Fabulous flares facilitate freewheeling

I ride my bike pretty much everywhere, and I don't feel that my attire should be limited by my method of transportation. Wear what you wear regularly, and don't think about it too much.

And yet. Skirts.

The Tank with its crossbar was a bit of a beast to ride in a skirt; even my A-line jeans skirt required a low bike dip with contortion just to get on the thing, and longer skirts could and did get caught in the rear spokes. I was limited to stretchy fabrics or extremely flippy styles for biking comfort. Solution? New bike. The step-through Opus Nuovella with skirt guard means I don't have to take the bike into account when I'm dressing for the day^*. I've even nearly perfected a (mostly) graceful side-saddle mounting and dismounting technique.


And yet. Pencil skirts.

I love the way they look, but they constrict the thighs too much to bike in unless you hitch them up to indecent heights. I would try anyway, and let's just say that sometimes I have been glad to be wearing a modesty trench. Let's not discuss what the pressure was doing to the seams.

Then I met the flange flare^**.

Dottie from Let's Go Ride a Bike posted over two years ago about how Sarah Reynolds had developed a pattern to convert RTW pencil skirts to bikeable beauties via colourful flares. I thought it was a genius idea, but it took me a while to actually make some. I finally did last summer. Since I planned to incorporate them into my Koi is coy skirt from the beginning, that make went quickly. I had to unpick seams and handsew them into my eyelet dress due to the infinitely small seam allowance, so while I had one installed (mostly) in August, I didn't finish the other until this past January, because hand-sewing. Then we had to wait forever until it was warm enough to wear these guys so we could take pictures. But, finally, allow me to present to you: flares!

You can download the pattern here. One note: there isn't the usual scale box and you'll have to choose "Shrink to fit" if you want to use the suggested 9" zipper (I sent Sarah an email about this, so maybe she's changed it). My blue flares for the eyelet dress are too long for the zippers because I didn't measure the pattern before I cut the fabric. They overhang at the top and there's some ugly sewing going on, but you can't tell from the outside so no biggie.

Making the flares is easy and the instructions are fairly clear. Choose a fun fabric; a light cotton or lining material that won't be bulky when folded up is best -- the cotton gets seriously creased, if that worries you. Remember to sew them so the wrong side of the fabric and right side of the zipper are up when closed:


That way when the zipper is open, you see the fun fabric inside:


It's not super clear in the instructions, but when you install the flares, fold all the flare fabric away from the zipper side you are currently sewing, catching the edge of the zipper inside.


And voila: freewheeling facilitated fabulously.



The skirt will rise up the leg regardless (the same as when you sit) due to your fabulous booty; the flares merely provide room for motion. They are amazing. And depending on how you install them, they are hard to detect when you do the zippers up, er, down. I put hooks in at the bottom of the eyelet dress, but not in the gingham skirt.


I'd like to experiment installing these with an invisible zipper, now that I know how to do that. I have a RTW dress which would benefit from a back flare, so I'll try it on that.

Pencil skirt freedom. Bike stylishly!

^*And the chain guard has done away with the need for an ankle strap when wearing trousers. I love the Opus.

^**For some reason on the koi is coy skirt post I kept calling them flanges instead of flares. I don't know where that came from. I'm a little disappointed, because it's such a great word.