Makin' sure the we're all lubed up and ready to go...
Sailrite's a
rockin'.
I start with the front zippered pocket. Yep. A lot of peeps don't put zippers into their bags. They tell you it's 'cause they break 'n' shit. I've never had a molded-tooth zipper break--ever. I have a thirty-year-old sleeping bag with this kind of zipper. Still works. They don't have 'em on their bags 'cause they're a pain in the ass to install. Ha ha... No, they're actually not that bad once you do enough of 'em. (I use
YKK Vislon #5)
All right, so I've attached the tabs to the ends of the zipper, and sewn it to the shell & liner of the front part of the pocket. Now, above, I'm adding a top stitch to keep it neat. If you use a lighter fabric you don't really need to do this, but the heavier fabric won't lie flat, so *
bam* stitch it down. Plus it gives it a finished look, for whatever psychological reason...
And flip it over and stitch down the liner.
Here: Sewing the back part of the pocket to the zipper and finishing the seam with grosgrain ribbon. If you care at all about your bag, you'll finish your seams. If you don't, it'll look decent for a year or so and then turn into a rat's nest of shite. After I finish this line, I'll add the top stitch...so it ends up like what you see below:
Sewing the pocket to the shell. You can see the two d-rings for reflector tails and the light loop up there.
D-ring and flap strap. Four rows of stitching is probably excessive...but I like how it looks.
And a finished front.
Sewin' on the cross-strap
tri-glide attachment to the back of the bag. I would prefer to stick this in a seam...but I've moved the side seams up to the front of the bag, so this isn't really feasible...so it goes. Design is the art of compromising.
Makin' some arts. Draw 'n' stitch.
Thanks, Sears. I'm using a home-machine to lay on these stitches. My
Sailrite's tension is set too high for this (I could set it, but it's not worth the trouble)--otherwise it'd be super puckered.
And the outside of the bag's done!
*Poof* And here's the completed liner. I don't like a whole
lotta pockets. Three to four is good enough for me...otherwise I forget where I put things...ha.
I'm using cotton duck for the small inside pocket: soft against your skin:
oooh. And there's the pen holster there. You can probably fit like three pens in there. Yeah.
Now the fun begins... I've pinned the liner- and shell flap together here. The shell kinda shrank from all the embroidery...I guess I
should've cut it a bit bigger...hmm...next time.
And sewing the flaps together. I use a zigzag stitch here. Since the zigzag kinda stretches, you don't get as much puckering as with a straight stitch. Though, if you're shooting for a convex flap, you know what to do. (See Love Life Bags...with the flap darts.)
Brand that shit!
Oh man, time for the edging tape. This used to be my least favorite part of
bagmaking...but since I got a new, more flexible edging tape I don't mind it as much. (Generic Type 2 Mil-W-4088.) I have a edging tool, but I can never get it to work as good as I would like...so I just do it by hand.
Let's cut some shoulder straps!
You can see there I've sewn some
grosgrain onto the lip there. Now I'm starting to sew on the shoulder strap. I think where the straps attach are the most important parts of the bag, so I put a lot of time and stitches into 'em. I think strap attachment is also the major distinction between bags...side, back, seam, suspended...but that's just me. Ha.
Bar-tack that!
This bag has a floating liner. That means I sew the shell- and liner body together separately. It takes a little more time, but it's worth it. So, here, I've sewn both the sides and bottoms of each part. And the shell's ready to be turned
rightside out.
Floating in a sea of
Cordura. Now it's time to suture the lip.
Here we go...
Adding the webbing for the compression cord. Kind of an awkward position. Luckily, I use a pretty lightweight liner so I can smash the bag under my tiny sewing machine. Ha.
Threading the
paracord through the barrel lock. If you have trouble doing this, you can use something pointy to pull it through.
Let's put a cross-strap-keeper buckle on there too. I've had a lot of people ask me what they should do with their cross strap when it's not engaged (like when they're walking around). I just always have it clipped in, so I was like, I don't know--deal with it. But I came up with this here. Seems to work all right.
Okay, time to add some more thread to the corners.
And we're finished attaching the strap. That shouldn't wear out for a long time...I hope. That's number 92 thread.
Makes a nice clean corner. No water's getting in there.
Slap on the flap buckles. Make sure they're on straight.
Cut out the back pad from the sleeping pad roll.
And put it in. It's pretty easy to take out...if you need something to sit on.
There it is...with some wallet pieces in the foreground.
"He's a ghost, he's a god, he's a man, he's a guru/You're one microscopic cog in his catastrophic plan/designed and directed by his red right hand. "
Red Right Hand - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Ha...
Strap It OnThis is the place to cut corners if you have corners to cut. We here at Leif Labs love the integrated shoulder pad...because luxury is dear to us. But if you wanna ride bareback, our caps are off to ya.
Some pieces of the shoulder pad: nylon
packcloth, 100wt fleece, 3/8 inch foam.
If you ever have trouble sewing fleece or any other lightweight material--like it keeps jamming down in the needle plate like a
li'l bitch--try sewing with paper under it. Works like magic. Just tear the paper off afterwards.
And the pad is all sewn up. You missed the part where I stuffed the foam into the pad sleeve--one of my favorites. Ha. It's not so bad now that I line the pad with fleece (stretchy)...but I've spent long spans of time cramming foam into tubes of fabric before. Not fun. And I've made foam applicators as well. Think: tampons. Ooh...
Another fun part: stitching the pad with a sewing awl. I do this because I don't have a whole lot of presser-foot clearance on my
Sailrite. I can probably jam it under there...but I get better results sewing it by hand. I could buy a
JUKI...but I don't feel like spending another thousand bucks on a machine. Plus, I like my little
Sailrite.
Pad and strap united as one powerful force...ready to destroy evil & whatnot.
I like to put a bit of bike tube onto the
tri-glide. This keeps the webbing from slipping...or at least slows it down. That's one bad thing about using
seatbelt webbing--it's super slick. Especially the kind I buy. Shucks. You can also pour some stitches into the webbing to rough it up if you're having slippage problems.
Making a webbing keeper (that's elastic, by the way). This allows you to roll up loose webbing. Saw this on a military pack--
genius.
And it rolls up like so.
And the final touch: let's add a d-ring to hold on to. And a webbing clip so you can easily loop it onto the strap so it's not hanging down on your bike. Yeah! get on there. This piece is made by Duraflex. Hope it doesn't break like their stinking buckles. Ha.
And that's that. Feel free to sling me an email if you got any questions about makin' bags.
Happy trails.
I guess this misunderstanding is a failure on my part to set up a decent product display...so it goes. But people will also cling to what is familiar. And in response to that: 
Bag! Wes says yeah!
Yay! a pattern. This is a new size for me (22x14x7) so I'm using a paper pattern here. I've transferred my established designs to mat board. Makes things a snap.
Okay...the pattern's been traced onto the poly liner and a three-quarter-inch seam allowance has been added. Now I'm tracing it onto the Cordura nylon shell.
Liner, shell, and pockets. I have three shades of brown in this bag. Ha. By the bye, black is the worst color of liner you can have in a bag. You usually want a lighter-colored liner so you can see what you have at the bottom of your bag. I don't plan on putting anything small in the bottom of my bag, so I don't care. Ha ha... Oh, I read the other day that a lot of Japanese bags have black liners for whatever reason...probably 'cause it looks dangerous. Thought you should know that...
Making a webbing keeper (that's elastic, by the way). This allows you to roll up loose webbing. Saw this on a military pack--genius.