Protective Garment

Abstract

A protective garment comprising a seamless, transparent, plastic body of tubular design having gathered elastic loops at the opposite ends thereof. In one embodiment, the loops are of such size as to be worn about the waist and the length of the body is such as to extend along both the inside and the outside of a coat or other piece of feminine apparel to be protected. In another embodiment, the body is of such length as to be worn between the upper thigh and the ankle and the opposite ends thereof are provided with elastic loops of differing sizes, one end to be worn about the upper thigh and the other end to be worn about the ankle.

Parent Case Text

This is a divisional application of U.S. Ser. No. 113,177, filed Feb. 8, 1971, entitled "Protective Garment" which issued on Sept. 26, 1972 as U.S. Pat. No. 3,693,189.

Description

This invention relates to protective garments for human apparel and particularly to the design of inexpensive transparent garments of pliable material which are adapted to be worn temporarily over normal human apparel during inclement weather.

It is well known that human apparel, including particularly outer garments, are subject to soiling when worn during inclement weather. The longer outer coat styles are especially subject to soiling from water and slush which may be splashed onto such garments during winter weather. The repeated cleaning of such garments is, of course, reasonably expensive and in many cases shortens the useable lifetime of the garment.

As a result there has been developed in the prior art a type of protective garment which is typically worn over normal human apparel for the purpose of protecting the apparel against such soiling conditions. One such protective garment is illustrated in the patent to Jennings, U.S. Pat. No. 2,798,224, as comprising a somewhat tubular body of transparent plastic material which is provided at one end with an axial zipper and a waistband and at the other end with an elastic corset section which fits tightly over the hips and is also provided with an inelastic waistband. This garment is complicated and would appear to be expensive to produce. In addition, the use of inelastic waistbands at the axially-opposite ends thereof suggests a certain lack of adaptability thereof to various users of various sizes and would appear to require at least some degree of custom fitting. Another similar protective garment is shown in the patent to Marks, U.S. Pat. No. 2,994,088, to comprise a substantially rectangular sheet of transparent plastic material with axially-oriented fasteners along two sides to permit the garment to be wrapped around one and closed in a tubular shape. One axial end of the garment is provided with a drawstring which may be adjustably fastened about one's waist and the other end of the garment is provided with an elastic band so as to be worn about one's knees. In use, the Marks garment is worn in a draped fashion with one portion bloused over the garment to be protected and another axial end of looped up inside of the garment to be protected and fastened about one's knees. The elasticity of the portion which is fastened about the knees appears to permit one to walk although with apparently restricted freedom.

It is the principal object of the present invention to provide an improved protective garment similar in certain respects to the Jennings and Marks garments but in which no axial opening is required and which is both inexpensive and simple to manufacture and is simple to wear and further is of such design as to accommodate a wide variety of wearer sizes. In general, this is accomplished by fabricating the protective garment so as to provide an elongated tubular body of flexible transparent, nonporous material, such as transparent plastic and by providing at the opposite axial ends of the body elastic loops of lesser normal diameter than the body intermediate the ends when in the unflexed condition.

In one illustrative embodiment of the invention as hereinafter described, the elastic loops are of substantially identical diameter and are of such size as to be worn about one's waist. The length of the garment, thus illustrated may, of course, be variable but generally is of such dimension as to permit one axial portion of the garment to be worn over the apparel to be protected and the other axial portion of the garment to be worn under, i.e., inside of, the apparel to be protected. Thus, both axial ends of the garment are placed about one's waist with the apparel to be protected being completely enclosed, both inside and outside by the protective garment. The use of elastic loops at the opposite ends of the body permits the use of the garment by wearers of various sizes and obviates the need for custom fitting. Moreover, the preferred seamless construction of the garment is such as to eliminate high-stress areas and the need for any sort of axial fasteners, thus, permitting the use of a light-weight, inexpensive material and the elimination of substantially all hand finishing during the fabrication thereof.

In another illustrative form of the invention as hereinafter described, the axially opposite ends of the body of transparent nonporous material are of dissimilar diameters, one end being of such size as to be snugly fit about one's upper thigh and the other end of the body being of such diameter as to be fit snugly about one's ankle. In this embodiment the length of the body is such as to correspond roughly with the length of one's leg and, thus, the garment may be worn over the legs of a pair of slacks or trousers. Two such garments are normally worn independently by the average person.

The various features and advantages of the present invention will be better understood by a reading of the following specification which specification is to be taken with the accompanying drawings of which:

FIG. 1 is a side view of a first embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a front view of a model applying a second embodiment of the invention to the protection of an outer coat; and,

FIG. 3 is a front view of the same model with the second embodiment of the invention completely applied.

Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown a first embodiment of the invention in the form of a protective garment 10 which is adapted to be worn over the legs to protect slacks and trousers. The garment 10 comprises an elongated tubular body 12 of pliable transparent, nonporous material, such as plastic, the axial length of the body 12 being roughly equal to if not slightly greater than the length of one's leg between the upper thigh and the ankle. Body 12 is formed of a seamless extruded plastic material of continuous length, such material being cut into the desired length during the manufacturing process. Body 12 has at the left end, as shown in FIG. 1, an elastic loop 14 comprising a band of elastic material which is disposed inside of a turned-back hem. The plastic material from which body 12 is made is preferably such as to be weldable to itself under heat and pressure so as to fully enclose and entrap the elastic band. The opposite end of the body 12 is similarly gathered and formed into an elastic loop 16 comprising an elastic band which is entrapped within a turned-over and welded hem of the plastic material. The loop 16 is of such diameter as to fit snugly about one's ankle whereas the loop 14 is of such diameter as to fit snugly about one's upper thigh. The loop sizes are determined by the sizes of the elastic bands rather than by the material of the body 12. Thus, the garment 10 may be worn over slacks or trousers between the upper thigh and the ankle to provide protection thereof against inclement weather. The garment 10 may, of course, be manufactured in various lengths so as to be marketable to a broad spectrum of persons.

Referring now to FIGS. 2 and 3, there is shown a second protective garment 18 which is adapted particularly for the protection of feminine apparel, such as skirts and coats. The garment 18 comprises a tubular, seamless, elongated body 20 of flexible, transparent, nonporous material, such as plastic, having gathered elastic loops 22 and 24 formed at the opposite axial ends thereof. Loops 22 and 24 are formed by entrapping a band of elastic material within a turned-back and welded hem. The loops 22 and 24 are of such dimension in the unflexed condition as to be of lesser diameter than the body 20 intermediate the axial ends. This is indicated by the gathering of the body material adjacent the loops 22 and 24.

As shown in FIG. 2, the overall length of the body 20 of garment 18 between the loops 22 and 24 is such as to be approximately double the length of the skirt or other apparel which is to be protected. In this embodiment, as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3, the apparel to be protected is a coat 26 of average length and, thus, protective garment 18 is axially of such length as to be approximately twice the length of the coat 26 between the waist and the bottom edge of the coat.

FIG. 2 illustrates the manner in which the garment 18 is worn for the protection of coat 26. In FIG. 2 the model has placed the elastic loop 22 about her waist over her skirt but under the coat 26 which is to be protected. It can be seen that the garment 18 extends downwardly over the skirt and legs and is partially looped back up toward the model's waist. In FIG. 3, the model is seen to have closed and fastened the coat 26 around one axial portion of the garment 18. In addition, the model has slipped the axial portion of garment 18 between the center and the elastic loop 24 upwardly over the outside of the coat 26 until the elastic loop 24 is approximately at waist height. In this condition, the garment 18 extends along both the inside and outside surfaces of the coat 26 between the waist line of the wearer and the bottom of the coat, thus, protecting it against splashing water, slush and other soiling elements. Holes 28 are punched or otherwise formed around the upper part of garment 18 to exhaust excess air when putting the garment on. The holes 28 are about six in number and are disposed about 2-3 inches below the waist loop 24.

It is to be understood that the garment 18 may be fabricated in various lengths for wearers of different height as well as for coats, skirts, and other apparel of varying length. For example, a long garment 18 might be worn with ankle length skirts and coats whereas a short length garment would be worn for the protection of a skirt or a skirt length garment. The garment 18 may, of course, be worn in combination with the garment 10 of FIG. 1.

Although the following dimensions are not be construed as in any way limiting the invention thereto, they are given by way of illustrative example. The garment 10 may be made of tubular, seamless, plastic material having a constant 15 inch width (double) when laid flat and being cut into lengths of approximately 34 inches. The preferred material is 2 mil polyethylene. The garment 18 of FIGS. 2 and 3 may be formed of seamless tubular material having a flat width of approximately 30 inches and a length of approximately 60 inches between the hemlines. Again, seamless, tubular two mil polyethylene material is preferred. It can be seen that the seamless, constant width character of the material from which garments 10 and 18 are made eliminates hand finishing except for the loops at the ends and yet results in an attractive, highly useful product.

The foregoing description is understood as being illustrative in nature and is not to be construed as limiting the invention.

Claims

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A protective garment for human apparel comprising: an elongated tubular body of pliable transparent, non-porous material and of a length approximately equal to the length of a human leg between upper thigh and ankle, said body having at the opposite ends thereof bands of elastic material to define gathered loops, one loop being relatively large so as to fit snugly about one's thigh and the other loop being relatively small to fit snugly about one's ankle thereby to maintain the body properly positioned about one's leg without the need for additional support elements, the width of said body being substantially uniform between said gathered loops and of such dimension as to fit loosely about a leg garment such as slacks to protect the same from inclement weather and soiling elements.