If You Don't Like What You Get, Create Your Own

This is kind of a déjà vu moment for me as I'm back with another bag that I fell in love with and instead of trying to buy it, I've created my own.

Obviously it's not the same, have never wanted to recreate the same bag and I'll tell you why in a moment.

source

This is the bag I've mentioned above. It's absolutely gorgeous in my eyes, perfect for my taste and for my winter clothes. My coat is brown, I usually wear blue jeans or blue pants, so it's just perfect. www.forestbound.com is the website where these beauties are listed, all for my taste. I took the time to go through all of the bags and fell in love with them instantly. If you haven't known by now, I'm very talented in picking the most expensive products without even seeing the price tag. It's not that I want to or hunt for the most expensive one, I choose based on what I like and then it turns out it's the most expensive. That's me, I can't help it. But the good news is, I never buy that as throwing away double or triple of what a certain product should cost is sheer stupid.

In this case, the bag you see on the photo is around $350 or so. I can understand that as most of the bags are made of canvas salvaged from a WWII era US military shelter and genuine leather. It looks like great quality, very well made, stylish, in other words perfect (for me). But even if I would have that kind of money for a bag, i would not pay that much for it as there are better ways to spend that money.

Sooooo, this is how I made my own bag, similar to this, cheap and perfect for my taste and need.

Fabrics

I needed a dark brown for the bottom of the bag, something of quality as that's going to be the most tried part, so I got this one, which is a tough corduroy. I had a pair of corduroy pants years ago, which I transformed into shorts and kept the legs as the fabric was too good to throw it away. Now after staying in the closet for about 4 years, it was time to use it, as it was perfect for my bag. I decided to keep the sewing in the middle.

This is a 40cm x 26cm piece by the way.

After cutting out the parts, this is how the bag looked like, as a draft. The brown part is the bottom, the other two are the front and the back. Each piece, except the brown one is 11cm x 40cm.

Sewing them together was pure joy. Having some lines on the fabric was a blessing here as well as a warning as I had to follow the lines if I didn't want to mess up the look of the bag. it was fun. I would prefer lines any day.

This is the front part. I was a bit undecided about which one to use for the front and which one as the back as I decided to use a sewed part of the jeans as well. Not that I didn't have a choice but it looked good.

In the end I said this is going to be the back. Otherwise I can use both sides equally as the pockets are fine but the zipper's position is the one that decides an I'm carrying my bag only on my left shoulder. That's a habit I can't change.

Carry Straps

Never have I ever made such a nice carry straps! I knew this corduroy is special and kept it for years in the closet for a reason. Now I know how well you can work with the appropriate fabric. This is the best so far and I'm sad there's not much left of it. Both straps are straight, no mistakes were made here. Denim is also good but there are hundreds of types of denim fabrics, some good, others not so good for my projects and these stretchy ones are the hardest to work with.

Figuring out the right length is crucial here, too long or too short can ruin everything. I thought 100cm x 7.5cm will do and was right, it's the perfect size for this design and my height.

How To Sew The Carry Straps

There's a trick you should know if you're choosing this style. In order for the two carry straps to be in line, you need to place the front and the back together, the bottom parts and match the straps.

Lining

Lining is again very important if you want a durable bag. I used an s.Oliver shirt for this, as the fabric of the shirt is perfect as quality as well as color.

The usual three pockets on one side, this style works well for me as I need the first on the left for my phone, the next one for my keys and the last one for the face mask. Yes, that's the new normal nowadays, you need to carry your mask with you and also keep it safe, separately from other stuff.

The other side of the lining is a bit funny as the stripes are both horizontal and vertical. This was a necessity as the shirt was a small size and had to put together 3 pieces to get this. It's perfect for me, it makes it more interesting, more unique.

This is how it looks after the zipper applied.

And voilà! Front and back. Unfortunately the camera is cheating with the colors, the nice brown is not so nice on the photo.

This bag is mine and I'm very satisfied with it. It's going to be with me most of the time during win er. Or wait, maybe till I make myself another bag maybe?! 😁 No worries, I know it doesn't look that way but I'm not an addict. This is my second bag I made for myself, the rest is listed on Etsy.