Adaptive Clothing for Wheelchair Users

The option of wearing slacks is yours again!

After battling with the problem of dressing and using the bathroom when I could no longer stand up long enough to have my slacks pulled up and down, I discovered the incredible convenience of open back adaptive slacks. Yes, they sound embarrassing, but how often do you jump up out of your chair in public? Unless you stand up, no one can tell that you aren't wearing ordinary slacks!

The pros far outweigh the single con of not wearing underwear under them. Underwear is not recommended for people in wheelchairs anyway -- it adds seams that can cause pressure sores. Instead, put a hand towel on your cushion (long side front to back) and sit on that. In addition to being comfortable, absorbent, easy to change and wash each day, a towel can be pulled from behind your back to scoot you up in your chair.

The pros are:

	Easy dressing while lying or sitting. No hard tugging required. If you are in bed, your care giver can slip your legs in and turn you side to side to close the back. If you are in you chair or on the toilet, your caregiver can slip your legs in, lift your thighs up to get the legs up under you, overlap the back edges to velcro them closed, and tuck the sides under your hips and fanny.
	Super easy transfers to the toilet and back again whether you are being lifted to transfer or using a sling and lift. The open bottom means your slacks don't have to be tugged down and then up again. Just lift and sit! The opening keeps the slacks well out of the line of fire and makes wiping easy.
	They even make using a urinal easy for women. Your caregiver just scoots you down in your chair enough that you can pee over the edge, puts the urinal firmly in place against you, and you can go without the hassle of finding an accessible bathroom. When finished and wiped, you caregiver can scoot you back up using the towel you are sitting on. (My female caregivers need to stand on a stepstool to scoot me up.) I bought a female urinal to use on a trip but now use it at home too. It is a real time saver!

I first purchased some open back slacks from Silverts, but wanted more fabric choices than gaberdine or sweatpant fleece. My mom adapted some regular slacks for me and they were great. Because my mom lives so far away, I soon had my husband adapting them for me. He is a REAL man who learned to use the sewing machine just for me! And that also tells you the degree of sewing expertise it takes to adapt pants. We started buying stretchy pants to adapt but I really wanted to wear jeans too, so we tried a pair of elastic waist ones without the heavy duty pockets, rivets, etc. and they actually work better than stretch pants. "Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On"!

One tip when shopping for slacks to adapt: Waist size is not as important as hip and thigh. The waist will be adjusted when you adapt them. That works perfectly for me since my waistline has expanded a lot since being in a wheelchair and on a vent. Now I don't have to buy pants with clown sized legs just to get them around my belly!

Back	If the slacks you are adapting have an elastic waist band, the first step is to stitch the elastic inside to keep it from retracting when you cut the waist band. Just stitch across the waistband about 1/2" on each side of the center back seam. as indicated by the red stitching lines.
Back	Cut down each side of the center back seam and across the bottom to remove it. Cut through the waistband and down to 1" above the crotch seam.
Back	Cut across the pant legs on each side of the bottom edge of the cut out seam. These cuts should be only half way across the pant leg.
Back	Open the slacks out and zigzag stitch along the edges of the cuts. (A good seamstress or tailor will want to add facings or at least fold and stitch the raw edges. Doing so will put a thick seam directly under the bones you sit on. It will be uncomfortable at best and may lead to pressure sores!) Add two or three rows of stitching outside the point of the cuts to prevent tearing.
Front	Turn the slacks over...
Front	...and cut two pieces of fabric about four inches wide and as long as the back opening plus enough extra length to fold over to create an extension to the waistband. A thin person may need the strip narrower. It is nice to find fabric that is a close match to that of the pants, but not critical. These flaps won't be visible when you are in your chair anyway. If matching fabric is important to you, look for slacks that have pockets sewn in along the side seams. The pockets can be removed, the side seams sewn shut, and the fabric from the pockets pieced together to make the flaps.
Front	With right sides together, stitch the flaps to the pants, the bottom edge even with the cuts across the pant legs.
Front	Fold the extra length down to to the inside form the waistband extension and stitch. Zigzag stitch or hem the raw edges. (You won't be sitting on these edges so hemming is ok.)
Front	Stitch a strip of velcro to the outside of the waistband on one flap.
Back	Turn the pants over and stitch the other half of the velcro to the inside of the other flap. I recommend just basting the velcro in place until the slacks can be tried on. The position of the velcro, and possibly the width of the flaps may need to be adjusted to fit when overlapped.