants with elastic to use low wateer temperature and don't dry them on high heat. Mine have lasted for years and are still going strong. There are probaby some good video tutorials on YouTube on how to make elasticized waterproof diaper covers.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

Since a few persons make their own. Who would like a "DIY" Thread in this forum?

I am not making it a poll so that it requires a genuine interest to make your wishes known and I need at least 5 to make it worth the space in a forum. This ends on Feb 15

[Alyeskabird]

Fold over elastic is not that hard to do. Its a simple extra step, you gotta do the strech and sew for any sort of elastic thats sewn onto fabric. Foldover is just an extra step added to the whole thing. Its not that hard. Ahh well, sorry, been sewing for years, just, not had the space, or a machine to do much of anything the last 2 decades.

[WetDad]

There is a rather nice lady on YouTube that does a sew-it-yoself thing. https://www.youtube.com/@littleonioncloth9345

 

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

48 minutes ago, WetDad said:

There is a rather nice lady on YouTube that does a sew-it-yoself thing. https://www.youtube.com/@littleonioncloth9345

 

Do they cover rubber panties?