Custom Brits Wool Winter Caps at Ride Studio Cafe

Ariela stylin' the custom Brits wool winter cap,

Lexington, MA

courtesy: Ride Studio Cafe

Our famous Brits wool winter cap has been chosen as a custom cap.

Ride Studio Cafe of Lexington, Massachusetts is our client that requested a Brits winter cap with a black stripe. Yesterday, they received their custom Brits caps appropriately in snowy Lexington. As you remember our Brits winter cap, made from 100% British Superfine Wool, was made famous and featured in the November/2012 issue of Bicycling Magazine. A proud moment for us.

We are happy and sad. Our fantastic supplier had enough fabric for us to make this small run. We bought up the remaining fabric and have a very small supply of original Brits currently on our website. 

There's already good response from Ride Studio Cafe...

We really like these new hats!

Thank you!

Our star... The Brits winter cycling cap

photo: Red Dots Cycling

Tools of the Trade: Tailor's Chalk & Hem Gauge

photo: Red Dots Cycling

Basic tools are essential in measuring and marking.

We use the simple tailor's chalk and hem gauge. Been around for eons, the tailor's chalk is made of talc and won't leave a residue. Very important not to have fabric permanently marked.

The hem gauge is used for everything that we need to measure, it goes beyond hems. It has a sliding adjustable guide to keep measurements pinpoint. This nifty tool is owned by Carolle and is over 30 years old and made in Canada. A rarity these days.  Even Carolle can not remember exactly how old it is.

These tools are truly classic and we wouldn't know what to do without it. If you sew... these are a must!

TGIF: Year of the Snake

Happy Chinese New Year!

via Fixielicious-Hong Kong

TGIF time...


This Sunday is the Year of the Snake, celebrating the lunar year of 4711. The forecast is for a year of optimism. We all need optimism and we are looking forward to a successful year!

Return of the Falling Leaves!

Falling Leaves is back!

All photos © Red Dots Cycling

It has been very busy for us since last Autumn producing our popular winter cycling caps. Our winter caps took us by a winter storm outselling very well. Not by choice, we had to put our regular stock caps on temporary standby. Now, we have a brief period between custom cap orders and have quite a few popular caps to produce...

We are happy to have the return of the Falling Leaves!

Made from cotton/spandex/denim in classic black. Don't worry about it shrinking on you, we pre-wash all of our fabric and just gently handwash in cold soapy water, squeeze gently and hang dry. It is a heavier weight fabric due to the denim content and that means one can wear it on cool Spring/Autumn days. Heck, you can wear it on a winter day too providing it's not too cold. The uniqueness is under the brim... 

Nicknamed for the great Italian classic ll Lombardia we include the tricolore , so we say ...show your Italian pride with the Falling Leaves!

Ciao!

In honor of ll lombardia!

TGIF: Carolle's Birthday & Seven Cycles

It's a special day as we are celebrating Carolle's birthday!

That means a skeleton crew is here (me) manning the controls so I'll be busy shipping, answering email and taking Carolle for a birthday dinner. Happy Birthday Carolle!

We are happy again to be working with the fine folks at Seven Cycles of Watertown, Massachusetts. That means custom cycling cap orders are now in preparation mode. Photos upcoming.

Richard

What to do with a bent cycling brim

Darn that's a bend in my brim!

A customer recently asked that his Petit Breton winter cap sat under some dirty laundry and discovered a bend in the brim. He tried to flatten it with a heavy book and he wanted to know if there was a fixable solution....

The main reason why we use a heavy interfacing for our brim material is that it is flexible and if you find yourself with a bend in the brim, you can fix it yourself. Unlike most cycling cap companies, WE DO NOT USE plastic for our brim material for the simple fact that it can crack when folded. From experience I had cycling cap brims made of plastic, that cracked when folded.

One of our requirements for our cycling caps was that we wanted the cap brim to be folded without the risk of damaging the brim. Plastic was out of the question. So, we are using heavy interfacing that is strong and flexible.



Here's what to do if you find a bend in your brim on your Red Dots Cycling cap!


1. Have a hot iron on steam setting at the ready. Make sure you have water in it.

2. Wet a cloth.

3. Sandwich your injured brim between the wet cloth.

4. Apply the hot iron to create lots of steam. Repeat until the crease comes out.

This will remove the crease and bring back your brim to a healthy state.

Under Pressure!

Sandwich a wet cloth between the brim,

Apply hot iron, steam setting ON, until crease is removed...

Afterwards...

your brim may be a little wet but let it dry and all's fine

and ready for the next ride!

Richard

TGIF: Custom Cap Crazy, New Wool & Dog Gone!

Custom caps...

As we are currently immersed in our custom winter cap orders, we are also quoting on new custom cap orders... it's all very exciting. We have never before worked and quoted on so many custom cap orders in such a short time.

rubber labels shaping up to cut...

Here's our newest wool blend fabric that will be destined as a new cycling cap. Now, the question is whether we introduce as a Spring cap (no ear flaps) or a Winter cap? We have been asked for a wool cap without ear flaps... so m-a-y-b-e this will be the one.

New wool blend waiting to be unleash!

TGIF and beers are planned for beer o'clock.

One day we will have a shop dog...

Have a great weekend!

Dog gone!