Wednesday, March 5, 2008

DIY Knickers Part 1

My standard riding wear (far right) in the fall/winter tends to be a t-shirt or two with some sort of jacket and arm warmers if needed. My lower half is usually BDU shorts with either bike shorts and leg warmers or tights and leg warmers underneath. It can occasionally leave a bit to be desired, but it gets the job done most days in Richmond.

I have been searching a pair of knickers to add to my roster for a while now. A lot of bike specific shops sell and produce them. They vary widely in quality and price, I'll put a few examples in the site watch at the bottom of this page. Today however, I got the wild hair to try and customize my own knickers. Sure I could just order some, but where is the fun. Plus my standards aren't too high for bike wear so what could go wrong.

Goals
- Custom length legs (I have a wide waist compared to my short legs)
- Velcro outer pockets
- Cell phone/Camera inner pocket (made with scrap fabric)
- Custom embroidered logo (later date, depends on price)

Parts
- BDU Trouser (Tan) - $35.00 local army surplus
- Velcro (Stripes) - $4.00 local fabric shop
- Scrap Fabric - $0.43 local fabric shop

Regular tan BDU trousers.
Leg to be hemmed later and hopefully recreate the draw string.
Buttons to be removed.
Homeless buttons!
Clean pocket.
Velcro!
Some elbow grease and love = new easy access pocket fastenings.

Friday I should have the second part of this mini project up with photos. The only issue I ran into so far was buying Velcro with a sticky backing. It is great for placement, but it gunked up the sewing machine so bad that I'm learning to hand sew the Velcro now. The inner pocket and knicker hem back to the sewing machine with ease, but more on that Friday.

DIY Knickers Part 2

Knicker Watch
Chrome Bags Knickers
MUSA Knickers
Bicycle Fixation Wool Knickers
Portland Cycle Wear Knickers

5 comments:

Grant said...

Stellar! I'll definitely be curious to see how these turn out.

So is the work left to be done to cut them to link, then fold and sew a new drawstring leg?

Grant said...

And where does Chrome get off charging 50% more than Bicycle Fixation a product that is 50% less cool?

Wreck said...

Yes just need to cut and redraw string them. That and add the innder cell phone/camera pocket with some scrap fabric I bought. I should have them on for Saturdays ride.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Great idea, and one I'll use.

A really cheap place to get BDUs (if you don't have a bunch in your closet already) is bdu.com (Not affiliated with them in any way, but I like inexpensive stuff. :)

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