The day after sewing my sling bag all I wanted to do was keep making bags! But I didn’t have another pattern. I thought of maybe just going for a more perfect draft, but the idea of doing it in the same colors didn’t really appeal. The piping and the sport zipper made me want to make a small backpack.
I have two bags that I really like— a convertible leather sling bag given to me by a dear friend and a thrifted daypack from the 70’s made of cordura and suede. Neither is quite a backpack, but the way they sit very centrally on my back and close to my body makes a secure place for a camera or water bottle along with my phone, keys, wallet and maybe a journal or book. They carry a couple generous pockets full of things rather than a genuine haul but being forced to moderate is helpful to me.
Maybe it has to do with their size or else that they’ve come around with me to all sorts of places, but I cherish these two. The leather one is a lot like a purse, especially when the straps are zipped together and I love its heavy clasp and hidden liner pockets. The tan daypack is just so structural when its empty, its like truly a *bag* and nothing more.
I drew a design sort of fusing the two bags in different ways, at least that was my intent. It took a bit of its own direction but I tried to base the size and general design on the sling bag while carrying over material and construction details from the daypack. The front and back of the outer shell each wrap at the edges to form an inner face that joins with the zipper. To connect the straps with the main load I added a rain hood that attaches to a strap on the front of the bag.
I started using some bulk drawing paper to sort of wrap the leather bag on as close to its face as I could manage to define. The overall shape of the outer pieces was a little overwhelming to begin with, so I started with the far simpler main inner-lining. Once I made that basic four-piece pillow, I could take it apart and offset some lines for a starting point on the outer layers, to work out their exact shape and outlines when laid flat.
I was pretty sure that I understood the key moments in the assembly, but I was seriously puzzled by how to like, turn it the right way inside-out for the right sequence of seams. I couldn’t mentally walk through it completely, or I found it difficult to trust my impression of the process. I needed to mock up the basic seams in a really quick and easy way, so I took apart my paper model and traced down the shapes onto some felt.
From there seaming together the shape of the bag was pretty easy, but I didn’t actually stitch any of it. I used spring clips to hold it together giving me a rough idea of the assembled bag. Using leftover felt for the model is fine but hardly gives an idea of how the bag would behave when empty or full. It has entirely different structural qualities to canvas or cordura and suede, with chunky assembled seams and zippers. I was able to get more of the design assembled using the felt, even if it only showed me a rough impression.
I learned a lot more about my design before committing to final notions and materials though ($!). The model showed me that the folding design of the leather sling bag doesn’t translate very well to felt, and probably even worse to woven materials. It depends on a crease that remains deep and structural whether the bag is empty or full. Its easy with leather but with fabric it would make more sense as a seam than a crease.
I’ll probably end up making a few more of these drafts to answer whether the purse-like opening can be made using seams or piping instead of creases, and to place the straps in the seam at the top of the bag. I’ve been sketching a version with pockets that I want to make a draft of along the lines of this one.
