Traffic Cone

Bright One
19x12x6--Cordura & Top Gun
Another attempt to perfect this size of bag ends in ruin. So it goes. I changed up the way the lip compresses on this bag--made it like the smaller bag, thinking it'd work just the same. Not so. Attaching the compression strap onto the main stap here leaves room for movement around the corners, with the lip potentially coming out from under the flap...or at least coming too close for my liking. It's fixable on this bag with some hand stitching...which I'll do later.

Nice earth tones for the liner.

Corner detail. Won't be seeing this again. Instead of sewing the end of the compression strap to the main strap, I'll sew it to the lip just inside the corner. I've done this with smaller bags with good results...and they should be even better with this size. Let's hope.

I moved the water bottle over a little bit. Now I won't hit my arm on it all the time. Of course, I haven't actually built the water bottle holder yet. You just see the strap that'll thread through the holder. Ha.

Sheath?

The Long, Skinny Thing Holder
For all your magic wands and knitting needles. This clips onto the small shoulder bag. Nice.

See Me

Safety Stripe
19x12x6--9/07--Cordura nylon & Top Gun poly
Refining my nineteen-inch messenger bag here, and adding some new things. Though, this might be the last time I use this exact design. Every time I make a bag I think of a way to improve it...which is kinda frustrating in a way, 'cause every bag you make is flawed or obsolete from the get go. Or maybe it means every bag is unique and wonderful. Ha ha... Anyway, this bag is pretty much identical to the camo bag down below except for a few things:
One, as you can probably see, is that wonderful reflective stripe across the front. Sweet-ass two-inch yellow vinyl with a silver center. You can get yourself some from Identi-Tape in Golden, Colorado. They have a number of great sew-on reflective tapes. Bright, bright, bright.
Two: water bottle holder. My bottle's been leaking in my bag lately and fouling up my magazines--no good. So I made me a bottle holder. I originally had this sewn onto the bag but I changed my mind and ripped it off. Now it's attached with three one-inch tri-glides. Pretty nice. I don't know if this is the best place for it. I mean, it's the easiest place to get at it, sure. But is it gonna get in the way all the time. Hmm... And it makes it kinda look like a Mountainsmith pack. Ha. Okay, scroll down for more things.

Third alteration: Removable back pad--slash--document pocket. I've needed to do this for a while...I've just been lazy. Now you can remove the pad if your back's gettin' all sweaty...or you just have a fat back. This is a better design all around. Before I was just throwing the pad in between the liner and the shell and it would stay put pretty well but not super. And you really want padding at the bottom part of the back...so there: stay put! And I made the front pocket a little smaller...but not small enough, as it's kinda saggy.

Close up!

Grow!Bottom shot of the holder. If you're gonna have an external pocket that isn't covered by the flap it's a good idea to have drain holes or mesh on the bottom...unless you want your pockets to fill up with water when it rains. Plus this looks hella clean.

Executive

Little Black Bags
15x12x4-5.5--9/07--Cordura & Sunbrella
Okay, so I have a new and improved musette design. This design is 99.9 percent ready to go. I'll be selling these pretty soon--fingers crossed. I just have to figure out how much to charge. Hmm. It takes me about eight hours to put one together at the moment...but hopefully I'll streamline my production a bit. Check out these two here. One's a bit thicker than the other, but otherwise they're pretty much the same.

Man, twill tape is the business--straight up! Takes corners like a champ.Corner detail...why is this picture so fuzzy? I'll have to take it again some time... Notice the compression cord there on the end of the strap--keeping things neat.

Hey, that's my sister there, taking a break from her Shibori to model for me. I didn't have the shoulder pad on this bag at the time, but it has a pretty simple double tri-glide pad. Snazzy.

Backpack?

Scoliosis = Bad
21x17x6--9/07--Cordura & Top Gun
Yeah, so this is kind of a goofy bag. Another attempt to smash a messenger bag and a backpack together. My shoulders have been feeling a bit uneven lately, so that means it's time to switch to a two-strap bag--definitely. I thought about making an x-strap bag, but this design here seemed a little less awkward to use: you only need to unbuckle once to swing it around, you don't have to reach back and grab your loose second strap, and you can unzip your jacket no problem.
Though, I don't know if it has the same sweet load-distribution qualities as an x-strap bag. This bag is kinda weird when it's full: you don't want the shoulder straps digging into your armpits, so you tighten the sternum strap...but this puts most of the load onto your chest and smashes the shoulder pads into your pectorals: not so cool. So, yeah: mission not accomplished in making a sweet messenger backpack. I might just turn this into an x-strap bag or a one-strapper...we'll see. My next big bag'll be an x-strap bag proper.

Making Things Tiny

~3x5--8/07--Cordura & Sunbrella

So, yeah, small things are kinda tricky to make 'cause you have about zero room for error. But here are some experiments in wallet/coin purse design I did for my pal Brianne. The middle one is probably going to be the most useful one for her. The one on the right is my favorite, and a design employed by craft wizard Doc Pop. And is actually a variation on a design from bag revolutionary Erik Zo.

You can find Doc Pop's wallets on his Etsy site, Zo's on eBay, and mine in my pants.

The wallet on the right is neat 'cause it has a sweet coin-catching feature. Your change goes behind the blue fabric and your cards/cash in front. Open it up, tip it forward and all your change slides to the cupped end where you can easily pick for your silver and copper. Nice.

Walkin' Round Town

Magazine
10x11x3.5—8/07—Cordura & Sunbrella
Well, now isn't this just a darling little bag. Ha.
Your everyday, small, walkin' round, shoulder, musette, gasmask bag, I suppose. I like it plenty.
Expand-o-matic. Zoop.I've been having trouble with the shoulder-bag catch-22 with this size and shape of bag. You know: if you want a bag that won't leak in the rain you can't make the opening too big, but if you want to actually put stuff in or take stuff out with relative ease, you can't make it too small either. I think most people would rather have quick access to their things, 'cause, let's face it, who walks around in the rain all the time? ...Well, I do enough to want a bag that does both things. And I cheat the catch-22 by sewing compression straps or para cord to the lip of the bag so everything fits nicely under the flap at all times. I've been doing this A-OK with my trapezoidal messenger bags, but with the smaller, squarer musette bags here I'd been running into another problem: sewability (and the compression system worked but it wasn't really as tight as I'd've liked).
On previous bags, I had to sew the corners by hand with a sewing awl—which is a pain in the ass. So I was pretty much done with that design forever—content to make trapezoidal bags and nothing more. But then I was like, Man, I need a square bag for laptops and stuff. So this is what I came up with: Move the shoulder strap ends out to the edges more and connect the compression strap to the shoulder strap. Now I can sew everthing on the machine and it closes like a champ. Hoo-ray.
It's not perfect. But it's close. This bag doesn't have a floating liner, which sucks, 'cause sewing grosgrain on nine layers of fabric is not my idea of fun. And I'm not sure if I can even do a floating liner with this small a bag. I could on my light sewing machine. Just put it in pant hemmin' mode... I'm going to try with the thirteen-inch bag I'm making next. Hopefully that'll work out. We shall see.