Pilgrim's Bag for the Camino de Santiago

[DJole]

A relative of mine, a couple years back, walked the medieval pilgrimage route, the Camino de Santiago, from Le Puy, France to Santiago de Compostella, Spain (2 1/2 months of nearly daily hiking, all on foot, about 1500 km).

So this summer, I made her a commemorative bag, similar to the one the medieval pilgrims used, as pictured in art like this:

And here's my version:

I used some red-brown chrome tanned leather (picked up at a Tandy clearance sale) for the bag, and some thick tooling leather for the flap. The tooled design is a scallop shell, the symbol of St. James. The golden shell and blue background are used as trail markers across the Camino.

That's Angelus light blue and gold acrylic paint on the front flap. 3 coats of SuperShene on the flap, too. 

The edges are coated with Fiebeing's Edge Kote in black.

The closer hardware is from Ohio Travel Bag. They have a LOT of cool hardware! 

The tassels are handmade (wrapped with black thread and gold wire)-- see close-up here:
 

 

I am very pleased with my stitching -- I used a 3 mm Japan Goods stitching chisel. 

I used Natural waxed linen thread for the bag and Blue waxed linen at the top of the blue flap. Other stitching used Red waxed linen. Both the Red and Blue thread are from Royalwood, Ltd. in Ohio (see their website here:<https://www.royalwoodltd.com/>)

There is a cloth liner inside, using hand-printed fabric which features the shell motif and the St. James cross:

Even the strap hangers keep the shell motif (using Fiebing Mahogany to get that red-brown color):

I learned a LOT from making this bag.  The full story of the bag (with work-in-progress pictures) is located at my website, here: <http://djole.altervista.org/djole/Publications/Leather/Camino Bag/CaminoBag.htm>

The strap is not done yet -- I didn't have enough time to finish it before giving to the new owner. I'll get the measurements and make that later on. 

 

[ScoobyNewbie]

Wow! Great work! I love how you joined your lining! I’m just finishing my first purse and since it’s for me or a friend, I slacked off on the lining. Now I have to go back and make a new one or I’ll feel lame. Lol

[DJole]

15 hours ago, ScoobyNewbie said:

Wow! Great work! I love how you joined your lining! I’m just finishing my first purse and since it’s for me or a friend, I slacked off on the lining. Now I have to go back and make a new one or I’ll feel lame. Lol

I found that lining method to be a real headache. Making the inside cloth lining fit exactly inside the leather bag (all four seams, and the height) was a real pain.

You may be up to the challenge, but I don't think I'll do things this way again. 

[ScoobyNewbie]

In my bag, I got all excited and sewed the outside pockets on before I put on any gum tragacanth. So I sewed pocket liners for the three pockets. I intend to attach Velcro to the outside top of the pockets and directly over the pockets, so that I can change out the lining when it gets gross or ugly. I sewed the rest of the fabric together and was just able to squeak out a liner for the main pocket. 

Lol. I lined all my scraps up and glued them together to make a bottom strip, then cut it to size and sewed it to the front and back pieces. They will slid under the inside pocket and up the sides also securing with Velcro. 

Frankenpurse liner! It looks cute though, and I really just wanted to slam together a pocket and liner pattern so I can go out and get a nicer fabric and make a cleaner set.