Courage and how to make fringe

Yes, an odd combination of topics, but I had to talk about a couple of TdF riders that showed such courage.

First, Alberto Contador, a Spanish rider who has won the tour twice officially and was in the group to possibly win again. He was going along just fine on stage 10 uphill and as he was eating he hit a dip in the road. He only had one hand on the handlebars so he lost control and crashed. He fell heavily on his right knee and was bleeding profusely. The doctor stopped by, wrapped up his knee, and he got back on the bike. He rode in the pouring rain for about 10 miles before he said goodbye to his teammate who had ridden with him to get Alberto back to the peloton.

Alberto had to abandon. He rode 10 miles with a fracture to his tibia below his knee! He said he stopped because he could not get any power out of his leg. Here he is getting off the bus to talk to reporters.

Next is Andrew Talansky, an American rider. Andrew had crashed three times and had hurt his back. On Stage 11 he just kept falling back farther and farther. He finally stopped and his back was killing him. Andrew sat on a guardrail while the race director for his team talked to him.

He sat there for about four minutes, had a bit of a cry, and he decided he wanted to get back on the bike. Meanwhile the race is going on and he is really behind now. He still had 48 miles with two climbs to the finish line. Andrew is his team leader for winning the yellow jersey and he was in the top 10 so there was still a chance for him to win. He had no teammates and rode by himself with a team car following the last 48 miles. He came in under the time limit so he is still in the tour.

The TV people had kept a camera on him which is unheard of. He was the last guy out on the road all by himself, but he is such an important rider that his ride was newsworthy. Meantime at the finish they were giving out the day's awards and Andrew was still on the course. Here is the split screen when my man, Peter Sagan, received another green jersey and Andrew is in the bottom right still riding. Andrew made it to the finish. Let's see if he can ride today.

Now the fringe for Michael's vests. I cut the fabric a bit wider than what I needed and cut it 8" high. I lined up the cut edge with the edge of my 24" ruler. I put on my brick weights to keep the ruler from moving and used another smaller ruler as my cutting guide.

I used the 1/4" marks on the 24" ruler as my guide for cutting the fringe and cut from right to left.

The rotary cutter can't go all the way to the edge of the fabric and it leaves me just the right for keeping the fringe in one piece and for sewing it on the vest.

Here is the fringe all cut and ready for me to position and sew on the vest. I did get the shoulders sewn and the vest topstitched last night. All that is left is to add the fringe.

I also got some pieces cut for the four covers I need to get made for the band. Three of the covers will have clear tops so I got those cut out. I am breathing a bit easier as the covers will not need to be to MN until Friday the 25th.