Bike Seat cover how to

I finally got the Pfaff back! It was a whole month of waiting and not sewing, but it's finally fixed!

My first project was a bike seat cover for Colin.

He, like most other people living in the Hague, rides his bike almost everywhere, rain or shine.

Bike seat covers are a pretty common thing, so you can ride after a rain without an awkward wet patch on the seat of your pants.

This is how I made it.

You'll need:

Water proof material - I used vinyl, but oil cloth or laminate cotton would work spectacularly and would be easier to work with. You'll need about a 1/4 yard total and you'll have leftovers.

Cording

Metal Eyelets

Spring loaded cording stops

A pattern traced from the top of the bike seat.

Colin's one request was that I make his bike seat orange.

Apparently orange vinyl and/or oil cloth is super hard to find.

I ended up using this mildly hilarious basketball texture orange vinyl.

First, cut out your pattern. 

Colin traced and scanned his bike seat for me and I printed it out on this neon printer paper. 

 Trace the bike seat template onto the wrong side of the vinyl. Leave about a 1/4 inch around the edges.

See, it's traced. Cut this out, again, leave about a 1/4 inch around each edge. 

Cut a strip of vinyl about 30 inches long by 4 inches wide. 

This strip will be the sides of the bike seat cover.

Cut out the long strip. 

Mark a line 1 1/2 inches from one long side. 

Fold the vinyl edge over to meet the marked line. Sandwich the cording inside. 

I find it easier to insert the cording now instead of trying to feed it through after sewing the casing.

This is my preference with super stiff fabric like vinyl. If you do this, you must be careful not to sew over the cording. 

 Sew the seam. Use tissue to make sure the vinyl glides through your feed dogs and under the presser foot.

You can rip the tissue paper off when sewing is done.

I reinforced this seam with a zig zag stitch.

 Now is the time to attach the strip to the seat shape. Find the center back, pin the pieces right sides together and sew. The casing edge is NOT the edge to sew. If you're working with vinyl, this will be awkward and difficult.

Go slow and stretch the curved edges to shape it correctly. Do not sew up the short edges yet!

 When it is done, it will look like this. Again, I reinforced the seams with a zig zag stitch.

Now insert the eyelets. I used single eyelets just on the outside layer of the casing. The cord will go through this from the inside of the casing to the outside.  

 See, just one layer of eyelet. These are little hammer set eyelets. 

Once they are set, push your cording through the eyelets to the right side of the fabric.

 Now finish the short edges of the strip to make a back seam. 

You can simply butt the edges, right sides together and sew a seam straight up the back.

Now we can attach the cord stops! Melting the ends of the cord makes this easier. 

Use a match or a lighter to just barely melt it, then smoosh it between your fingers to smooth it. 

 Once my stop was on, I tied a knot and melted the ends of the cord together.

 Finished back

Now go put the cover on your bike seat!

More updates in the days to come!