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A Small Shoulder bag

Another shoulder bag ! The previous one was too big. This one has the perfect size for a notebook, pen, a table, my phone, and some other random stuff. Here are the step-by-step tutorial of this project.


Table of content

Material

The inside

The back side

The front side

Assembly of the bag

Final result

Introduction

The bag I have done previously are not convenient:

  • The first handbag is too large (but not enough to put a computer)
  • The backpack is okay when walking in the forest, but I prefer to have something more accessible when in the city.

I searched, and found this beautiful bag on Pinterest:

There were several images, so I could understand how it was done.

Material

  • Vegetally tanned leather hide. Here, I used goat hide (1.6 mm) because it was soft (compared to cow hide), so it would be easy to cut / stitch / mold. However it is not suitable for carved leather at all.
  • 120 cm or more cow strip of 1.5 mm thickness (for the shoulder stip)
  • 50 cm of cow strip of 1.5-2mm thickness (for the closing the bag)
  • Large ring (5cm diameter)
  • Small ring (2cm diameter)
  • Ring lock (Fermoir anneau)
  • Rivet
  • Eyelet of 5 mm diameter (6)
  • Buckle for bag closing
  • Buckle for shoulder strip
  • Half rings (x2)
  • Rotating carabiner (x2)
  • Dye (here I use Eco-flow brown dye, as it allows to make gradients of color)

Plus all the traditional tools for working with leather.

Select metal parts using the same material to get the same color (here I chose nickel).

Part 1 - the Inside

Card holder

Unassembled pieces for a card holder.

Coloring and leather defect. I tested the dye using the inside leather as it is not visible in the end.

Using Super-Shene to make it shiney.

a

Dying Technique

Stitching

Start with the top one.

Stitch the edges, then the bottom. Check with a card that everything is fine.

Stitch the second one. Use a clip to avoid the piece to move.

Then the third and final piece.

Ring

Then fix the ring to the main piece.

Pen Support

Oil and Color

Oil the leather to increase softness

The color would change temporarily, but will turn back to normal after a few hours.

Part 2 - The Back

Cut the raw leather

Dye it to get a marbled aspect.

Protect it with Super-Shene

Bottom Ring

Shape the leather with water to adapt to the ring. Don’t cut the leather before molding !

Prepare the other pieces

Stitch the middle ring. Place the long piece and mark the position of the holes. Then, paint the area with gold color or any other “shiney” color.

Half Ring

Prepare the location and the holes.

Add a rivet to fix the suspender to the large piece.

Stitch the two pieces together.

Part 3 - the Front

Cut it and die it.

Create the holes with a 5mm diameter tool.

Add the metal eyelets.

The results with this kind of eyelet is very clean on both side.

Create horizontal holes on the left. (Color change because of night). If you don’t have a tool to make them, add two holes on the extremities and cut two lines.

Closing Strip

Pocket

(formed like the previous ring)

Part 4 - Assembly

First, stitch the inside (with the pen and card holders) to the front.

Then stitch the gusset to the front.

The gusset is a very long rectangular piece. Make it a little bit longer than expected. Cut the surplus at the end of the stitching.

Corners are the hardest part.

Now that the gusset is in place, cut the leftover.

Use a clip to fix the back to the gusset to start the stitching.

Final Result


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