Blue Bell

Not sure what this is, but I signed up

http://eu.wrangler.com/bluebell/

Postal Bag - Satchel

Bag Completed!
It's not really a postal bag. It's a raw leather satchel.
I didn't expect it to be this nice. I've surprised myself.

I hand-sewed the leather strap to the sides with three parallel lines double-stitched. Notice the roughness of the leather edges. Good belts have the leather trimmed/rounded rather than a straight cut. My cutting isn't so refined. It does mean that there is a bit of molting flakes of suede, especially the strap.

The inside isn't lined... it's a hard leather bucket. There are no seams on the back, the body is a single piece of leather.

Here you can see my amateur hand-stitching. This was my first seam, and it was before I purchased the stitching wheel.

For scale, you can see the 15" Macbook Pro fits easily. With a neoprene cover it can be thrown in with everything else.

I found an awesome brass buckle which is stitched to the lower corner of the bag. I also used copper rivets for attaching the tongue to the flap. My first time using rivets... they're awesome. I want to bedazzle everything I own with copper rivets. Hah. I actually went through three different constructions of the tongue and buckle. I almost used rivets to attach the buckle to the bag body, but when prototyping how it would actually work I realised that the rivets would make it more difficult for the tongue to go through the buckle. I've actually owned bags where this was a design fault.

I couldn't be happier with this bag! It's going to be great to see it stain and discolour with wear over time.

The only improvements I will make for the next version will be to make a more flexible strap attachment which allows articulation... and probably use a different type of belt which isn't leather.

Bag Progress

I drew up plans for my version of the postal bag.

I'm aiming for a large satchel that will hold a 15" macbook.

I re-drew the designs a few times, and have now adjusted it so that the main body of the bag will be made from a single piece of leather. From what I can see, most postal bags have the sides as separate pieces, but if I make them part of the body, then there are two benefits: less seams, so the structure is stronger, and that also means less hand sewing that I have to do!

I've actually progressed much further than these pictures. It was VERY difficult to turn the bag inside out after the sides were sewn. I did stab my thumb with the awl once... that was painful, but not as horrific as you would think.

More pictures soon.

Beatniks are against all garments labeled "Sanforized" or "Sanforized-Plus"

http://anambitiousprojectcollapsing.blogspot.com/2009/03/1963-sanforized-magazine-ad-beatniks.html