Big Bag Badges: sew-on hi-vis badges for cycling/running

Back when I was a courier, I made myself a big hi-vis badge for my chic black Timbuk2 bag. It was a great success as I haven't been hit by any absent minded motorists yet, which i attribute to being highly visible, as well as taking care - there's no substitute for safe cycling. The badges are sewn together from scraps of hi-vis vests, which seem to be abundant these days. I then sew them onto the outdoor skin of the bag, taking care not to penetrate the waterproof inner. You can also use velcro to make the badge detachable.

I've made a dew of these to different designs, so forgive the mish-mash of photos in this instructable.

I make these up to order at www.zero-waste.co.uk 

Step 1 What you need

1 x hi-vis vest, of the sort worn by roadworkers, and now, any kind of pedestrian or cyclist prone to being hit by a vehicle! These cost about £5, or much less in bulk or from an industrial supplier such as this one. Most workplaces could get you some.
1 x reel of thick thread, preferably synthetic and a needle.
  A pair of scissors, pen or chalk and a ruler and square.
  This .svg layout sheet 
  Some Dress pins
  A sewing machine.
  Optionally: sew-on velcro. (approx. 1m per badge)

UPDATE - Have had to remove the .svg file link from here as apparently it never worked! See the link above for the .svg layouts.

Comments

[Lisa APL Clothing]

Superb idea to get an individual style. Loads of bargain hi viz goodies at APL Clothing

[Ian from Industrial Workwear]

Never thought I'd see Hi Vis become fashionable but you guys have really ran with it!

[goodiebox]

Came across www.suttonsafety.com site based in the midlands they offer good discount on a lot of Hi Vis workwear

Bagged me a Bargain Hi vis vests ONLY £3 Incuding P&P!! http://www.suttonsafety.com

If your in the UK I can highly recommend them.

[sgrimsley]

Hi everyone

I found this great new site the other day with loads of low cost Hi Vis clothing and workwear dickies workwear site, I brought some childrens hi vis vest from them, customer service was great and they were the cheapest on the web.

Well worth a try! :)

[rikwwe]

You can get cheap hi vis vests from here workwear

[spikep]

Hi rikwwe, your absolutely right, they are a good resource for cheap hi vis vests, but I have always used these people for my workwear because they have always been very good to me. They also supply really good trousers from 'dickies'

[john202]

Great idea. You can pick up a cheap hi vis vest for less than £2. I bought mine from step ahead. If you're from the UK I highly recommend them.

[captain.ratsie]

not long after reading this I spotted a safety vest along a 55mph two lane road I travel a lot ,pulled over as soon as i could and walked back the 1/8 mi, and grabbed it.,I was giggling all the way home, it was in very good shape but I cut it up anyhow and sewed all the reflective tape to a " duluth pack" I made from an ible by Tim Anderson (got that material off that same road ),the poor thing is already as ugly as an old shoe so I just sewed the tape on in roughly vertical stripes got 5 2" x 18" strips with 2" spaces in between the pattern covers an approximately 20" square I should be visible from space,,,:) ,it relay does just glow in a light beam ,,, great ible ,,,thank you for sharing

[platdujour]

Great post.

If you live in the UK & can beat the Polish builders to Lidl on the 3rd of June, you can get Hi-Viz vests for £1.99

www.lidl.co.uk/cps/rde/xchg/lidl_uk/hs.xsl/index_11193.htm

[KittyF]

what program do you need to open an .svg file?

[royshearer]

Its a vector image so I use Illustrator or Inkscape for .svg s. They can also be viewed in Firefox.

[anjin12]

this links to

http://www.instructables.com/files/orig/FKH/RDKP/G7YG3EWG/FKHRDKPG7YG3EWG.tmp

not a layouts.svg

[royshearer]

Cheers for letting me know! Can't get the download to work here at Instructables so have put up a link to the file on my own site.

[solo.card]

 Really good idea. You can get dirt cheap high vis jackets from IKEA that would, i think about £2 each.

Out of interest, the bag you used for this, what size/style was it? I'm struggling to judge from the dodgy looking photos on the site!

:)

[n0ukf]

Where do you find this magical market everyone (even some of my fellow Americans, I think) talks about? There's no such thing in far northern Minnesota.

[sysadmn]

Try calling Lowes or Home Depot, or a local lumberyard if you have one within driving distance.  Here, they're in the contractor section of the stores. 

If you have a fabric store, they might carry the reflective tape.  Joann's does, not sure about Michaels, Hobby Lobby or Wally World.

[n0ukf]

Well sure, if you want to do it the easy way, check other stores. But I was asking about the magical land of Ikea. ;)

[royshearer]

I don't know what brand of bag is shown in these pictures - was a while ago. I have one on my large Timbuk2 bag.

[sysadmn]

Clever idea.  If you can't find the vest, sewing stores may carry silver, yellow, white, orange or red reflective tape.  It runs about $3 for a 1" x 5' roll at Joann's.

[Mark Rehorst]

 Very Good!  Being visible on a bike is 1/2 the battle and you've succeeded with style and panache.  I salute you!

I dream of a day when bags are no longer black, and the cases for phones, etc., that are carried in them are no longer black either.  I don't know how many times I have "lost" items inside black bags only to find them when, in a fit of desperation: "I know I put it in there", I turn the bag over and dump all contents only to discover the lost item was right where I put it in the first place.  Black bags and cell phone and mp3 cases and eyeglass cases and etc., should outlawed.

Black was "cool" about 30 years ago.  Apple tried and failed to change the paradigm by making everything white.  Can we just have some color, please?

There... I feel better now.

[shantinath1000]

Nice 'ible-  Recently, while riding a motorcycle I was run off the road by by a driver who didn't see me.