What scooter skirt style do you think would be best?

Just a thought: can you draw? Even a tiny bit would help... Print off a few copies of the Large Lady from the Threads Croquis family, and sketch the skirt options on the figure. See what you like. And if you don't think that figure is quite wide enough, then once you have the image captured, you can stretch it a bit using an image package such as Visio before sketching the skirt in place. There are lots of lines on the figure to help you place gore seam lines and so forth.

Melinda, First, I can understand your reluctance to wear certain types of clothing. Emotional comfort is just as important as physical comfort in dressing. Second, I like Kate's idea of drawing your ideas on a computer generated figure. If that is not possible how about a stick type figure on graph paper. You can then ser up a scale simialr to your proportions and round off your curves rather than a box thing. Draw in your shorts in one color and skirt in another so you get some kind of idea of what things wil look like. it shouldn't take to much time. I like the idea of the shorts with the open gored skirt. The skirt will soften the look for you and still be modest. I also think you should keep the finished product the same color. Juno

Melinda, there is a great women's biking discussion board at

It's a wonderful site, for bikers of ALL shapes, sizes. abilities and interests.~Penny

Are they going to be supportive of someone who doesn't wear pants for very definite personal reasons or are they going to try to support me by encouraging me to change my position on the issue?

Thanks to Bruce McIntyre I have enough drawing skills that I can do that. I just don't trust my own ideas of what would look okay and what would scream "home-made spit-and-chewing-gum solution." I'd love to wear a salwar kameez, but I think in my community that would be a little too extreme, and I think the tails of the kameez might get caught in the spokes of my bike.

When I was a teenager I made this adorable outfit that was a mid-thigh-length tabard-style jumper with side slits and matching pants to wear underneath. I loved it and wore it everywhere. But I think that look is way too young for me right now and probably way too dated, too.

I was going to make them the same color, because the last thing I want to do is attract attention by people who are sick enough to want to look up a BBW's skirt to see what they can see.

Only you can decide. Lurking won't kill you. I refuse to answer that as my experience is never going to be your experience. I certainly have my opinions having been a member of that board for umpteen years, and seen many women of all shapes, sizes, abilities, racers, recreation riders, big and small, fast and slow, get along pretty darn well, finding their areas of commonality, supporting each others' challenges, and respecting each other's differences. The nature of humanity is that some people want to tell others what they think is best- there's no escaping that, not in real life, and certainly not on the internet.

~p.

Well, that information is very helpful and sounds encouraging. Ya know, sometimes groups of ladies will try to pressure other ladies to stop marching to the beat of their own drummer, and because of that I generally try to avoid such places.

I thought I would see if I could get a consensus opinion on which type to try first, because

Melinda, as one who used to ride a bicycle all the time when we lived in a small college town, I can assure you that any type of scooter skirt with open gores will flap in the breeze!!!

I think the shalwar kameez idea is best for you, provided you modify it a little. I would suggest ankle length or capri length pants - not too wide so as not to catch in the spokes or gears - topped off by a matching knee length tunic wide enough to move in. No slits!!! Of course, it doesn't have to be an actual tunic, you could join the skirt part to the pants at the waist and make a matching pullover top. You will probably want to try on several of your skirts at home while mimicking the cycling motion, to see just how wide you need the skirt to be.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

I used a ride my bike to school wearing either a skirt, a dress, or old-type culottes -- that looked like a skirt with pleats front and back.

I don't mind skirt gores flapping in the breeze. But this is the kind of bicycle I ride these days:

when riding it my knees are *always* higher than my hips, so wearing a skirt is sort of out, and anything loose ends up riding all the way up, which sort of violates my personal principles of modesty -- to remain covered from neck to knees.

I dunno, I just don't think it will work. I ride sometimes wearing my black and white plaid jumper with my one-and-only pair of slacks (black poplin) underneath. The jumper blows up to my waist, and I have to hang onto it, bunch it up and tie a knot in it, or cram it all under my derriere and sit on it so it doesn't blow backward into my spokes.

If I use the scooter skirt idea, I can make lots of them and use them more. I don't think I want to make a lot of shawar kameez types of garments, because that would (a) use up a lot of fabric, (b) require more thought about fabric types to not look crummy, and (c) take more time to make, whereas I already have tons of poly-rayon gabardine I bought for dirt cheap that will make wonderful scooter skirts.

Ladies should march to their own drum, and not the drum of others. ;-)

I totally agree, but the legions of ladies who prefer that people are very similar to them are many.

I suppose I could take some fabric I don't particularly care about and try each style, but the last time I tried that, I had this wonderful garment in a fabric I hated and no time to make any more. I have like

40 yards of this gabardine and got it for $2/yard, so I can afford to experiment with it.

Now *I* might want a look up the skirt to see how you'd made it, but I'd ask first, and wait until you were wearing summat else! ;)

YES YES YES! Tunics are totally in! At least that is how I am seeing what you are describing. Am I wrong here? anyways, take a look at these, they are great:

And nobody is too young or too old for that look, I especially like the outfit with pants and long sleeves. Maybe next summer...........It is going to snow soon. I need to make a tiered skirt in velvet or denim or corduroy or something........

Racing off to make tiered skirt... Michelle Giordano

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A tunic is like a long shift. This was more like a cobbler's smock, here's a pic of a cobbler's smock so you know what I am talking about:

on my lumpy-dumpy figure it would look awful, like a maternity smock or something, and it would not be something I would be comfortable wearing.

MM: Would you consider a 'convertible' garment? Perhaps you could make a gaucho skirt/pants and add a removable panel to both front and back. Gaucho are coming into fashion again, but the leg is not as full as previous renditions, so might work for you. Panels would be same length as the gaucho, and each panel would be about

1/4 the waist, taper> I want to make some scooter-type skirts to wear when bicycling on my

You can always reinvent the rational cycling costume:

I have toyed with the idea of making my usual culottes and just having a matching pair of bermudas about 3 inches shorter than the culottes attached underneath like an underlining, and that's almost what this reminds me of.

The bloomers have a cuff that buttons round the leg and then the gaiters go over the top. The main body legs are long enough that they droop over the top of the gaiters.

I've not, but I've seen some bloomers that blouse down over the bottom band, which is what I'd guess is going on here.

Kay