Deodorant Holder for Individuals With Disabilities

The deodorant holder was designed to help individuals with limited hand dexterity apply deodorant independently. It consists of a Velcro sinching strap to secure the deodorant and can be equipped with either a Velcro hand strap or a polypropylene hand clip. This design is compatible with different types of deodorant, comfortable for the user, and relativity inexpensive to produce. 

Hook and Loop Velcro (Velcro Housing)

D-Ring (2" D-Ring)

Velcro Hand (Velcro Hand Strap) 

Polypropylene Sheet (Polypropylene Sheet)

Affixing the D-Ring

1.     Cut a 9” strip of Loop Velcro and a 1” strip of Hook Velcro

2.     Set stitch type, length, and width (Fig. 1-2)

3.     Mark D-ring stitches (red dashed lines) with pins according to sewing pattern (Fig. 3-4)

4.     Insert Loop Velcro into D-ring, with flat surface facing inside, and meet two ends of strip so the pins overlap (Fig. 5)

5.     Keeping the strap in place, carefully remove pins and sew a straight line where the pins were located (Fig. 6)

Adding Buttonholes

1.     Set stitch type, length, and width (Fig. 7-8)

2.     Mark buttonhole stitches (thick green lines) with pins according to sewing pattern (Fig. 3, Fig. 9)

3.     Sew the bottom of the buttonhole, making sure the rightmost (leftmost for bottom buttonhole) needle location is ¼” from strap edge

4.     Change stitch type (Fig. 10) and sew the left side of the buttonhole  

5.     Change stitch type (Fig. 7) and sew the top of the buttonhole  

6.     Change stitch type (Fig. 11) and sew the right side to finish the buttonhole (Fig. 12)

7.     Using a seam ripper or hot knife, cut open the buttonhole (Fig. 13)

8.     If seam ripper is used, seal edges of cut fabric with lighter or soldering iron

Affixing the Thumb Loop and Hook Velcro

1.     Set stitch type, length, and width (Fig. 7-8)

2.     With loop side facing up, sew thumb loop onto Velcro strap according to sewing pattern (Fig. 3, Fig. 14-15)

3.     Set stitch type, length, and width (Fig. 1-2)

4.     Add hook Velcro section over thumb loop stitches, align edges with end of Velcro strap, and sew onto strap according to sewing pattern (Fig. 3, Fig. 16) 

5.     Finalized Deodorant Holder (Fig. 17-18) 

1.     Cut a 7'' x 1'' strip out of an 1/8” thick sheet of polypropylene using a bandsaw or waterjet

2.     Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place cut polypropylene strip on top

3.     Heat polypropylene strip in an oven at 160° Celsius for 10 minutes, then increase to 170° Celsius for 5 minutes in order to reach its moldable state

4.     Remove from the oven and transfer strip to a heat resistant flat surface

5.     Place the male part of the mold on top of the strip, making sure to align the flat end of the mold with one end of the strip

6.     Use pliers to wrap the strip around the male mold

7.     Insert the polypropylene wrapped male mold into the female solid sand or wood mold and apply clamps to hold molds in place (Fig.22)

8.     Cool down to room temperature (~1.5 hours)

9.     Sand edges until smooth (fillet ~1mm) 

To mitigate the outward flexing of the polypropylene sheet flex after it is separated from the mold, the hand clip drawing for thermoforming (Fig. 23) is the same shape as finalized plastic hand clip design (Fig. 24) but with a -1mm offset of the surface curvature. 

We thank the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation for providing support for this project.