r/BagLab

It’s a scorcher outside! So I thought I’d stay in the basement and work on this crossbody that takes cues from its little sibling, Bucketta. 2 colors 1000d Cordura, a 500d Cordura flap, HyperD 300 lining (gosh I wish it came in white @ripstopbytheroll 😃), 3mm EVA foam for structure, and Venom UL Stretch Mesh ECO, Woojin and YKK hardware. This one’s a keeper but it’s still too hot to carry it around! 🤣😂

Also want to add that the two machines: Juki 9010a-SH and Juki 1541s work really well together! The 9010 could have easily done the whole bag but why not let the work horse 1541 have some time as well? 😃 I love them both equally! ❤️

After the recent renovation and move down to a larger space where it’s a very nice 71 degrees, I can finally get back to work! 😃

Its not entirely finished. I temporarily put clips instead of buckles to close the thing. I Haven't gotten the pannier hooks yet either.

Carries exactly 2 boxes of monster energy :D
14.4L of volume
I do not take criticism. My skillz succ, weather's too hot and I'm a lazy bum c:

Here's sort of a step-by-step guide

Custom Hasselblad camera bag with Sashiko stitching:
My friend asked for a vertical storage solution for a very special camera body. I hope he likes it!!

After some not so thorough planning I tackled my first real (apart from a tiny stem bag at a workshop a year ago) MYOG project over the last week.

I started with a top tube bag, which was actually the only of the three bags that I really planned beforehand. The bottom and the sides are cushioned with a cheap 4mm yoga mat, the bottom also has some reinforcement made of a Ikea cutting mat. It's actually very stable and does not move at all while riding (already did 100km with it on Sunday). The zipper went in way smoother than expected, as it was my first time sewing one.

(Only fucked up near the end because I had the bag turned over and somehow closed the zipper and I needed to open a seam on the edge to be able to open my bag again. I might've almost cried.)

The dividers are also made with the same yoga mat cushioning, and are held in by Velcro so If I ever need to carry a baguette I can just open the space up.

The right stem bag was the second bag, and it actually went together really good if you take into account that I basically designed it basically on the go.

The left stem bag is another story tho. I basically wanted to mirror the first bag but make it a tiny bit bigger in diameter. For whatever reason it took me ages to sew the circular bottom somewhat cleanly (went way better with the first stem bag), only to find out at the end that I fucked up my right and left side of the Cordura and basically have the coated inside out 🫠

Luckily it's not noticable visually, only by touch, but I don't know if I can live with knowing it in the long term haha.

Key Learnings:

I finally know how the fckin bobbin threading works.

Sewing something on a thin layer of nylon alone sucks.

Coated Cordura is a b*tch to find out which side is which.

Binding can hide a lot of ugly work 😂

Funny enough when I went out to take these pictures, a women came asking where I got the bags from, so I guess I didn't do too bad 😅

Next up will be a basket bag but Ill have to restock some stuff first

This was a fun challenge. I’ve never made a sampler before, nor used variegated thread before, so that was fun. One thing I did differently on the second panel was to draw my grid in white, then draw the stitch lines in pink. It really helped me stitch in long segments that way. I found it hard to find a rhythm on the first sampler panel.
Anyway enjoy my little black and green makeup bag!

Recently there was a discussion on wether or not it made sense, to use a liner, or if it's ok/better just to have a single layer of fabric. Since I personally tend to favor the liner, I thought that I g0t for a single layer version, to get some real life comparison. So here we go:

xPac VX 21 and YKK #5, plus UltraStretch.
Biggest shoutout to Messaker in Bremen, who provided me with the YKK zipper on a very short notice!

No edge binding, because it's just a test. And since I also had to get two new machines to work, a mixture if different threads and colors.

The outlet for the USB cable turned out fine. The outside stretch pocket turned put a little too small for the intended use (tire plugs and CO2 cartridge).

Since the bag is rather long (XL frame) I added an inside gate, to stop it from too much bulge. Sewing the bridge was a pain in the ass (inside the finished bag), but it worked super good. I will definetly do something like this on all larger framebags.

Learnings:
Triple stitch zigzag looks quite cool and works really good for smaller zigzags on the webbing, too.
Single layer is super lightweight and with additional pieces, added for structure, a liner is not neccessarily required.
The bridge is a cool feature.
You can add pockets on a single layer without ugly threads visible on the other side.
YKK is slightly stronger than some alternatives, … at three times the price.