Rain gear... living in the Pacific Northwest, rain is a common thing to cope with. Raingear is nice for keeping the rain off your protected layers, however, the lack of breathability of rain gear ends up allowing your sweat (when working/active) to get clammy/wet from the inside.
I'm fixin' to make a batch of waterproofing for cotton outerwear. I'll be curious as to whether it's "more gooder", or the same as rain gear. My plan, treat some Carhartts. The treatment should be similar in protection as oilskin.
The recipe is:
01 lb. Beeswax (melted)
08 oz. Boiled Linseed Oil
08 oz. Turpentine
One can "paint it on" while in a liquid state, but you risk caking it on pretty thick, and burning through your product. The other, is to allow it to cool/solidify to a paste. Rub it into your cloth, and then hit it with a heat gun to melt it into the fibers in a more controlled manner. A little extra to stitched seams.
You probably lose some/most of the breathability of untreated cotton. But w/o the hassle of toting around rain gear, donning it when the rains hit, having the wind-break benefits of "oilskin", having more stain resistance of an oilskin treatment... it may be a better choice. Not to mention, the durability of Carhartts when crashing through thickets, brambles, brush... could end up being a "more gooder" option.
