Reflecting on reflection: see me cross the street? See me? SEE ME!

I mean, I don't want to have to wave the fluorescent flag at the corner. Especially if all the flags are on the other side of the street.

I live in Seattle, and I have discussed the weather. It's grey. Or is that gray? It's winter so it's dark.  But even in the summer, we have that lingering, northern twilight, which makes it harder to see a moving shape from inside a faster moving car. "It doesn't look that dark when you're outside", my children observed, arguing that the reflecting biking vest from IKEA was too shameful to wear. And then when they moved into the driver's seat, they got what I was talking about. And no one got hurt.

I have seen grown up people with this helmet on. Love that Franklin!

Screw style! I'd rather be safe than dead.

Anyway, this is the long way around to discussing adding reflective bits to your outerwear. 

There was a store in Seattle that sold shiny pretty bike coats, with lovely honeycomb     iron-on reflective things. That shop and the beautiful decals are long gone, but others have taken their place.

Seattle Fabrics also stocks fun reflective decals (Sasquatch, camping, etc) but just in-store. Online at amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Gear-Aid-Tenacious-Patches-Fabric/dp/B01D0MVOI6?ref=ast_p_pc_bs&th=1

S'mores included

Search on Etsy on 'reflective' and you get a lot of fun stuff. Pin on buttons!

Search on Amazon for reflective tape and you get stuff (http://a.co/2AjPxJg) you can tape an entire truck with.
Or your commuting bike.

It is stiffer than it is sticky, and will unwind from the bike tube, so it needed to be clear-taped over. After taping, it's still very reflective, so it's a win..

But I am making a coat, so I can build this into the design.

Those are not white stripes

I reserve the right to remodel this jacket back into usability.

The black rain jacket has reflective ribbon up the center back and also as the edges of the front pockets. It's taken a beating and is crumbling at the folds, but otherwise is in excellent health 15 years later.

This ribbon is available online from Seattle Fabrics:
http://www.seattlefabrics.com/Reflective-Tapes-Trims-Piping-Cording_c_333.html

But none of the winter coats have this.

And the raincoat I've still not finished hasn't any, either.

And let's say I wanted to use the iron-on stuff. The Ultrex I'm using is not interested in  iron on Bond stuff. It's been remarkable uninterested in glue dots, but Fabric Fusion is working well on the seams.

I found a whole useful page of good outdoor sewing info at Quest Outfitters webpages, including a couple of iron tricks (masking off the sections you don't want to melt with paper). I'd also test in a well ventilated area, with a pressing sheet on top (I use a hunk of silk organza, which is super sheer and cheaper than a new iron or the hour to clean one off)
http://www.questoutfitters.com/tips_and_hints.htm

I finally decided to sew on some decorative shapes.
So I had to buy some more stuff
http://www.seattlefabrics.com/Reflective-Fabrics_c_84.html

It's a grey cordura, 8 oz weight, plus a heavy coating of shiny that makes it very stiff, and it does not ravel. Unravel.

 It doesn't do either one. Fraying stops at the silver coating.
Bought half a yard, at 18 by 60 inches, that's a lifetime of shiny shiny bits I can sew onto all kinds of outdoor stuff.

I hang it over a cardboard tube because I want to avoid folds and wear along those folds. That's where the reflective coating starts to fail/flake off

 I cut some pleasing curvy shapes to add to the cuffs, the back neck, the side seams at the hem. Kinda like sails.

Sleeve at the cuff. Future cuff that is. This is actually covering up where I had to cheat the pattern to get it all to fit onto my yardage. It's about that much off. Not bad, and certainly a patchable or pieceable location.

 

And I just stitched them on. They aren't going to fray. This last one is on the back of the neck, and I glued the stitching on the inside to waterproof those little holes I just punched in with the machine.

I used Thermoweb's  PeelnStick Fabric Fuse tape to position them initially. It surely did a nice job on the inside face of the fabric to hold the seam allowances down. And when I had to unpick and move one (on the hem, unglued), I found that tape won't really stay on the Ultrex outside face.
Ultrex is doing it's job, I'll give it that. 

I am going to restrain myself to these (so tempting to cut a set of spirals and waves, and I may not continue to resist this urge). I am taking this very slow and steady, as it's a lot of steps. I got a persistent cold for the New Year, so I'm not barreling through this.

And I do need to finish the raincoat as well.