My First Bag

[MonicaJacobson]

Very, VERY nice. I love the pictures as you go. Thanks for posting!

[franko2]

Looks great!

Edited May 27, 2014 by franko2

[mikeyp]

beautiful looking case nice job.

[jeremyqmartin]

Ok, so I finally started work on that gusset I mentioned. I built a mold out of trim pieces from Home Depot. I did my best to mold the leather onto the frame but as I mentioned earlier, it was already dyed and thus extra stiff. See the pics, you get the idea.

The creases along on the "long" corners were *OK*, but the actual "corners" were were SO HORRIBLY ABYSMAL and unacceptable that I just HAD to start over even though it meant another $32 for a new shoulder.

Let me tell you, that was the BEST decision I've made on this whole project. More posts to follow for the new gusset.

FYI, in the picture, that crusty cream colored paste on the ugly corners is the wood filler that I used to "round" the inside corners of the frame.

[jeremyqmartin]

Ok, so I started the gusset from scratch with a new piece of leather and I built a new frame. I made is one a little thicker since I needed more space in this compartment of the bag.

I had to use lots of wood filler on this frame. I sanded it with 400 grit paper and even sprayed it with glossy wood finish.

Man! This was the right way to go! It was so much easier to mold the leather pre-dyed. What was I thinking when I dyed the old piece before molding??? The same big wrinkles/folds appeared on the inside of the piece, but with consistent work, I completely removed them. I'm so happy I put in the effort and expense to do it RIGHT!

Pics and videos for your enjoyment!!!

1.

2a.

2b.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Edited June 27, 2014 by jeremyqmartin

[Huginn]

kinda late to the party did you use 3.5mm leather for the front and back?

[jeremyqmartin]

Hello. Yup, that's 3.5 mm for the back/front flap and for the front panel. There's also an outer pocket on the back that is 3.5 mm.

The guessets were made with 4/5oz, which is like 2.5mm if I remember correctly. Honestly i could done the whole back with this stuff; it's plenty thick. With the 3.5, I should add made the back bigger in dimensions. The whole back is VERY stiff. It required a LOT of dye (fiebings pro oil dark brown) which REALLY dried out the leather. I put some light coats of Neatsfoot oil to soften it, but I really should a soaked it in Neatsfoot to get it soft again.

The gussets were wet molded into shape before dying. Search "wet molding gusset" on YouTube and you should find my videos of this process; nothing fancy just a few minutes of clips (like 5 clips) of me doing the molding on the jig i built.

[Huginn]

did you measure them long and then cut them flush or did you measure them out correctly?

[jeremyqmartin]

The gussets wrap fully around the sides and bottom of the back. It's been a while now, but I believe I cut them long and little by little trimmed the lengthen as I test fit the gusset against the main back panel, to avoid trimming too much.

When actually attaching the gusset (I glued it on before drilling the stitch holes with a Dremel) I believe the some small trimming was still necessary. Remember, I wet molded the 2 gussets and then dyed them (can't really wet-mold *after* dyeing) so after dyeing and everything, they were quite rigid and fixed in shape when it came time to glue them to the panel. I just trimmed the "tops" of the sides to make sure they went up as high as I wanted them.

[jeremyqmartin]

Man, SOOOOOOOOO irresponsible of me to not post completed pictures

The bag was completed around september 2014.

Here you go! Some more progress pics and final pics.