I think this make gets filed under “weird things I have sewn”.
The Englishman uses a bike trainer to supplement his training. During the winter months he uses it to get more of a workout by riding it after work a few nights. During the summer when the daylight hours are longer it tends to get packed away some of the time.
To help protect it from dust and cat fur he asked me to make a cover. I took some measurements, way over calculated how much fabric I would need and got to work.
The outer fabric is from Pitt Trading and one side of the inner has a fake suede lining leftover from my Gainline Yates coat.
From the basic pattern it took some tweeks to get it to slip on and off easily but not too floppy.
Once we were happy with the shape I overlocked in the lining, topstitched the bottom of the lining down and did a 2cm hem all the way around the bottom.
Pattern: Elite Directo Trainer Cover – self drafted pattern
Fabric: Japanese style cats from Pitt Trading, leftover fake suede also from Pitt Trading
Alterations: None so far but it will be interesting to see how it stands up to the job of protecting the trainer.
Taja
Hi, Susan! Discovered your blog recently, and am playing catch-up as time permits.
🙂
That is a well-dressed bike trainer! Good to know that I am not the only one who sews unusual things! Although, the covers I made are for me, so I could experiment and play a bit more. 😉
Living in a fairly small apartment, I had to figure out how to camouflage my Pilates platform and manual (non-motorized) treadmill if I did not want to stare at them when not in use. They are a critical part of my morning and evening exercise routines. Thankfully, both fold vertically to minimize floor space. I wanted to keep the covers reasonably inexpensive and they had to be washable. They coordinate, but do not match.
Outer fabric is cotton/poly broadcloth (primarily black) with accent piecing in my favourite colour palette (blues, greens, purple’s with colour pops in rose to burgundy). Inner sandwich of polyester needle-punched fleece (seriously vintage and needed to be used) for body, with a very lightweight woven polyester lining to make covering and uncovering the equipment easy. The cover for the Pilates platform has a zippered section at the top to store the shoulder pads (used some non-woven interfacing for additional support) but otherwise construction was substantially the same. Still going strong after two+ years with monthly laundering. 🙂
Sometimes it’s fun to stretch our sewing horizons a bit, isn’t it?
Taja