The cycling course I took on Saturday was one of the greatest community run/ council organised events I have ever attended. I feel 100 times more confident riding with traffic, and although my bike lost its pedal, riding a mountain bike took me right back to my childhood! I wish more cities would run these events, its all about communicating with all road users and understanding that the road is there to share!

So, being all ramped up on safety, I  decided to DIY a high visibility cycling vest.. that isn’t as ugly as all the others on the market! (see figure 1 below)

Figure 1: www.eurosafedrive.com

If you too would like to look a little better than the average Joe on your bike at night, choose yourself some light weight polyester fabric, ~70cm, in a bright colour that isn’t too harsh, get some reflective strips from the fabric store and measure between your shoulders to determine how far apart to cut your arm “holes” (see step 1).

Then (step 2) mark your “shoulder to shoulder + 2 cm” length in the middle of the fabric, parallel to the short edge of your fabric rectangle. The extra 2 cm will let you pop on the vest over coats and jackets!

Step 3 will see you folding over your fabric to make a fabric sandwich, lining up the marked arm holes and meaning you only cut once & get a vest with symmetric openings. My slits are about 35 cm in length, again to fit over bulky coats.

In step 4 you have to try on your vest! Make any adjustments to the length of your arm holes here, before you start sewing. Cut cut cut!

Set your sewing machine on a wide zig-zag stitch & sew all the edges to stop your vest from fraying over time. This includes the arm holes (step 5)!

Step 6 is pretty important for evening cycling.. its all about attaching the reflective strips. Lay out your vest and pin your strips in a “coolish” pattern towards the base of your vest, on the outside. You could get really creative here. Now, go sew them on with a straight stitch!

Step 7 is all about laying out the final product and taking photos with and without the flash, to show your friends in blog world and, of course, to test the reflectivity!

Step 8, Wow! Go try it on! Decide if you will be too embarrassed to wear it.

And here it is, all done. I will probably (read definitely) add some reflective tape on the front later. It is all about safety y’know?

What’d ya think? Would you wear it instead of the vest in Figure 1?

I sure will.