A few useful bags I've made lately.

Back in 2017 I made this messenger bag -

which was a very useful one, and which I could handily stuff into my panniers went I went shopping on my bike. However, it was never quite big enough - it needed to be about an inch wider - so I decided to make a bigger one. That first bag was made from a jacket which I'd bought in a charity shop, but with them all being shut at the time I had to bite the bullet and buy brand new fabric. Actually that was quite a treat for me! I ordered a metre of waxed cotton (which looks black but is actually very dark green) from Point North, at the reduced price of about £8, and made this bag -

However, because I changed my mind half way through about how I was going to construct it, partly in order to be able to attach the little pocket on the side more easily, it ended up too big..... I knew I was never going to be happy with it, so I unpicked it all and made this one, which is much better, but I left off the small pocket -

Space for the glasses at last

Dog clip for extra security 

You can actually get a lot out of a metre of fabric (I think it was 150cm wide)  so then I also  made this roll-top rucksack -

I like the simplicity of a roll-top fastening. I didn't have very suitable webbing for the straps so had to cut a wide one in half lengthways, so that I had enough for two, and then bind the raw edge with grosgrain tape (another recent favourite of mine). It does the job! The fastening is made from a belt from an old favourite Craghopper's skirt. I left the skirt behind in our B and B on holiday once, and when I rang up about it, mysteriously it had never been found....

Then, for my 5l rucksack -

I made this extension -

Folds up small.

I find that although the rucksack holds enough for a day's walk, if I remove a jacket or jumper then there's really no space for that. I made a pattern from the rucksack, and added loops to the extension and some extra ones to the rucksack itself. The fabric came from a free windbreak, and the zip from a bag I had picked up in the verge one day. (Husband gets quite embarrassed about my picking things up when we're out together, and sometimes says "You're NOT picking that up!") I think the yellow cord was free from somewhere too!

I tried it out on a walk the other day when I took my jumper off, and it worked really well! I was so glad I'd made it.

Then Husband said one day that he could do with a bottle holder to hold the 250 ml bottle (Nalgene, we both use them in this size) that he often takes out on a walk. He wanted it to attach to his belt. So, using fabric saved from old panniers and some ripstop (more new fabric from Point North) I made this -

The bottom was very difficult to get right

 

I actually took enormous care to line up the seam, but the ripstop moved, hence the misalignment. I couldn't use the new roller foot I'd bought, in that position, so couldn't stop the fabric moving. When you make something that you've designed yourself then it's only when it's finished that you realize how to make it better, and if I make another one I'll put the seam somewhere else as I don't like it there (even if it were lined up properly! So we'll call this a prototype.... Husband was pleased with it though!

And one last thing! some time ago, I bought a brand new camera bag from a charity shop, for about £3, thinking I could flog it for a fortune (it has worked for me sometimes!). However, it didn't sell, so I unpicked every bit of it and ended up with a lot of webbing, various fastenings, big bits of Velcro, a good zip, and some bits of fabric. There was a zipped mesh pocket inside the bag, and I kept that whole. It has now become the reverse of this little pouch, which I intend to use for first aid and other essentials on my bike, or in my rucksack -

Front

The salvaged mesh pocket

Pleated pocket

Please don't look closely at the corners - they are not neat! I need to practise corners on binding. but I'm pleased with this and it will be really useful.

I have some other similar projects in the pipeline, but something for grandchild number 6 (that will be our third in 6 months!) due very soon, now takes priority.

Messenger bag made from £1 charity shop outdoor jacket

Last year I bought this jacket in a charity shop for £1. It was like new - I didn't recognize the make so thought that although it looked good it probably wasn't the best quality outdoor clothing, but it would be great to have as a spare. After googling it I found out that it was a skiing jacket from Decathlon.

I wore it once to test it out but didn't like it as it wasn't at all warm and was noisy! I hate it when you're out on a nice peaceful walk and your arms brush against your sides and make a noise. I have a good quality Berghaus waterproof which does this too, so it's not necessarily just a fault of cheap clothing.

I was going to give it back to a charity shop but then thought - ah, this would make a very nice bag! Hence the scene below on the kitchen floor.............

I chopped it to pieces and ended up with some decent sized pieces of fabric, plus zips and various bits of velcro and shock cord. When I took it apart the cheap materials were revealed. Thin polyester wadding in between the outer and inner and I suspect that the reverse of the outer fabric was some cheap waterproofing, certainly not breathable.

The bag below was the result.

This fabric was HORRIBLE to sew.  The foot moved OK, so it wasn't a question of needing a Teflon foot, and I used what I thought would be the best needle for this fabric, a microtex one, but the machine objected when it got to the thick bits, which it wouldn't normally do to this extent.

                                                                                         

I didn't do the pockets quite the same as I did when making this bag (the one below) not long ago. As the fabric was so hard to sew I kept things to a minimum.

Recently I got a shelter/gazebo thing from Freegle, that somebody had left behind at a festival, and cut it all up to use in the future, and that's where the green lining came from. The flap pocket is also lined with this. The rest of the bag is self lined. I didn't use any interfacing or wadding. The strap is webbing from an army surplus stores; I didn't have enough of the bag fabric to make the strap. I didn't make it adjustable as a lot of bag makers say to do, as it's not necessary for me as I never adjust it once it's the right length.

There is one internal pocket, and also a dog clip attached at the front (on the right - hard to see as the pic is dark, and I also couldn't get the Ipad to focus for some reason) for my bike padlock keys.

I attached the zip in a slightly different way to how I did it on the other bag pictured above, because doing it this way means it stands just slightly proud of the bag and is easier to unzip. 

The zip I used is one I unpicked from a previous bag I'd made; I had bought two of these at a past Festival of Quilts, from the Pinwheels stall. That was years ago and they still don't seem to be available in this country except in black on Ebay, unless I just can't find them on the internet. If ever I see their stall again I shall buy several of these zips as they are so smooth running and I love the ball and chain! 

Lovely zip!

I attached a velcro fastening right at the end (should have added it much earlier!) - you can see that in the first photo. I used the bag today and love it as it's the right size and very lightweight, and I can easily stuff it in my bike panniers. 

I have really enjoyed making these messenger bags lately, and as I have just been given a big bag of furnishing fabric remnants, I'll be making some more, possibly to sell.

Attempts at making my ideal (vaguely messenger style) bag - with failures and successes!

Back in the 1990s, Husband and I were invited to a birthday party, and I bought a new dress. It wasn't a dressy affair, more a "down the local football club" sort of affair, so the dress wasn't dressy, just a denim pinafore (honestly, it was fashionable at the time!). The dress lacked pockets. Until the advent of the internet I thought I was the only one that didn't like not having a pocket, but now I know I'm not alone! Where else DOES one put one's hankie? (I never go anywhere without one - I'm reminded of my mum saying "Have you got your hankie?" as I went out the door as a child.) Unless one has a sleeve to stuff it up, which results in a lump. So I decided to make a very small lightweight across the body bag, which would go nicely with the dress, and which would contain my hankie. 

Following that I made quite a lot of bags over the years, selling quite a few in the process. They were all my own design - nothing terribly complicated, but I did learn a lot about construction techniques. I can remember following someone and looking at her shoulder bag and thinking "Mmmm, how is that corner made?" and going home and working out how it was done (the boxed corner). There are lots of clever people out there designing bag patterns, and I have the utmost admiration for some of them, because I know just how long it takes to work out how to do something and how to design what you want. This post is all about that process, with my successes and failures. 

One designer in particular I like - Dog Under My Desk  (hereafter referred to as DUMD). I have made her Two Zip Hipster bag -

Two Zip Hipster

Interior

and also recently purchased her Saddle Bag pattern, though I have yet to make it. 

Sometimes it is useful to cough up money on a pattern because you do learn how to do things that you might not otherwise and you can use this information in your own bags. I find that bag making books don't contain everything you want to know. Like the zipped front pocket (see comment below on my linen bag!).

Recently I was looking at my favourite bag - this one, made out of an old wax jacket, very suitable for winter -

Wax jacket bag

and noticed that it was wearing a bit where the handles are joined to the body. I'd made this one up as I went along and probably hadn't used the best of techniques. So I decided to make myself a replacement, and set about thinking what I wanted. The Two Zip Hipster comes close, but I've always found it too deep, and while I could have gone through the pattern and altered it to make it less so, it might have meant more work than just designing my own, or rather, adapting various patterns to get what I wanted. As I said, the DUMD patterns are very good, but although they are not difficult to make, and the instructions are extremely well written and photographed, they are quite complicated, and while the PDFs are not expensive (though "expensive" is always relative.....) some have 30 pages or so to print out!  I thought I could come up with something simpler.

Bear with me while I explain what went on my head......

The thing is, that nobody carries exactly the same stuff in their bags, so everyone's requirements are different. I wanted a bag designed around what I carry, and although I might want a little surplus space I didn't want loads. This was what I did want -

1 One main zipped main compartment, for purse, notebook, pen, small shopping bag

2 One zipped compartment on the front of the main compartment, for phone, Garmin, bike padlock keys

3 A patch pocket inside 

4 A flap, with one patch pocket, for my shopping list!

"A place for everything and everything in its place!" I think that probably came originally from my Great Grandmother. It's very relevant to one's bag!

5 As I am usually on my bike and it has to be stuffed into my panniers, I wanted the bag to be flexible but strong. I didn't want to have to interface it. 

6  I also didn't want to spend any money, at least not until I had perfected my design. Until then I just wanted to use whatever I'd already got.

So, firstly I wanted to work out how to put a zip in the top of the bag in the way I was envisaging (I still don't know if this type of zip top has a name) -

so I made this small bag to attempt to do it. While it looks OK on the outside, I couldn't work out how to line it properly. One attempt and I almost gave up. I thought "I'm fed up with this. I'll just find a pattern on the internet!" Pathetic!!! But then I read a post on DUMD, about how long it took her to design a pattern, and how many samples she made in the process, and I thought "Well, if it's it like that for her too I'm not giving up!"

So I attempted another zip top, which isn't bad but it still wasn't lined and still wasn't quite what I wanted. I'll probably actually pad this one out somehow to use it as an Ipad bag. The fabric I used here was from an old curtain.

Possible Ipad bag.

Then I made this one, and began to feel I was getting closer to what I wanted.

But - it still wasn't lined in the way I wanted. I had actually sewn the lining to the outer, wrong sides together, and then zig zagged the raw edges of the layers after stitching the pieces together. You might say that this is in my quest to avoid a baggy lining, which I don't like. I could have bound the edges, which would have been neater, but binding edges is difficult to get neat when those edges are quite short and have corners (albeit rounded). But this bag at least is usable. The fabric is the old curtain again, plus some oddments from my stash.

I had to shorten the flap after making, hence the untidy seam.

Raw edges zig zagged.

Then for some reason, probably that it was more wintery looking, I decided to try another in some woollen fabric I had. This time I used a different method! Rather than stitching a piece round the outside to form the depth of the bag, I used this boxy zipped bag method. You'll need to click on that link to understand what I did next. I used the method described there, of drawing round the four corner pieces -

Draw round that template and then cut out the shape

Interfaced outer after cutting out the shapes

and cutting them out to leave the final piece, but somehow I managed to get the two pieces different sizes! With some thoughts of "Oh do I really want to do this.....?????" and "Don't expect to achieve what you want without some hard work!", I went back to the drawing board and made the template below instead, to eliminate making that mistake again.

I had altered the measurements to get the size I wanted, and I made it up in newspaper to make sure I'd got it right and that it would work! There's a lot of maths in sewing! You can alter this template to get other sizes. (Although this wasn't the method I used in the final bag, I'm glad I discovered how to make one in this way, as I'll probably use it for some other bag in the future. So it wasn't wasted time!) This was the size template I came up with -

To line the bag, I sewed the outer and lining right sides together, turned them right sides out, and then sewed the whole thing together. I attached the strap and the patch pocket. It looks nice but it's a bit bodged to be honest, and it's not sturdy enough, even though I had used some interfacing. I also decided against using that lining method again.

Inside, no raw edges but a bit of a bodge job.

Then I had big rethink, and decided that I didn't want the top zip after all, and that what I basically wanted was my own adaptation of a classic messenger bag (which actually is what my waxed bag is!). I didn't really need a pattern or tutorial but used one anyway - Messenger bag tutorial. It's excellent and it's free. I made it smaller with my own adaptations for pockets. This time I used a lovely piece of thick old linen, which I bought earlier this year at a sale at the convent in Wantage, when I spent £10 on a variety of old and new pieces of fabric. I would guess this piece had been a curtain. It was perfect for a bag - flexible and floppy (but not so much that it needed stabilizing) but strong. I wish I had lots more of it. The colour of course is hardly suitable for winter! 

But at least I was getting even closer to what I wanted.

On this one I have attached two dog clips and two D rings to fasten the flap if I want. I sewed them on by hand after completing the bag. In future I'll sew fastenings on earlier in the process. The pen pocket on the outside was unintentional - it just happened as a result of the way I put the pocket on, which was another bodge job, but it worked and next time I'll do it properly.

I did not make the strap adjustable, mainly because I didn't have enough fabric.

Another mistake here! Because the bag is mostly lined in the same fabric this was an easy one to make - attaching the patch pocket to the outside (which is done before joining any of the pieces) when it was meant to be on the inside!

Pocket should have been on inside

I attached the front pockets by basically using the method from the Two Zip Hipster, which I won't explain here (you'll have to buy DUMD's pattern!) but which is very good. I've got the zipped pocket I wanted and one behind it as well.

I removed the dog clips!  I found an old bit of leather with press stud attached, probably from an old possibly "Animal" (is that make still around?) key ring belonging to Eldest Son in his teenage years (I never throw such things away) which I sewed on - with difficulty! - and sewed on a tab with a D ring at the bottom for it to go through.

Leather tab, and D ring underneath

Here's me with the bag (still with dog clips) just to give an idea of the size.

A faceless me with the bag (Husband's paragliding wing on floor!)

I'm planning another slightly bigger one (I need a tad more space) in denim perhaps, and, very importantly, with the addition of something to convert it into a rucksack, because sometimes when I go shopping on the bike I find I have run out of space in the panniers and can't fit the bag in, so need to put it on my back.

That's quite a lot of bags (some pretty useless!) and many hours of work! But I'm glad I kept going. I have already taken apart a couple of the first bags  in order to be able to re-use the zips. I have also removed the "ball and chain" antique bronze zip on the front of the waxed one as it is such a good zip. I bought two of these years ago at a show. I think I've got a fetish about nice zips.....!

So, "Almost There", as one of my favourite songs, sung by Andy Williams, says.  And yesterday the song "Don't give up!" (I nearly gave this post that title) came into my mind, sung by Kate Bush and its writer Peter Gabriel, even though it has never been a song I'd taken much notice of. I think it might become a favourite! 

Lizzie