This invention relates to garment protectors and has been devised particularly though not solely for protecting the armpits of dresses or the like from perspiration. In the past it has been known to provide inserts for the armpits of dresses which are known by various names such as dress shields and which comprise a shaped portion • of absorbent fabric designed to be sewn into the interior armpit of a dress to absorb perspiration and prevent marking or staining of the dress. These dress shields are normally sewn into place by tacking stitches and then are untacked and washed before being resewn into the dress. ^" This procedure is fiddly and time consuming and" annoying for the user to hav to cut away the dress shield before laundering and then resew the dress shield into the armpit of the dress each time the ^* dress shield is laundered.

In this specification it is to be. nderstood that the term "dress" includes any similar garments such as blouses or jackets having armpits requiring protection from perspiration.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a garment protector which will obviate or minimize the foregoing disadvantages in a simple yet effective manner or which will at least provide the public with a useful choice Accordingly the invention may broadly be said to consist in a garment protector comprising a piece of absorbent sheet or pad material shaped to fit over the interior armpit of a dress or the like and having an adhesive

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layer over at least a part of the surface of the protector, said adhesive being positioned to enable the protector to be held in place in the armpit of a dress by pressing the adhesive covered portion or portions against the fabric of the dress.

Preferably the protector is made of a low cost disposable material which is not necessarily designed to be laundered.

Preferably said material comprises a pressed fibrous matt material.

Preferably said areas of adhesive layer are covered by a release strip designed to be peeled off before use revealing the adhesive layer for contact adhesion to the fabric of the garment. Alternatively said garment protectors are provided in pairs having the corresponding adhesive ' layers pressed together on facing surfaces and wherein the adhesive layers are exposed for use by peeling apart the pairs of garment protectors. Notwithstanding any other forms that may fall within its scope one preferred form of the invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawing which is a diagrammatic perspec- ^• tive view of a garment protector according to the invention. In the preferred form of the invention a garment protector particularly designed to protect the interior armpit of a dress or the like is formed from a sheet or pad like material to any desired shape designed to fit the armpit of the dress but which may typically comprise two crescent shaped portions 1 and 2 fastened or folded together along a common backbone or ridge 3. The protector may be made of any suitable absorbent material but is preferably formed from a cheap disposable material such as a fibrous cotten or fibre pulp based material as is commonly used for the manufacture of tissue or absorbent pads.

The garment protector is coated with a contact adhesive in areas where it is necessary to adhere the protector to the garment. By way of example only these areas could include the tip portions 4 of the crescent areas and the interior area 5 along the backbone of the protector. Alternatively if it is not necessary to coat the entire backbone area with adhesive the corners 6 may be adhesive coated. The adhesive covered areas are then covered with a pull off release strip which may for .example be of waxed paper of a type commonly used with contact adhesive of this type.

In use when it is desired to insert a garment protector according to the invention into the armpit of a dress the release strips are removed from the areas of contact adhesive and the protector is aligned into the desired position in the armpit of the dress. The adhesive covered areas are then pressed firmly against the fabric of the dress to adhere the protector firmly in place.

Once the protector has become used and is desired to be replaced the protector is simply peeled away from the armpit of the dress and replaced by a new protector in a similar manner.

In this way .a garment protector is provided which is cheap and simple to manufacture being made of a comparatively cheap material and which is simple and easy to use without the fuss of sewing or laundering required with prior art equivalents.