Messenger Bag

[Torquewrench]

Very nice! Use this bag for now , start on a larger one, and keep this one for your baby's college bookbag. I really do like it. My 2 oldest are in college now, the oldest wants a bookbag. The younger of the two does leatherwork( way better than mine) and can make her own!

[GregGaub]

I was gonna say what wildrose said. I raised both my boys (stay at home dad since the first was born), and while we had large bags, it didn't take long for me to slim down what I took with me/us. Your bag will hold plenty for any common outing. You might need more for a vacation, but just to go shopping or to the park or whatever, that's plenty. And yes... definitely include a toy in there. ;-)

[DaveD]

HAHA! You guys are scaring me! The good thing is my wife can use the babybag we got from her sister to pack more stuff into. I'll keep mine limited to just the essential for a quick outing.

Which end is which? I've been known to having both of those things coming out of both of mine from time to time. HAHA!

I believe you've got it right...it does come out of both ends!

The bag looks very nice, and the hand stiching is wonderful.

[Spider]

Andy,

First, congrats on the baby. Awesome times to come. My son and I do leather together sometimes and he's only 3.

Second, Great looking bag. I love when others make bags cause I totally love bags. This one is awesome and all i can say is that since I'm a fan of tooling You could have done some tooling on the lid. Other than that this bag is bad ass. Props on the hand stitching. I do all hand stitching and know the pains.

[JohnBarton]

You really ARE new to this baby thing aren't ya? Quadruple those measurements and ya just might have enough room for all the "stuff" you'll be luggin along

Looks good guy - and congrats!

Rob (btdt too many times ;0)

LOL - I am also NEW to the baby thing - we are due in four weeks. Your comment reminds me of the time I made a doggie carrier for a famous pool player. I had never made on before and didn't have a dog to measure and this was all pre-internet ca. 1993 :-)

Long story short I made what could be considered a portable palace for the dog as it was about four times too big. The pool player and his wife used it as a travel bag for a while but it was way to big for the dog.

I will probably end up making a baby holder/sling (don't know the official term) so I can carry the baby hands-free.

[BradB]

First congrats on the baby, enjoy as much as you can because in no time they will be asking to borrow the car!!

Great job on the bag and lots of respect for the hand stitching, I will be doing something similar soon and it will be hand stitched (not looking forward to that part, lol)! I hope mine turns out as nice as yours did!

[AndyL1]

First congrats on the baby, enjoy as much as you can because in no time they will be asking to borrow the car!!

Great job on the bag and lots of respect for the hand stitching, I will be doing something similar soon and it will be hand stitched (not looking forward to that part, lol)! I hope mine turns out as nice as yours did!

Thanks everybody for digging my bag. Some of the guys here at work tease me cause they call it my "nice purse"! HAHA! The hand-stitching is really a necessity. I don't own a machine and I'm not quite sure I'd know how to use one if I did. I'd rather do the hand stitch method anyway as there is something really satisfying about making things with your hands. I'm sure a lot of you guys and girls would agree to that!

I think I'll be able to stain it this weekend. I'll post more pics then.

[tashabear]

I will probably end up making a baby holder/sling (don't know the official term) so I can carry the baby hands-free.

There are lots of versions of baby carriers, from all over the world, but I've never seen one made out of leather. There are lots of patterns for baby-wearing systems here. A couple of my friends use ring slings when the child is an infant and mei tais when the kid is older. They all said that being able to adjust the width of the straps and the position of the baby was key to comfort for both the parent and the baby.

[ajanderson]

GREAT job. im fairly new to leather work. Been doing it for about a year now. I love that you did all the stitching by hand, I do that and it is hard, but so worth it. I've been wanting to make a messanger bag ever seince I started with leather work and im courious if you could send my a patter so that i could make my own. If you could just send me a message with it that would be great.

Edited February 1, 2009 by ajanderson

[AndyL1]

GREAT job. im fairly new to leather work. Been doing it for about a year now. I love that you did all the stitching by hand, I do that and it is hard, but so worth it. I've been wanting to make a messanger bag ever seince I started with leather work and im courious if you could send my a patter so that i could make my own. If you could just send me a message with it that would be great.

Thanks AJ! Yeah the stitching can get pretty tedious. For me it's really not hard it's just that it can get pretty boring. I did a double stitch on the bag too so twice the work. Also in the shoulder strap. I didn't really make a pattern, just sketched out what I wanted in my sketchbook and took it apart from there. I can PM you the measurements for the pieces though.

I've included some photos of the finished bag. I wanted it to look really rough and distressed. Tandy antique stain first to get in all the nooks and crannies, then used a semi-dry sponge to blot on some more permanent black stain. Finished off with Tandy's All-In-One mahogony.