Seven Cycles: Our Newest Winter Cycling Cap!

Our latest custom winter cap for Seven Cycles.

photos courtesy sevencycles

Our latest custom winter cycling cap is greeted with fanfare from Seven Cycles in the US!

Lily, from Seven Cycles, said...


We are really pleased with them!


It's always a pleasure to work alongside Seven Cycles on their custom cycling caps and we are so proud to have made many custom cycling caps for them. Currently there are three custom cycling caps, made by us, and available on their site.

The Slate Sheep winter cap is made to fit comfortably under your helmet and to keep you warm on your cold rides. Made from 100% wool, the earflaps are double-layered made from bamboo cotton. Of course, all of our fabric is pre-wash to prevent shrinkage.

This handsome winter cap is exclusive to Seven Cycles and when it's gone it's gone.

TGIF: Iron Will, New Labels & How About a 3 Season Wool Cap?

The mighty 3...

(l to r): Reliable, Proctor Silex & Sunbeam

photo: Red Dots Cycling

My first iron (far right) was given to me by my Mother before I left for fashion school.

I can remember her using this old Sunbeam, she always had it. She knew how much I loved it. It was nice and heavy with full steam. When I moved to Vancouver, during shipping, a small piece of plastic housing broke that exposed the inner wiring. I do not use it for fear of a short circuit. The cloth extension cord is not safe either especially when you are working with power and steam so this stays on the shelf. 

As I moved to Vancouver, my friend Beverly was moving to take care of her Mother and so she gave me her Proctor Silex (middle one). This works ok but the steam is not constant and often leaves water marks. It's good enough if you are just ironing occasionally. I have it for many years and it was time for a new iron.

Well, finally, I bought a brand new iron ... my first iron ever!

Considering I iron almost everyday ...I definitely deserve this one. It's called, Reliable. As heavy as my old Sunbeam. The difference is it's solid = heavy and STEAMS VERY WELL! This one works as well as a professional iron with a separate water tank. The stainless steel plate glides beautifully. And another nice feature is the cord rotates 360 degrees never gets in your way. The control buttons are designed to be very easy to use.

And, on top of all it's orange... my favorite color!

Now, I'm ready for serious ironing!

We placed an order for satin labels to be sewn inside every cycling cap. It should take around two weeks and I can't wait to show it. One thing I can say, is that the caps will look better than our current printed labels. I will have a show and tell post when I receive it. This is the first step in improving our brand to give it a professional finish.

During Christmas, we had enquires about a 3 season cycling cap made of 100% light wool (no ear flap). Wool is an amazing fabric that can be worn all year round. It breathes and absorbs moisture. We believe a light wool cycling cap can be worn comfortably in Spring and Autumn. So, we would like to ask you all a question...

Would you like us to make a 3 season light wool cycling cap?

We welcome all of your comments!

Carolle

Sharing the LOVE

A heartfelt Thank you to our customers that enjoyed the LOVE coupon code this past Valentine's weekend!

We invite you all to follow us on facebook and LIKE US and also to find out when our next fun event will be. The new season starts with new cycling caps... and we have a few on the drawing board ready to take off.

During the weekend we were busy discovering some brand new fun fabrics for future pouches and wallets... coming very soon.


It touches us to be appreciated... our friends at Seven Cycles recently received their custom cycling caps   they requested for an upcoming event.

"... we are very pleased with them... and we appreciate the rush very much."


Thank you!

Sharing the LOVE!

photo: Red Dots Cycling

Carolle an I have worked together for a couple of years. 

Only our close friends know that we have been together for seventeen years, sharing our love and creativity. Today, we want to thank our clients for supporting us in living our dream of having our own business working together.

It's Valentines Day and we want to share our LOVE by offering everything in our website at ...25% OFF!

At the checkout use coupon code: LOVEU

And make sure to share the love... now until Sunday February 17th!

Carolle & Richard

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!

TGIF: Parker St Studios & Very Busy

It's Friday and and it's just about to get  REALLY BUSY here at Red Dots headquarters.

January has started with a bang... for more custom cycling cap orders. We have a list of cycling caps that need to come back into stock but we haven't had the time to do it. So it looks like we will be pulling late nights next week to fulfill the custom orders, approved today, and back into making our regular cycling caps. 

You know, we have been looking to expand our little company. Our friend Hans mentioned 1000 Parker Street, here in the Vancouver Eastside. Here's a video on the denizens and some history of this fantastic Artist community....

Quest For The Right Scissors

Cutting to the top!

Scissors are a very important tool in our Red Dots Cycling world.

We have gone through so many and spent many bucks trying to find the right pair. There are many types, sizes and brands... it's a jungle out there.

It's funny, the one that we end up using the most is under 5 dollars. We discovered that we both cut differently. The way we both hold our scissors are one distinction. So, we will try to find and label our own scissors so we always use our own pair. Let's see if this makes a difference. So far, nothing stands out from the crowded scissors world.

We are big fans of Henckels and bought two pairs today from our new supplier. Those are the two scissors, top left hand corner of the photo. It's too early to say, but we will put them through a grueling test on our next custom cap order. In fact, I see our next 50 custom cap order waiting to be cut. This will be a good test.

So, we are still on the quest for the ...right pair of scissors!

Carolle