Melburn Roobaix report: sewed it, rode it

You know this is my favourite time of the year, right? better than Christmas or birthdays... 

It's Melburn Roobaix 

Photo credit: Peter Bongiorno

What's that?

First you need to know about the Paris Roubaix: a gruelling one day stage race with a 120 year history. Racing from northern France into Belgium the riders cover around 240km and race across up to 30 sectors of cobbled pathways through forests. Each sector has a name, a star rating and a ravenous appetite for tyres, bicycle frames and blood. Staying upright is essential to a win, staying clean is not.

And then you need to know about the Alleycat: An alleycat race is (was?) a unsanctioned race where bicycle couriers* raced around town reaching checkpoints while proving their knowledge of the city and their skills in dodging traffic. Staying upright was essential to a win, staying sober probably wasn't.

*if your only experience of bicycle couriers is the hapless electric powered food delivery guy then I'm afraid I've lost you.

Now, imagine the love child of an alleycat and the Paris-Roubaix....

Born in 2006 the Melburn Roobaix combines the best of both. You get the bumpy cobbled laneways of Melbourne standing in for the Belgian forests, and the unpredictability of Melbourne's winter weather matching a northern european spring day, and then you get the wonderful silliness of this city's bicycle culture

And you finish on a velodrome with beer and frites! 

Initially Melburn Roobaix was a race. My first (the year after my husband's first) was the third iteration in 2008 and by this time everyday folk like me knew about it. Still, there was no map and you did need to know your inner urban back streets. Mobile phones and online maps had been invented but it was a matter of pride not to resort to that.

However at 7 months pregnant and on my front porch bike I wasn't above accepting a push up the notorious Col d'Ugly

2008

So, the bike part is fun, but for me it's a costume party too. For some people the bike IS the costume, and they get weird and downright terrifying to ride: this year's case in point

In 2020 we were all ready for our first family-of-four Roobaix. The Goldilocks costume was made and the metres and metres of bear fur purchased and then, well, you know what happened.

This year we were treated to real Roubaix weather - it RAINED!

Due to the rain and my phone being tucked away in a jersey pocket under my bear suit, sadly I didn't get that many photos during the ride. Check out all the images in the #melburnroobaix on instragram

Having looked at the weather forecast and anticipating possibly binning all the costume work I'd done, I did insist on a family photoshoot on Saturday afternoon (which was a lovely day weather-wise, btw)

We knew all along that the day's enjoyment hinged on keeping Goldilocks happy and on side. We pushed her up any bigger hills while baby bear popped wheelies and jumped on and off kerbs at every opportunity.

Our fleet of early 2000's 26" wheel mountain bikes proved to be the perfect vehicles for the day given the mud, puddles and very slippery conditions. - for the bike nerds: A 2003 Trek Fuel, a 2004 Seven Sola, a 2008 Scott Spark10 and a 2008 Scott Scale10 with basket added!

our bear suits were, of course, SPD compatible

We did our "usual" get-away trick of parking the car near Brunswick velodrome (the finish) and then riding the 20mins or so to the start. We picked up our musettes packed with manifest, map, sharpie, other essential goodies and bear snack (protein bar). Goldilocks had the jelly snakes in her basket (but not the rain jacket I'd told her to pack) and off we went.

After a lovely commute to the start and about an hour of pleasant riding it began to rain. It wasn't windy, nor was it pelting down, but it was just enough to get one's fur quite soggy and heavy. By this time my running gag line of not too ... not too little ... but juuuust right, which had been applied to steepness of hills, amounts of rain etc was wearing a bit thin.

But every time we thought it was time for a coffee break we'd find ourselves at the start of another sector of pave. Too much fun to stop now, we'll just do this bit...We rolled past Moondog brewery, giving up on the chance to win our weight in beer - how much does a wet bear weigh? 

At the rear of the group with an increasingly wet and despondent Goldilocks I called it as we approached Nicholson st. We were stopping, and we were going to stop indoors. Up to this point the silliness of riding in a dress with a bow on her helmet and in the company of three bears had only been tolerable due to the number of other similarly oddly dressed riders around us (four tacos, a recumbent goose, the Beastie Boys...). Leaving the route seemed impossible. But we'd hit that sweet spot where embarrassment was being being neutralised by the cold, wet and hungries.

Stop we did: A Taste of France on Nicholson St. The lovely proprietress apologised for not having porridge on the menu, and turned a blind eye to the little puddles we were leaving on chairs and floor.

While we filled up on cold drinks and toasties (a bear's favourite food it seems), we watched the rain getting heavier and heavier outside. During the second round order of hot drinks and cakes the water was pouring off the shop's awning and the road outside was completely awash. 

We hibernated over a long lunch and by the time we emerged, our 100% synthetic quick dry fur was not so bad and Goldilocks had dried off nicely too. And we timed that lunch stop juuuust right, cause the rain stopped.

Shortly after lunch we came upon the Melbourne Disc Golf crew set up in a park. I thought we were stopping for a few putts next to the bike path, but suddenly were were being walked around a quagmire of a park for a three round course. Turns out we live right near a nine hole disc golf course and were being treated to the full club sales pitch.

Does a bear look more ridiculous off his bike playing disc golf? you tell me?

Yes, he's a southpaw (boom tish)

Rolling around the last few sectors and the streets of Coburg we arrived at Brunswick velodrome with a good hour and a bit to spare. Beers, burgers and giant Jenga kept us amused until the official prize draw and day's end.

The kids had put their names in the disc golf raffle and Goldilocks walked away with a year's membership for her and a friend and a set of discs!

The washing machine worked hard all night and the bear suits came up perfectly (nasty synthetic fabrics for the win). Goldilock's dress and leggings didn't fare so well.

The dress is a vintage pattern scored for free from the lovely Lynne on Instagram, made in a cotton knit from RubyJam Fabric and some stashed piping. 

The leggings are from an Ottobre magazine and the lycra booties to try and make her mtb shoes look like mary-janes is my own cycle shoes pattern (still haven't got around to uploading for sharing)

Of course, to find a footed pyjama pattern that fits the whole family is has to be Jalie! Jalie 3244

All three suits were based around the one size with extra back length (for cycling) in all of them, crazy amounts of extra limb length for baby bear, equally crazy amounts of torso length for papa bear and just a bit of extra hip wiggle room for mama bear!

The only modification was to add a placket and snaps instead of a zipper and to add our bicycle compatible paw covers to go over our gloves. 

The helmet covers were free drafted and the ears borrowed from the Little Things to Sew cozy bear hood (flashback time!). My apron was made up from some suitably nasty stashed fabric and the local party shop was good for a propeller hat and tie

Now to clean all the fluff out of my overlocker... And start planning for next year!

Arms, knees and feets - sewing cycling gear

It was Flipper's birthday recently and as I have done twice before (but only documented once here) I made him some lycra cycle shoe covers.

Why cover your cycle shoes with lycra booties? Well, they keep your toes slightly warmer, make you go ever so slightly faster, but mostly they make you look way more pro!

But this year I went a bit further and made him some arm and knee warmers too.

For the blog readers who don't cycle, or rather who don't cycle in lycra, I'll explain. Good quality lycra cycle gear is expensive, and to have long sleeve, short sleeve, long legs, short legs etc , and multiples of each 'cause you ride every day and can't keep up with the laundry, well it would get crazy pricey.*

*At this point I must mention out good friends and clothing sponsors who run THE best cycle holidays IN THE WORLD. Topbike Tours - check 'em out

Also, when you set off in the cold early morning and then it heats up later on, it's nice to be able to peel off your arm or knee warmers and not suffer in the boiler suit of a full length cycle kit.

Add in that the fella had taken a slide recently and put holes in his kit as well as his legs, he was sorely (ha!) in need of new cycle gear.

When I put in my order for the amazing eco-friendly VITA swimsuit lycra, I also ordered a few metres of Carvico Vuelta. It's a brushed back, fleece lycra with amazingly soft feel. Nice and thick but plenty stretchy enough. These arm and knee warmers feel every bit as good as that super expensive Swiss brand but I bought 3 metres of fabric for the cost of one pair of their arm warmers.

Of course it's hard to photograph black fabric and you'll just have to imagine the soft, snuggliness of the brushed face of the lycra.

As far as patterns go, I just traced around some existing kit - minus the road rash holes of course. I have all the pieces on pattern trace interfacing and could easily upload them if anyone has a desire for one size fits most cycling gear. These fit me just fine as well. Ping me an email if you're interested (sounds of crickets...)

The critical part of getting the "totally pro" feel is in the elastic. I've used silicone grip elastic to finish both upper and lower hems of the knee warmers, and the upper hem of the arm warmers. The wrist hem of the arm warmers was turned under and twin needle hemmed. The elastic needs to be firm but not overly tight. Here's where custom made really rocks, as it's easy for the less than super lean amongst us to get that awful sausage casing effect if the elastic is too tight. Yet nobody likes kneewarmers that keep falling down while you pedal. Happily, just going off his existing kit I got it exactly right.

Determined to make these to an acceptable standard I decided to fake flatlocked seams throughout. I've sewn the seams on the overlocker with wrong sides together, then folded the seam allowance to one side and stitched it down with the twin needle.

Most fortuitously I had just been gifted some silver, reflective bias tape from a sewing friend I went mountain biking with (thanks Nicki). I tucked little lengths under the seam allowances before stitching them down, so all three items; knees, arms and booties, have reflective tape on the back edges.

I'm very pleased with these and more than a bit jealous. I think I need to make some for me now.

Details:
Pattern: Self drafted from existing TopBike booties, Adidas kneewarmers and Assos Armwarmers
Fabric: Carvico Vuelta fleece lycra - heavenly!
Notions: Silicone elastic from Jimmy's Buttons. Reflective bias tape gifted.

Racing and baby sewing - odd blog mix, perhaps...

Ever since I had my second (and last!) baby I've hardly raced my bikes. But, once a year a race comes around that I can't help but enter.

The Race the Train is a mountain bike versus steam train race and it's fun. Add in that it's only 17km and not overly technical and even my fat, old legs can enjoy themselves! The kids ride the train with my parents while Flipper and I race on our mountain bikes.

The race is out in the country not far from where the lovely Jenya (While She's Sleeping) lives, and we've had some nice email chats around this time of year before. This time, I was planning to catch up with her, her lovely daughter and very cute new(ish) baby.

That was all the excuse I needed to make a couple of garments using the Oliver + S Lullaby Layette pattern as a new baby gift.

I made the size 3-6 month shirt and bodysuit. They looked tiny when I drafted the pattern, but not so tiny when I sewed them up, and then quite generously sized once I met little baby L. I hope they fit her at some time when they're kind of seasonally appropriate.

The first one is a little bit of the Art Gallery print that I had  leftover from this dress

Then I had just the cutest Japanese cotton for another...

The background is fairly pink, so I entertained my love of brown for the snaps and binding. I hope Jenya doesn't mind! The print is adorable. Each of those little characters remind me of the world dress type dolls my grandmother had, only with a quirky Japanese twist. 

We meet up at a playground and the kids had a play while Jenya and I chatted as only two sewing nutters can. Lovely!

My race the next day was cut short when a teenage kid hit the dirt just up ahead of me, and it was apparent he'd broken his collarbone and wasn't going any further. I stopped along with another rider, and we kept him company until the ambulance arrived. The train had just caught us at this point and the train drivers later jokingly confessed they'd seen the kid get the "speed wobbles and go over the bars" but they "couldn't stop and go back".

Once upon a time I would have had a stopwatch/speedo/lap timer on my bike and would have lapped out for first aid, restarted and raced home for a finish. Nowadays I was happy to cruise home with the other chap who'd stopped and chat about how we would have beaten the train, but for....

If you're up for a bit of real winning, not just imagined glory, then don't forget to enter the Japanese Sewing Week giveaway with has another day and a bit to go. See my post here to enter the giveaway and check out everyone's makes via Made by Sara's blog

For the man who has everything....

Today is Flipper's birthday (also known as mother's day to most of the rest of the world!), and what do you give the man who has everything?....

Lycra booties of course! And not just any old shoe covers, but monogrammed ones that you made yourself....

The internet abounds with patterns for sewing cycling shoe covers but they all looked very utilitarian (ie ugly) and were more like waterproof ponchos for your feet. These puppies*, however, are wildly impractical, will not keep your feet warm, or dry, but are guaranteed to make you look that little bit more pro. (and slightly less like a Fred)

And, as you get a year older, and probably a bit slower, not looking like a Fred might be all you can wish for! Happy birthday honey!

*Free downloadable PDF for this very niche market pattern will follow soon, I promise.

For the love of bicycles.

If you haven't guessed already, I really like bicycles. This one is perhaps my very favourite. (any other bicycle nuts might be able to guess what it is!)

Anyway, today I'm over at the ByK website talking about how awesome bicycles are for kids and families and for mum's who just want to get away from their kids and families for a few hours! Come over and share the bicycle love, or if you're not fond of bicycles come for a sticky beak as I share myself a bit more than usual!



Ultimate blogging highlight

Long before I had my own blog, or appeared on the Oliver + S blog, or even sewed clothes for my kids, before I had kids in fact; I discovered an internet blog and became completely hooked on reading it.

Bike Snob NYC is a brilliantly written, acerbic look at cycle culture, primarily of New York city, but pretty much applicable to anywhere in the world.

And here I am, on the Bike Snob blog!

So yeah, it's a dark, blurry photo, taken by a jet lagged, famously mock-grumpy internet blogger, but I'm a proud as can be!

Here's the post; which if you live in Melbourne, have ever been to Melbourne, or might ever come to Melbourne is a great read. http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/australia-australia-australia-we-love.html

Why can't we have Protour day?

So, tomorrow is "footy colours day" at P's kindergarten. I confess I did see the notice about this a week ago but as I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in Australian Rules Football I ignored it.

Had it been declared to be Protour colours day I could have got excited about that. I could have happily stencilled a big pink T on s shirt and sent him off as a Jan Ulrich from Team Telekom in the good ol' days

Or even more fun for a crafty mum, how I would have loved to get some paint out and knock out a Mapei kit à la Cadel circa 2002

Or, without making anything, P might still be able to squeeze into his own yellow jersey, seen here in celebratory pose after Cadel Evans' win in the 2011 Tour de France:

Eeek. he looks so little!

Yet today when I picked P up from kindy he said he HAD to wear footy colours tomorrow and declared which was his team. I suspect that choosing your team (rather than inheriting one from your folks) could actually be a really monumental moment in a kids life, but as I don't think he has the faintest idea of what it's all about, I'm remaining dismissive of the whole thing.

As a supportive, loving mum I did, however, volunteer to make him a footy colour T-shirt for kindy. He got all whiney on me and wanted to buy "a real" one from a shop. That lead to a really long discourse from me about branded merchandise from which P was eventually rescued by A spotting a garbage truck and shouting about it very loudly. I hadn't even got to the bit about offshore manufacturing and child labour.

The deal breaker in the end was that if we made our own P could do the painting of the logo. My kids seem to respond to paint like others respond to candy or some grown-ups to crack cocaine.

We did an internet search for the logo of his chosen team. All I know of this team is that their training oval is nearby and is a great place to fly a kite on a windy day.  We hit up Spotlight for the Setacolour fabric paint and then I cut out a freezer paper stencil.

 



 I don't know if my anti-merchandising tirade was at all effective, but the power of paint certainly won him over and P declared this to be much better than buying a shirt after all. Yay!

We let the paint dry in the afternoon and in my evening sewing time I've pulled out the overlocker (man I love that machine) and whipped up yet another Oliver + S Field Trip raglan T-shirt.

I'm wishing I put the logo higher up

I've just snuck into his room and popped it on the foot of the bed. I hope he'll be pleased and, if I can be forgiven for trying to influence my children, I hope he'll quickly lose interest in AFL football.

Tout fous du tour.

Everyone else has gone to bed. The Tour de France is on TV and I'm curled up on the couch learning to sew in Japanese . If I could be bothered getting up to get a glass of red wine then, only, could I possibly be happier.

Can you guess what I'm making?

In the northern hemisphere sewing bloggers are all busily flipping the Oliver + S Roller Skate Dress

It's a bit cold for roller skating around here so I'm making a winter flip of my own. I showed A the finished dress today and she gave this look and declared it to be "Nyeh". This is her most common word at the moment (and she can speak perfectly well) and it sounds to me like a combination of a Russian "nyet" and a Gen Y disinterested "meh". Linguistically interesting but downright infuriating.

Anyway, I've added the ice skating bear in the hope that it will win her around and I can bring you some modelled photos tomorrow....

Bring... Bring.... Honey, do you think you could give me a ride home tonight?

So here's my commuter bike (bicycle number 5 to rate a mention on the blog), sporting it's new rear mud guard that was my birthday present from Flipper (thanks honey, my dry butt loves you).

The bike was a treat to myself when I was heavily pregnant and had just moved house and discovered my new commute had some hills! My old commuter was a steel single speed and there's no way I was going to be able to crank that one gear up the gentle inclines on my 13km commute with my big belly and all.

What better excuse for a new bike. Keeping it real with an On One Pompetamine steel frame, internal 8 speed Alfine rear hub (no maintenance, yay!) and some nice disc brakes for those wet road, holy f*&k what's that motorist doing moments.

What's that in the foreground I hear you ask? You mean you don't want to know more about my bike? ...
The Janome sewing machine is all cleaned, oiled and adjusted, and yes, it looks like it might have a companion there with a brand new, Bernina 700D overlocker.

And so a lift home in the car was in order, but now I feel like I've finally succumbed to the kid's cold and my machines will have to wait to be played with another day. Off to bed....

Sewing for Me......

I never usually sew for myself. There were some disastrously big cotton maternity dresses that may have put me off. They've now been cut up and repurposed so I've moved on from that disappointing exercise.

I suppose I like sewing for my kids so much because they're flat, shapeless little creatures, and the fabric is cheap. Adult sewing strikes me as difficult and costly.

When I saw this cape it seemed a project worth a try.

Here's my cape:

I bought some lovely cream/grey pattern wool coating from The Fabric Store as well as some slippery lining. I've used the cheap polyester lining from Spotlight before and at $2-3 a metre it seemed worth putting up with. This lining was about six times more expensive but I am absolutely a convert. It almost doesn't fray at all, is delightful to cut and sew and just feels so lovely by comparison. No more nasty, shiny linings for me.

I found some perfect leather covered buttons at Jimmy's Buttons ( a chaotic, treasure trove of buttons and trims). I purchased the amount of fabric specified on the pattern but then found that since I could cut my pattern in either direction along the grain I only used half of what I purchased. Liesl + Co have a matching pattern for a girl's cape, but the whole mother/daughter matchy thing makes me squirm. I'll sit on it a while. Fabric never goes off....

As always, any pattern produced by Liesl+Co is superbly well written and some of the sewing tips for this cape really helped give the professional finish that I would insist on if I was to buy a cape. I like that it doesn't look like a homemade blanket! I struggled a little with getting my printer to print the PDF files to US paper sizes and not scale it down, but once that was sorted the assembly of the pattern pieces was easey peasey.

So here's me in my cape. (and in my helmet of course Mr Branson) I'm not so sure about how I like it. It's not really a flattering garment in my opinion, yet it is incredibly easy to wear, suitably warm for Autumn, and kind of novel here in Aus. Why just today The Age have declared capes to be right on trend.
I'm going to keep on wearing it and see how I like it....

It's turned out that it is THE perfect thing for biking. So, if you a cycle nut like me, this pattern is an absolute must have for the short commute or kindy drop off on a cold morning. So, on that note I'll introduce another bicycle. This is our CargoCycle, which, over the last few years, since kids came along and racing never seems to happen, is the bike that gets the most use of all the bikes in the garage. Two wheels good, three wheels bad. This bike rolls, corners and handles almost like a normal bike, once you get past the weird, freaky aspect of having the front wheel four feet out in front. So much better than the cargo tricycles with their cumbersome steering.

Hope all the other super mums out there (capes or no) had a good day today. And to all my beautiful, childless (whether by good choice or misfortune,) women friends, happy second Sunday in May.