Tom Boyce Messenger Bag

[AussieMade]

We finally finished our take on Tboyce's (Tom Boyce) Medium Messenger Bag pattern he gratefully shared in the patterns section of this forum.

This is a present for mum who has only seen a few pics from when we first started putting the basic parts together, and to really tease her we have not told her about any of the snake skin (she is a snake lover). and have also changed the design on a few things since we started.

The bag is a nice piece of 3mm full grain light brown upholstery leather dyed over with Dark Brown stain and the straps are 3mm Aussie Full Grain Veg Tan Bovine Leather also dark brown stained to match. The buckles are Antique Brass and the swivel snaps are solid brass. 

The inlays are 100% Snake Skin Leather.

The inner pouch is Veg Tanned Kangaroo. The whole bag is all hand stitched between my partner and myself (mostly my partner). 

We have learnt so much making this bag and I can't wait till we get to make another, but with a few changes.

I hope you all enjoy looking as much as we have enjoyed making it. Any Comments and criticism is welcome, as we are still learning and want to know where we can fix things for next time.   

Cheers Damien

[bikermutt07]

This bag looks great. I love the color.

I'm not familiar with bags, but here is what I see...

It looks as if the hardware for the strap is going to be rubbing on the top flap. I don't know if that will cause a problem or not. Maybe a small section of strap on the d ring could raise the clasp above the flap on the next one.

But it really does look awesome and I'm sure "mum" will love it.

[AZNightwolf]

Boy, that coloring is top notch! Well thought out and well executed. The hardware rub the Mutt mentioned may be a small issue or maybe not. It might just add to the "used" look of the bag. If I had to pick a nit I would mention that the leather holding the handle D-rings to the bag could be wider to better match the size of the rings. This is not something I would notice unless someone asked for a critical eye. I'd proud to carry that and I'm sure Mum will too!

[AussieMade]

20 hours ago, bikermutt07 said:

This bag looks great. I love the color.

I'm not familiar with bags, but here is what I see...

It looks as if the hardware for the strap is going to be rubbing on the top flap. I don't know if that will cause a problem or not. Maybe a small section of strap on the d ring could raise the clasp above the flap on the next one.

But it really does look awesome and I'm sure "mum" will love it.

Thanks, we are already having a bit of rubbing on the shoulder strap. We have found the measurements to be slightly off the 25mm for the buckles, so going to shave a slight bit off and recolour the edge. But for the lower part where the hardware rubs the top flap, the edge is solid so shouldn't rub off too much I hope.

[AussieMade]

13 hours ago, AZNightwolf said:

Boy, that coloring is top notch! Well thought out and well executed. The hardware rub the Mutt mentioned may be a small issue or maybe not. It might just add to the "used" look of the bag. If I had to pick a nit I would mention that the leather holding the handle D-rings to the bag could be wider to better match the size of the rings. This is not something I would notice unless someone asked for a critical eye. I'd proud to carry that and I'm sure Mum will too!

Thanks, the colouring came out really nice, better than I had expected it to. It was actually an accident, I was trying to darken the whole piece of leather lol.

I think the rubbing shouldn't be too bad, and yeah could really add to the used look. Never thought of the leather being to small on the d-rings, that was as per plan, will definitely look into widening next time though. 

Edited June 16, 2017 by AussieMade

[AussieMade]

This is what the leather colour started off as before colouring