Home made bicycle panniers

In my previous post I wrote about the Carradice panniers that I wasn't happy with, and how I improved them. However, before that, I had seen a post on a Facebook group I'm in, where somebody had made some panniers, and I thought - I could do that..... Hers were roll up ones, which would have been my preferred style, but I didn't have enough fabric for that. Next time maybe.....

My fabric came mostly from a military surplus rucksack which I had bought some time ago, for about £15, completely taken apart (which took ages - the stitching was tough to unpick!) and washed. I saved everything - all the webbing and all the buckles. I didn't have quite enough fabric so had to use some new Cordura for the sides. I also used some red fabric which came from a pair of Karrimor panniers, which I had bought in a charity shop for £3, thinking they were too good a bargain to miss. However, as they turned out to be nothing like as good as the old faithful Karrimor ones I've got on my Trek, which I suspect are older, I cut them up too. The netting was new, from Contact Left.

Karrimor panniers - maybe 25 years old now

Oh and I nearly forgot, some time ago I had acquired, for free, a bike transporting bag, which I also cut up. I used some of the black fabric from it for the linings, and some of the stiff foam (closed cell foam? I'm not quite sure....) for stiffening the backs.

So, I drew up a design, and cut out pattern pieces. I didn't want the panniers too big, so looked at the measurements for some of the smaller Ortlieb and Restrap ones online, and used those measurements as a basis. I definitely wanted some outside pockets. I wasn't sure at the beginning exactly how I'd attach the panniers to the bike, although I knew I wasn't going to go the whole hog and use proper pannier attachments. This was partly because I was trying to avoid spending  any money on buying anything extra. As you can see, in the end I made straps from old inner tubes to attach them. The panniers are not identical due to not having enough of the same fabrics for each one. I also did the pockets differently, because I was learning as I went along!

I used my Bernina 930, with Gutermann Mara 70 thread, and my industrial Seiko Stw-8b with bonded nylon thread. I bought the latter machine about two years ago and this is the first project I have used it for. It proved invaluable. I compare this machine to a tractor when it starts up. It's a beast! Here it is - 

Anyway, here are the panniers, on my Koga Traveller -

As you can see below, the two rear pockets are different. I did not do them "properly", with a proper lid, although I'd like to teach myself how to when I've got time. I just made it up as I went along. Both have Velcro fastening.

Rear pockets

Flap with zipped net pocket, front pocket underneath, net pocket on side. The reason for the wire twist tags on the bottom strap is that I made them much too long! I'll shorten them when I get round to it.

By the way, sorry about the wheelie bins in the background. I usually have washing in the background, which is nicer really, although in our previous house, when we first moved there (estate cottage) we were told that the owners of the Big House (and owners of our house) did not want to see our washing on the line from their windows. I complied, using a rotary washing line out of their view, until baby number 4 came along and we just had too much washing. Then I stopped complying and strung my washing down the garden on a nice long line. That's the Upper Classes for you!! Back to the panniers.

Strap with Velcro

When I made the second flap, I thought I might as well add a zip pocket to the inside. I should add that it was only after using them for the first time that I added the drawstring tops. They were just too open at the top  of the sides without them. I couldn't really do it on the machine, at that stage, without a lot of hassle, so I stitched them on by hand, hence the big stitches.

Drawstring top and inside zip pocket

The "C" is where I had labelled all the pieces so I wouldn't forget what each one was. The strip above the C is where I strengthened it before adding a webbing handle on the outside. I should really have got that red Karrimor bit visible on the outside somewhere, just for amusement!

Here is the back, with the strap, made from old inner tube, stitched down the edges

to make it lie flatter. 

I could actually use the strap as a shoulder strap when the panniers are off the bike, although I don't aim to be taking them off the bike when in use as it takes ages to strap them back on again! However, thinking about when I'm staying overnight somewhere, and want to take my stuff into a B and B, I made 4 coloured bags out of oddments of lightweight fabric so that I can just remove these and their contents from the panniers. I made the orange one from a rucksack cover that I found on the Ridgeway. there's not a lot that I won't pick up and take home when I'm out and about!

This was the first time I used the panniers - rather nervously! - for shopping. Sausages on the rack! As you can see, when filled with shopping, the right hand one is hanging away from the bike a bit too much. However, the next time I used them, I arranged the straps differently, which kept them both closer to the bike.

The rather complicated arrangement of the straps round the rack!! 

They are obviously not going to be waterproof, but I have waterproof covers that came with the Carradice ones so I will use those if necessary.

Although I say it myself, I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. I didn't expect them to be this good! In fact I was chatting to an old neighbour the other day, who is a cyclist, and when he looked at my panniers I told him I'd made them, and he was extremely complimentary and said "You wouldn't have known it!"

You might now be wondering why I need 3 sets of panniers..... well obviously I don't really, but it was only after making these that I realized that I could hack the Carradice ones and improve them, so of course I had to.... I also enjoyed the process of designing and making these. It was good practice for me on the Seiko too, especially as I encountered some problems with it along the way but managed to fix them and keep going. 

Home made bicycle bar bag

 Before I get on to the bar bag, here's the reason why I decided to make another one: I treated myself to a second pair of panniers to go on my Koga, the bike I use for longer touring or just longer day trips, and because these new ones don't have any outside pockets, having extra and easily accessible space to put small bits and pieces in is even more important. The panniers are Ortlieb Back Roller Plus, bought from Spa Cycles (delivery was quick, despite Covid) in lime green, and it took me hours of poring over the internet to decide which ones to get. My old Karrimors  are excellent, and have two good outside pockets on, and I just wish that someone would make some exactly the same. I don't think I'm the only cyclist to think like this as similar style ones go for good prices on Ebay. I did in fact have my eye on a pair of Carradice panniers on Ebay but they went for more than I wanted to pay for something I wasn't totally sure about. At first I didn't want to even consider any that hadn't got outside pockets, and I came close to buying these Carradice ones, which are a very good price, but for various reasons in the end I went for the Ortlieb ones. I nearly went for the Bike Packer style, as they do have one outside pocket, but I thought it looked a bit flat and slightly awkward to get into. There were lots of other factors that influenced my choice, too. Maybe I'll do a whole blog post on that later.


In my very first blog post I wrote about a bar bag I made from a musette bag. You can read about that here. That very simple bag is still going strong, but I decided I wanted to try to make one that was a bit stronger, and, frankly, a little more professional looking..... I very much like these from Ornot, and other companies do very similar ones, and thought I'd have a go at copying the style, but in the end I just couldn't see how I'd fix it on without squashing my cables. I'm sure there are ways to work around that problem, but I thought I might as well just make another version of the one I've already got which I know works and doesn't get in the way of cables.

As the Karrimors are now permanently on the Trek, the cheap panniers which were on there are now spare, so I cut one up and had just enough material from one of them to make the bar bag. The fabric is some kind of ripstop. I had the design and measurements in mind before I started, but made alterations to those as I went along.

On the bike - 

The back, and no, that's not a bit of unstitched binding at the bottom right. It's just where I had to re-do the yellow stitching on the front and  didn't quite catch in the binding on this side, and so I did it by hand - 

The green lining came from an old windbreak I had acquired for free, knowing it would come in useful one day! I was vaguely trying to colour co-ordinate with the lime green of the panniers.... The green tape is just to fix anything else to if I want, based on the military molle attachment system which I came across on YouTube - see explanation here - 

Dog clip inside for attaching things like keys or safety pins to -

Don't look too closely at the stitching....

I was originally intending to attach the bottom Velcro strap round the stem, and the bag was going to sit right behind the cables where my old one did, but I decided it was better attached like this - 

Everything that I used came from the old pannier, or was saved from something else (like the tape and the dog clip), except the Velcro and the zip, both of which I bought.

I'm really pleased with how this bag turned out. I'm also making a waterproof barbecue cover for my neighbour out of Cordura type fabric, which is a whole new area of sewing for me - different fabric, different thread, meaning lots of internet research - and these two projects have really got me thinking about making bags from more outdoorsy fabrics, as opposed to the upholstery or dressmaking fabrics I've used in the past. And so then I got on to looking at vintage industrial sewing machines.... 

I would still want to re-use things, as with the old pannier. I just hope that charity shops will open up properly again soon, by which I mean unlimited numbers of customers and therefore unlimited browsing - essential in charity shops!