Make your own Elastic Arch Support

Have you heard of this?

This has several names, including arch bandage or arch elastic. Some brands have a gel pad or other insert to be placed under the arch of the foot, so they have names like arch support, arch support bandage, elastic relief cushioned arch support or therapeutic arch support

Oh, how creative these names can be!  To be honest, there is one creative name ... "strut" plus the letter "Z" at the end.

My husband was told to wear an elastic arch support on his aching foot.  Apparently, he bought a two-pack a while back that cost about 15 dollars.  Since his work is mostly standing and walking, he left one at work, leaving one at home, to be worn most of the time.

After a while, the elastic started to fail and he was going to have to search for a new one.

Sewing wife to the rescue!

I bought a package of 2" wide knit elastic. You can be assured that I used a coupon, so it didn't cost much. It looks a lot like this:

I measured around the arch of his foot, and it was between 10 1/4 and 10 1/2 inches. Just by guess and by golly, I said, "Eh, let's try ten inches."

I cut one end of the elastic straight across, measured ten inches from end, and drew a straight line across. I then pinned it together so the end metthe line:

I set my machine to a wide and long zigzag stitch.  Thinking that if it didn't fit, I could remove the stitching, so I didn't even backstitch either end of the seam. To be sure, it was "fun" stitching in the hole:

Hah!  It fit so well, that I re-stitched it:

He liked it so much that he requested I make one bigger, in case he wanted to wear one over his socks while sleeping. So, I did, which is why I also wrote the sizes on them:

I think I made three at 10" length, and two at 10 1/4" length.

I bought more elastic for when these wear out, although some have already gone through the laundry and have been hung to dry.

Let me know if you find this useful.