Apothecary Satchel

The client was looking for a way to carry 20-30 bottles conveniently and securely.  We went through a few different concepts before settling on a roll that hangs from a shoulder strap.  Inside the roll are 24 "holsters" sized to just fit the bottles in question with keepers to keep them from falling out.

I didn't have access to any of the bottles so I made a lot of use of a few jigs that should match the bottle's dimensions.  Those turned out to be critical though they'd've been heck to produce without the laser.  We used a half stitch to stay within the client's budget.  That probably cut the production time in half without compromising much of the durability.  I'm not sure if I like the look of a half stitch as much as a good saddle stitch but it's certainly viable option.

Production Model of the Easy Rider

Between developing the prototype and this production model it feels like I spent the entire month of April on this pattern.  Even if I only produced two units of much note it still feels like it's been pretty productive month.  This pattern was pretty tricky to engineer there's enough going on that it took more than one unit to figure out the best ways of going about it.

The biggest change for the production model was switching the lining material.  I went from a polyester fabric with a plastic backing (very useful for gluing) to a poly-cotton blend with no interfacing.  The blend works much better as a lining and edging but the lack of an interfacing means it won't stay glued down.  I normally avoid putting glue directly onto a fabric (it tends to seep through) though this time I used a spray-on cement.  It stuck for awhile but by the time the stitching was done it'd pretty much come loose from the leather.  Fortunately all that stitching holds it in place pretty well so it doesn't seem to be a big deal.

I also have some concerns for how the stitching looks with the fabric.  In the future I'll probably use a thread that matches the color of the fabric.  I might also go back to the usual single seam rather than doubling them up.  I like the look and security of a double seam but it's almost certainly overkill.

In either case, the Easy Rider is now, finally, available in the shop.  Whew!

Introducing the Easy Rider

This one's been awhile coming and it's the cheif reason why there haven't been more posts for the past couple weeks.  A brother-in-law requested a messenger bag he could roll up and stow while riding his motorcycle and after a couple months to ponder the design, a few proof of concepts, and a lot of drafting I was able to come up with this. 

For all that, the design is fairly simple and fundamental, which should also make it reliable.  The front is made from a flexible, almost fabric-like utility leather and the back uses a more rigid bison leather (though normally I expect I'd use stoned oil since it's half the price and I can get more of it).  In either "mode" the lid fastens closed by pulling a tongue through a keeper.  It's faster than a buckle and I find it more convenient and reliable than a snap for something like this.  The strap was made from some light veg-tan so it'd be bendy enough not to get in the way.  I used a polyester lining because it has a plastic interface that works really well with contact cement.  However, I'm not really happy with how it worked out for the edging.  It's functional but I think a different material would probably look nicer, especially with the double seams.

All in all, it's lightweight (about .76 kg with the strap), super sturdy, and easy and quick to manage.  The biggest drawback is the ~50-60 hour build time.  Hopefully I can pare that down without modifying the design because I definitely intend to add this as a regular item on the store.

2D Messenger Bag Prototype

This is largely the reason why it's been pretty quiet around here for awhile.  I'd gotten the notion from a Tested video showing a bag of similar design that Will had bought off Amazon.  In the video he mentions a few things he wished were different about the bag he had and I figured I could make all those things happen.  The bag itself is simple enough to understand when you look at it but turns out to be fairly difficult to describe to people with words.  As I understand it, the original inspiration was apparently cartoons but my first thought were the classic sprite-based graphics in what we'd now call "retro" video games.

It was a few months before I had the chance to give it a go due to other projects and that whole life thing and it turned out to be an unexpectedly complicated build when I got down to it.  There's a little more than a dozen pieces of leather stacked in about four layers with contours that have to line up just so.  That may not sound like much but five days of holding the mental CAD pattern for this thing in my head was giving me a headache.  The result of which is a prototype that's taught me a fair bit and is currently on its way to San Francisco for Mr. Smith and Mr. Chan to gauge (one might even say "test") whether it meets their criteria.  I'm looking forward to what they'll have to say but in the meantime, interested parties can always order their very own custom 2D messenger bag through the Etsy store.