Sewing Lycra

Hi Sam,

"Here's a picture of the damage for laughs".

Very nearly not a laughing matter at all! Glad it was only the shorts that sustained the major part of the damage.

"And yes, if I let go they are a bit revealing now".

On the other hand how did you ride the bike and hold the shorts together to get back home. That must have been quite a feat. ;-)

IME lycra is fairly difficult to control while sewing. On straight seams such as a hem I use a zig-zag stitch to allow for the stretch and give of the lycra. From what I see in the picture you might be able to use a very dense (closely spaced) zig-zag stitch over the tear. I doubt if they will ever stretch and give in all directions after sewing the tear back together.

Those lighter colored seams that are evident in the picture could give you a guide to your stitch selection.

"… repair people and they sent them back saying the lycra would rip if they tried to sew it".

They are the pros. ;-(

Give it a try. At most you'd lose some time, thread and unfortunately your favorite pair of biking shorts.

Good luck!

Party On,

Newton

Do you think it's worth getting a little bit of lycra to use as a patch? Or just sewing over it? I feel like just sewing over it would result in holes being visible once it was stretched a bit.

B has a patch, if that helps visualise it.

Sam,

I like your idea of the patch.

Is that sketch-up that you used for those diagrams?

FWIW I think I'd put the patch on the inside and add a third row of stitching through where the original tear is located.

You may want to "circle the wagons", as it were, and stitch the ends across also.

Wishing you much success

Party On,

Newton

First off, as a fellow cycling enthusiast I share your pain here. Looks like you didn't get much road rash so that's always good.

Another way to go about this would be to rip the seams out of the section with the rip and replace it all-together. It's a bit hard to tell how involving that would be from the picture…if you go that route I would probably hand sew the seams where panels line up to avoid any weakening of the fabric by adding more holes.

For those that aren't familiar with cycling clothes…a good set of bibs is going to run around $100-150…Gore (his) bibs are likely in the upper end of that or past it, so you can see why he wouldn't want to throw away a pair with just a rip in them.

Not a huge amount of the rip goes along a seam, but on the parts that do it's probably worth getting rid of the existing stitching yeah.

I didn't end up with too much rash no. Few cuts here and there but nothing too bad. When I stood up after coming off I looked down and saw I had… exposed myself. At that point I felt pretty lucky not to be in a lot more pain!

John – nope not sketchup, just good old paint :)

I was thinking I would probably put the patch on the outside. I realise this won't look quite as nice but the main aim of bib shorts is to be as comfy as possible, so a couple less seams on the inside is probably better? Not sure though.

And in answer to your earlier question about getting home, a friend I was with revealed he was wearing 2 pairs of shorts as he had thought the first was getting a little thin, so lent me one to get home! I will carry safety pins from now on I think. The car that came past as 2 wet (and one muddy) cyclists swapped clothes at the side of the road did not stop. I can't say I blame them.

Yeah, the main reason I was suggesting replacement of the whole panel was for aesthetics…you could just remove the ripped panel and trace out the pattern and then attach chamois to the new panel…etc

…now that I'm thinking about it though, you might want to consider that the seam/stitching might be a bit too close to the "tender parts" of the body and I could see some comfort issues stemming from that if you patch it.

Oh sorry I misunderstood, I didn't realise you meant the whole panel. Looking at them, that looks like a lot more to go wrong!

I don't think comfort would be too much of an issue, as there is no pressure on that part of the shorts. If it was seat or shoulder etc then that would be different.

Hmm, I'll give it some thought.

Can you post a picture of what they look like not being worn? I would think you could probably do your patch idea, but I don't know how big a gap it would have to bridge. it's probably what I'd try…