My Brookes saddle needed a waterproof cover. Even though shower cap and plastic shopping bag did the job, I preferred an elegant solution. The current water stain on the saddle broke my heart. This was the result of a small hole in the plastic bag.
I thought I should try make a more durable waterproof saddle cover. The first attempt was disastrous. I wasn't overly patient and rushed through. It was badly stitched and was too small.
Months later, a more successful attempt was made. This time, I took time and enjoyed the process of making it. The end result showed the love.
Brief:
- waterproof
- high viz
- no joints (made only with one piece of pattern) - to minimise water penetration
Materials:
- Nylon ripstop
- Elastic
- Scissors (one for cloth, one for paper/plastic)
- Pegs
- Sewing machine
- Aluminum foil
- Pencil
- Marker
- Baking paper
- Thick plastic sheet
- Polyester / all purpose thread
- Sewing machine
Method:
- Wrap aluminum foil over the bike seat. Fold excess under the edge of the seat. Take care at the edges and any protruding fixings etc.
- Flatten aluminum seat-formed pattern.
- Fold aluminum pattern in half (the seat cover should be symmetrical)
- Trace over with baking paper with pencil
- Add another line showing about 3 cm seam allowance
- I used different markers to show the two different outline
- Cut baking paper at the seam allowance line
- Fold ripstop nylon into half. Take care to minimise wastage.
- Trace outline of the pattern onto the fabric
- Fold another layer of fabric so that when the fabric is cut, there will be 2 layers of the "seat".
- Peg to keep the fabric from shifting while the pattern is being traced onto the cloth.
- Cut cloth
- There should be two sheets of ripstop nylon.
- Cut away the seam allowance from the baking paper pattern.
- Trace the pattern on the the fabric on both halves of the fabric pieces.
- Cut two sheets of plastic using the cutout fabric as the pattern piece.
- Peg to keep them from shifting while cutting.
- Rearrange the layers starting from the bottom: plastic (preferred outer layer face up), nylon (outer layer face up), nylon (outer layer face down), plastic (preferred outer face down). The aim is to turn this outside in after sewing.
- Peg to keep layers from shifting. Pins create permanent puncture holes to the fabric and plastic.
- Use rolling foot on the sewing machine. Because it feeds better. as the material is too smooth for normal foot. Otherwise, if you only have access to a normal foot, stick masking tape at the bottom of the foot to achieve better grip.
- Sew with zigzag stitch. Prevents unraveling.
- make sure leave a gap in the start and end zigzag stitch (big enough to get fingers inside turn it outside in while not creating rips in the stitching/fabric while doing so).
- flatten
- Choose the better side of the cover to face down on the sewing machine. Stretch the elastic while sewing using zigzag. The inside of the elastic to follow the pencil outline on the fabric.
I thought I should try make a more durable waterproof saddle cover. The first attempt was disastrous. I wasn't overly patient and rushed through. It was badly stitched and was too small.
Months later, a more successful attempt was made. This time, I took time and enjoyed the process of making it. The end result showed the love.
Brief:
- waterproof
- high viz
- no joints (made only with one piece of pattern) - to minimise water penetration
Materials:
- Nylon ripstop
- Elastic
- Scissors (one for cloth, one for paper/plastic)
- Pegs
- Sewing machine
- Aluminum foil
- Pencil
- Marker
- Baking paper
- Thick plastic sheet
- Polyester / all purpose thread
- Sewing machine
Method:
- Wrap aluminum foil over the bike seat. Fold excess under the edge of the seat. Take care at the edges and any protruding fixings etc.
- Flatten aluminum seat-formed pattern.
- Fold aluminum pattern in half (the seat cover should be symmetrical)
- Trace over with baking paper with pencil
- Add another line showing about 3 cm seam allowance
- I used different markers to show the two different outline
- Cut baking paper at the seam allowance line
- Fold ripstop nylon into half. Take care to minimise wastage.
- Trace outline of the pattern onto the fabric
- Fold another layer of fabric so that when the fabric is cut, there will be 2 layers of the "seat".
- Peg to keep the fabric from shifting while the pattern is being traced onto the cloth.
- Cut cloth
- There should be two sheets of ripstop nylon.
- Cut away the seam allowance from the baking paper pattern.
- Trace the pattern on the the fabric on both halves of the fabric pieces.
- Cut two sheets of plastic using the cutout fabric as the pattern piece.
- Peg to keep them from shifting while cutting.
- Rearrange the layers starting from the bottom: plastic (preferred outer layer face up), nylon (outer layer face up), nylon (outer layer face down), plastic (preferred outer face down). The aim is to turn this outside in after sewing.
- Peg to keep layers from shifting. Pins create permanent puncture holes to the fabric and plastic.
- Use rolling foot on the sewing machine. Because it feeds better. as the material is too smooth for normal foot. Otherwise, if you only have access to a normal foot, stick masking tape at the bottom of the foot to achieve better grip.
- Sew with zigzag stitch. Prevents unraveling.
- make sure leave a gap in the start and end zigzag stitch (big enough to get fingers inside turn it outside in while not creating rips in the stitching/fabric while doing so).
- flatten
- Choose the better side of the cover to face down on the sewing machine. Stretch the elastic while sewing using zigzag. The inside of the elastic to follow the pencil outline on the fabric.
- This is the end result.
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