NewVintageLady: Finished my reworked hiking bag (with awesome pictures!).

Finished my reworked hiking bag (with awesome pictures!).

Hello lovely people.

Brian had a playmate with his new 'sister', Brandy. She was afraid of Brian at first (naturally) but after five minutes, she was barking and trying to get big man to chase her.

You know, dog stuff!

Speaking of stuff, I have something to show you.

This was the sketch I doodled after I began working on the new hiking bag after I vomited on my old one. It was past its prime anyway, so the gaminess of its new smell just helped facilitate the transition to another bag.

This is what I started, er, that's the wrong word. Ended up with after a few hours of simply messing around. I had cut and trimmed the fabric in random measured 'sheets' and lined each piece with red cloth because I didn't want the mental hardship of figuring out how to hide stitches which I normally put myself through. Perhaps that is why I feel this bag, in all its splendid functionality, is a bit below my standards. That and I didn't' switch out thread color, but hey, what ya gonna do, ya know?

I should just add that the above 'bag' lasted about an hour before I realized it was a piece of crap. I cut the fabric off the stupid base and started over.

I cut the lined fabric piece in half and sandwiched it onto the back piece of fabric so I could make one consistent shape instead of the overly complicated mess that was churning in my brain. I had to cut the already worked piece in half which left some stitched and folded over seams for me to play with. "Play with" is a strong phrase. More like I better figure out a way to not sew over this already 4 times layered fabric.

I top stitched the lining fabric (folded 4x over) with a peek-a-boo middle (it also made it wide enough to fit the back piece I cut out). I did a lot of top stitching and flat fell seams-ish. I know, just a paragraph ago I was saying I slacked on this bag. I get it, I have issues.

The next step was to add the pocket/pouches.

Okay, partly from laziness and not wanting to redo the already sewn seams, I had some squares that I had already prepared from the ugly mental bag pre-sketch and I thought, "Me, why don't I just make the squares 'pleated' and curve the bottom instead of cutting and all that jazz?"

"Me, that's a good idea!"

I really wanted a pouch that was large enough for the water bottle I carry. I also sat that pocket a bit on the behind of the side of the bag so when I sling it over my right shoulder, it will hug the back of my hip more and with the weight of the water, it will ride my hip instead of bouncing.

See! I'm thinking!

I threw in a few more pockets for good measure, the strap, and, wait for it…

GROMMETS!!!

Hell yeah, I added grommets. Why the hell not!?

I have a few different sizes and this one is a size smaller than what I really wanted to use, but I wanted to finish this bag tonight and I had a hand clamp for the grommets at this size where as I would have to go outside and hammer the larger grommets by hand and well… I'm comfortable with this decision.

Yeah, you are looking at a grommet opening dispensable doggie bag thing there. I did that.

That's all mez!

ALL MEZ!!!

It turned out pretty fun and looks quite stylish for repurposed vintage upholstery fabric.

The beauty of this is I can just toss it in the wash. Plus it has so many stains (the back of the bag fabric especially) from being so old and dog loved (not in a gross way, get your mind out of the gutter) that I have no worry about doing a quick launder. Plus, I top stitched the entire bag, which goes against what I mentioned earlier about hiding stitches (really I feel so much more at ease when I don't see stitching), so I feel a bit detached from this piece. I'll work through it.