One sports bag...

It's finished! That bag I told you about. Unfortunately, I didn't get it done in time to take it on our climbing trip last weekend (more about that in the next post) but after today, it can take our harnesses, shoes and other gear to the climbing gym and on future trips to real rock. 

These are just some quick pictures to show you the bag. I stuffed it with a pillow and put it on the living room floor to get the shots. I will post a proper in-action picture later so you can get a better idea about the scale of the thing.

It is actually fairly small for this type of bag because I was restricted by the amount of material I had. This last weekend, I saw the type of bag this one was inspired by in use by other climbers. That did help me get a better idea about the use of its various features. It was too late to change anything about this one but I will keep that in mind for a next version. 

In addition to the features I have shown you before (like that U-shaped zipper!). My bag has short handles next to the zipper and at one end. It is all made from the same black fabric/plastic with 5 cm wide black straps and 2.5 cm wide red straps. 

I attached the shoulder strap with D-rings and it has one slide adjuster. And I even made one of those pad-things for carrying comfort. 

When all of that was finished, I didn't like the sadly collapsed look of it and decided to give the edges a bit of body. I did that by hand-stitching some old phone wire to the seam allowances (old and no longer useable. I kept this stuff for a couple of years thinking it might one day be useful for a sewing project...). Of course, the best way of including something like this would have been to encase it in a strip of fabric and sew that into those seams so it would be on the outside, like bulky piping. Live and learn... 

Finally sewing again

I didn't manage to fit in a lot of sewing last week. First I was really busy and then I got a nasty cold. I'm OK now and moving on with the plans I mentioned in the previous post: I'm making a bag.

First, I did some research. In this case, that meant looking at examples of the kind of bag I want sold in online stores (and in a real store, now that I think of it). I quickly found a shape I liked which also didn't look to hard to make. 

Although I was planning to use stash material (an off-cut of a black-out roll curtain, to be precise) I also looked for "fabric". It turns out you can buy that stuff, from which near-indistructable bags are made, by the meter. You know, that plastic on a woven back which is used for covers on trucks too and for good quality banners for outdoor use. The name of the material, at least here in the Netherlands, is bisonyl, the standard width is 250 cm and it comes in lots of colours. 

The bag I am making now is a bit of a test-case but I definitely consider buying this stuff for a later, fine-tuned, version.

Sewing-wise, I had to start with the most difficult part: Inserting the zipper in a shallow U-shape. Fortunately, I could study the construction on my old sports bag. That is how I found out that the edges were bound with nylon tape and the zipper sewn in with single lines of stitching close to the edges.

I didn't have a lot of material which could make a sturdy enough binding and had the right width. Just enough for one edge of the zipper, to be precise. So, I decided to use it on the inside edge and just sew the zipper directly to the cut edge on the outside.

It was fiddly but it worked.

Like the bisonyl, my "fabric" shows its weave on one side and a smooth plastic layer on the reverse. I'm using the woven side on the outside of the bag but I thought it would be better to add a second layer, with the smooth side facing out, on the bottom.

And of course, I am going to need a separate compartiment for my wallet, keys and phone. I'm making that on one end. I'll just double that piece (although I will have to use a different material on the inside, I'm out of curtain)  and put a zipper in the outside.  

With these bits done, it is time to pick some strategic places for straps and then put the whole thing together.

a new Market Bag

I've just made myself a new "Market Bag".

I go to the market at least once a week (more often twice) to buy fruit, vegetables, sometimes meat or fish and, of course, fabric and notions. That means I have a lot to carry when I'm there and I have to be able to take it all with me on the short bicycle ride home. It won't surprise you that I'm doing all the carrying in a me-made bag... Although I like my market bag to look nice, it is mainly utilitarian and I don't replace it until I have to.

The first one, which pre-dates this blog by quite a bit, was a clone of the store-bought bag which was performing the same service before it. I made it in cotton canvas which I dyed olive green and decorated with self-made band patches (the big one is of my boyfriend's band at the time) Unfortunately, I lost it well before its time when it was ripped off the back of my bicycle in a little drive-by moped robbery. 

To replace it, I made another one using some Ikea fabric. This was in the early days of this blog and it has served me well ever since. 
However, it looks a bit tired now and recently, the zipper which I inserted it one side has started to tear at the corner. The zipper closes a pocket which I use to store my wallet, phone and keys. As a result, it is opened and closed quite a lot when the bag is in use. And when I'm filling the bag, the weight puts strain on the corners when the zipper is open. 
Not that I should be complaining, it has held up well for years.

And so, I made a new one. I used the same basic fabric as I did for the very first bag, just in its original un-dyed form. To decorate it, and to make it a bit more practical, I used textile black paint.

I printed some of the pictures of castle ruins from my holiday in Scotland and cut out the outlines to use as templates. 

Not an entirely original idea, of course.

The paint has made the lower parts of the bag a bit thicker and stiffer than before, which I think is just fine.
Instead of an inside pocket which opens to the outside, like before, I've made an expanding patch pocket. 

If you're interested, this is what the pattern looks like. The measurements include seam allowances and a facing of 3 cm at the top. My bag is lined and I used the same pattern piece for the lining, just cut 3 cm shorter at the top ( I know that means it's slightly too long but that's done on purpose. The outside fabric is strong, the lining isn't so I want to outside to carry the weight of the bag's contents). Obviously, you cut the bag piece twice and the pocket piece once. 

I used bought strap material, 70 cm per strap, including seams and overlap with the facing. I couldn't get black straps so I decided to go with a contrast colour and buy red instead. All the straps on offer were also narrower than I wanted so I overlapped them a little and stitched it down with a stitched zigzag.

The bag got its first outings today: a trip to the market and some regular grocery shopping. I have to get used to it a little bit but I think it will work just fine.

A new bag

Last week, I finished my new bag. And this weekend, E took some snapshots when we walked into town.

As I've told you before, I made the bag from pieces of leather which have been used as colour samples for furniture. It's fairly thick leather and I love the colour.

I made the shoulder straps from the belts which used to hold the couch cushions in place in grandmother's old house (they attached the back rests to the wall and were going to be left behind when she moved). I'm curious to see how well they'll hold up because this leather is old and feels really dry. I left the original end with its large oval brass grommet on one of them, as you can see in these pictures.

The shape of the bag is very simple. Basically just a big sack with the bottom corners squared off, a zipper at the top and a shoulder strap which attaches to the side seam part of the way down. 

And of course it's lined and has a zippered pocket in the lining.

In case you're interested, this is the pattern, with the measurements. 

It's a bit bigger than my previous bag but it 'hangs' nicely. I think this bag and I are going to get along just fine.

It's all in the bag

My beloved old coat isn't the only trusty, much-used item which is dying… My favorite bag seemed to be going through the same, slow process.

I'm sure I've made a blog post about this bag just after I finished it, but I can't find it now. So, let me tell you that the leather always had a bit of a battered look. I made it from an old motorcycle jacket (which was given to me by a friend). The leather looked nicely worn but was still quite sturdy. I used one of the pockets on the front of the bag. 
Other than that, it was a pretty basic, rectangular bag with a zipper closure and shoulder strap. 

Over the past months, I had noticed that the corners were starting to wear out (unfortunately, demands of pocket placement had forced me to use a thinnish bit of the leather there).

And the stitching of the top panel broke at one end (probably just from pulling at the zipper again and again and again). Because it didn't go past the corners, it wasn't a big problem and it would have been almost impossible to fix because I put in grommets at the corners after sewing this bit.

But then, about two weeks ago, the zipper suddenly got stuck without reason whenever I tried to open the bag. This annoyed me for a while until the day that no amount of fiddling would suffice to convince it to open anyway. The zipper pull came off. I had to cut the zipper tape to open the bag.
That was the end.

If the zipper hadn't failed, I would have continued to use this bag but now that it has, I don't think it's worth repairing. In fact, I don't think I could because of those grommets I mentioned above. 

I'm sewing a new bag now. The shape is, again, quite simple but instead of old leather clothing, I'm now using bits of leather which had a previous life colour samples for a furniture store. 
Which means it's thick leather. My sewing machine handles it very well except at those points where two seams have to be sewn to each other, so it has to sew through eight layers of the stuff.
And to do the machine justice, the side seams went fine. The leather on the top is a bit thinner which must have helped. It's just those cross seams on the bottom (only one sewn yet in these pictures) which were tricky.

When sewing leather, I usually glue the seam allowances down. With thin leather, you have to be really careful it won't show on the outside. With this stuff, it's pretty difficult to make them stick, even if you let the glue dry while weights keep the seam allowances in place (if you're interested, my tips for sewing leather are here. And I can add that with the top feed option on my sewing machine, I don't have to resort to stitching through tracing paper).

I like where this bag is going. It will, of course, get a zipper and a lining and it will be worn folded over, like this, hanging from a shoulder strap. Now, I'm just wondering whether or not to look for a better matching zipper and, obviously, I'm pondering the old question: Copper or silver? ('old' look, so slightly blackened, copper or shiny silver, that is)
What do you think?

A 'new' bag

I made a 'new' leather bag. In fact, the bag is new enough but I made it from about half of an old leather motorcycling jacket. I already used the other half for a bag for my father. I just added a sturdy zipper, rivets, D-rings and a lining.

I used the welt pocket from the jacket's front for the front of the bag...

and unpicked the elastic at the back in order to have enough material for the new back.

And I made the lining out of some yellow cotton.

The shape of this bag is really easy, you only have to consider the order in which you put it together. Including a zipper and a lining means you have to plan ahead. However, this leather is really thick and quite stiff. I couldn't have done it with a lesser sewing machine...

It's quite a tough looking bag so it will be interesting to see how well it works with my usual 'look'. Although I usually pick my bags for practical purposes rather than for style.

I can always do a bag first...

I'm so happy at least some of you are familiar with chaotic sewing and posting ;)

Yesterday, I was trying to decide which sewing project to tackle first, when my eyes strayed across the shelf in my sewing room where I keep my less useful thriftshop finds... Hats, gloves and small handbags. About three of each.

Now the gloves and hats are all in fine condition but only one of the bags is. The other two were bought together. I was at the market stall one day admiring them for their nice frames and closures when the seller offered me the two for 7 euros... Of course I couldn't say no! They were both made from what looked like plastic coated paper, printed to look like animal skin, and looking very, very tired.

When I saw them on the self now, it hit me: I know you can't reuse a handbag frame which has the bag materials squeezed in (rather than sewn on), but I can always add a layer! The inside of the bag still looked great, and the sides weren't bad at all. It was just the front and the strap.

I took some pieces of thin black leather (once part of a large coat and left over from making the jacket pictured in the banner) and sewed them together so they were large enough to cover the bag. Then, I used spray glue to put the leather on the bag surface. I trimmed the edges to about 1,5 cm past the corners of the bag and folded those narrow edges over (mitering

the sharp corners).

I made a new strap by sewing the longest scrap of leather together to form a tube and turning it right side out. I inserted a piece of not-suitable-for-its-normal-use electrical wired, and sewed along the edges using a zipper foot. Then came the fiddly bit of attaching the strap to the bag frame. I stitched extra bits of leather to the strap ends and glued those around thin straps of leather, pulled through the loops on the frame, they I put rivets in.

The new strap is a bit longer than the old one used to be, so the bag can now be carried on the shoulder as well. I know there's a loose end visible on the strap in the picture, but I glued that down afterwards.

I'm happy with how the bag turned out, but I think it could use some spicing up. I made a button robot but it doesn't look half as cute when it is hanging down (the arms almost disappear inside the body). And maybe I shouldn't have used such dark buttons. I'm not good at decorations, so I think it will take several tries to come up with something. Do you have any suggestions for me?

bag tutorial

A few weeks ago, my self-made grocery-bag was stolen. After handling with the obligatory bussiness of blocking and replacing credit cards, mobile phone and things like that, I realised that this left me without my favorite large take-it-anywhere-bag. I just had to make a new one.

It's quite a change from the old one, but I had left the pattern of that with a friend a while ago, and I didn't feel like having to dye canvas fabric again, while I had this great Ikea print in my stash. The fabric wasn't going an

ywhere there because I considered it too stiff and rough for clothing.

I just freehanded at making this bag, but this is how you could do the same.

The pattern looks roughly like this:

You can make it any size but mine is about 60 by 65 cm. The band (about 4 cm wide) at the top should be interfaced and will later be turned in, this will be the facing. If you line the bag, cut the lining from the pattern minus this top bit.

First, you sew the darts, than the outline of the bag. Do the same for the lining.

If you what to make pockets (inside or outside), put them on the panel where you want them before sewing the outline.

Decide on the length and placement of your shoulder straps, sew them and attach them to the top of the band (if you make fabric straps, interface them for strength).

Right sides together, sew the bag and the bag lining together along the top edge, catching the shoulder straps in the seam. Turn it right side out through a gap in the lining outline seam (and close that by hand). Make sure to turn in the facing, and topstitch it in place. Also topstich the shoulder straps to the facing.

Now, you have a finished, flat bag. To give it a nicer shape, I folded side seams in at the top of the bag and sewed them down about 4 cm further down (picture follows tomorrow)

I hope these instructions were helpfull, let me know if there's something I need to explain better.

Vintage finds

Pictures! I'm finally home by daylight, on my own, without being crazily busy, so I decided to put my somewhat camera-shy self in front of the camera to show you something I found at one of my thrifty market stalls last week.

First up something less intimidating.

These two handbag were mine for 8 euros. There's a good bit of age to them, which shows in their nice clasp closures, leather linings and old-fashioned pulls on their inside zipper-pockets. They've also both seen better days. Especially the handles are in a sorry state. I'm thinking about replacing them. I've got some black metal chain in my stash, but it should really be yellow metal, don't you think?

The one on the left might be eel-skin or reptile and the one on the right snake. However, on close inspection it is clear that there made from leather or even plastic stamped to look like exotic skins (which is good). The 'snake-skin' looks like paper with plastic scales on it when you study the torn bit at the handle. I'll have to ask my bag-o-philiac friend if she can date them or tell me anything more.

The thing for which I had to pose is this:

It's a half circle skirt in soft red leather. Oh, and it has pockets.

I'm always on the lookout for cheap second hand leather items which I can cut up and use to make bags. This one, I found at a stall where I don't usually shop. It was 5 euros. I was intrigued by it but had my doubts about the elastic waistband. But at that price, what could go wrong? It would either be a special garment for me, or several bags.

I threaded in new elastic, making the waistband a bit tighter and I have to say, I kind of like it. The length, fullness and weight of the thing give it, at least in my mind, a bit of 'New Look'-appeal. It may not be practical in real life, but I'll give it a try. Here's one skirt which won't have a date with my scissors any time soon...

Skipped a day to: Thrifty Thursday

I kind of planned to post something every day this week, just to get the blog going but yesterday really didn't leave with the time or the opportunity to take a picture and sit down to some writing. And I had a really hard time getting the pictures where I wanted them when making the kimono-tutorial on Tuesday.

Today, I made the little bag you see in the picture (sorry if it's a bit blurry). It's for my mother and I need to find a belt or something like that to act as a shoulder strap. Next to it is the other half of the thrifted pair of leather trousers I made it from. The trousers may look too good to cut up, and indeed the leather their made from is in great condition and hardly shows any wear. The shape and size however, are a different story. It's a very small size, but the fly and the waist-to-hip ratio seem to suggest it's a men's garment. The legs get very narrow towards the ankle and are short, even for me. Oh, and it's crazily high waisted. So, I think it will be better off being two bags and being enjoyed as such.

Why did I refer to this post as 'Thrifty Thursday', you may wonder? After all, one repurposed pair of trousers doesn't make it a post about thrifting. The point is, this is about what I do when it comes to going to thrift shops. I like to make all my clothes from scratch and have rarely found anything I wanted to own and wear in thrift shops (and stalls. When I'm at home in The Hague, all the thrift stores in my neighbourhood are of high-end expensive kind but the Monday market has several stalls selling loads of junk with some hidden gems). I tend to buy hats (when I'm in England, the Dutch hardly do hats) and gloves, look at bags and look through the clothes quickly.

Clothing in thrift stores can tempt me for two reasons: either it has to be something unusual, a fifties dress for example, or it has to be good raw material for something else. So far, I've never bought any of the unusual dresses. I'm afraid I'd just be collecting more stuff to clutter up my house. Of the 'raw material' stuff, I am buying.

My favorite Monday market stall puts all the small sized items, including lots of leather skirts and trousers on a '5 euro a piece' rail and occasionally discounts some of it to 2 euro. That's where I bought the trousers for my mother's bag. I've got two skirts waiting for me as well. They're what I think of as eighties things: straight skirts high waistbands, belt pleats and a 'midi-length' hemline.

I'm also going to make a postman-style bag for my father using fabric and leather from an old motorcycle jacket a friend gave me (I gave her a bag made from half a leather skirt to say thanks) and several friends have expressed their interest in my bags. So I really hope the thrift stalls will keep coming for a while.