Indigofan » Craft

Weekend Luggage

Matt — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 13:15:36 +0000

I got a bit ambitious and decided to try making an overnight/weekend bag.

It has a longer version of the handles that I’ve been making previously. The handles use a thick leather sewn over rope and riveted to the brass rings.

The body of the bag is a thinner leather, but I added strengthening straps that circumnavigate the whole bag and attached the handles to these. I also added a second layer of leather on the base of the bag.

This was also the first time I sewed a zip, and I lined the whole bag with a coarse cotton canvas.

It was a lot of work – took me over two months – just hand sewing bits and pieces in the evenings or on weekends.

It is actually quite big. Here’s my daughter dragging it around.

I’m pretty happy with the zip and lining.

My next project might be an A3 folio with zip. I need to find some high quality double zips… this YKK one above is crap.

Quilt

Matt — Mon, 30 May 2011 00:41:40 +0000

Ms Indigo has gone quilting crazy. She made this queensized quilt from mostly Japanese indigo fabrics. I think it’s pretty awesome.

The batting that we used for the quilt is bamboo. Benefits of bamboo: it’s organic, sustainable, and keeps you as warm as cotton in winter, but cooler than cotton in summer (I’m not sure how that’s possible).

Shoe Lasts Australia

Matt — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 03:54:18 +0000

Following advice from Captains of Industry we travelled up to Thomastown to visit Shoe Lasts Australia.

It was interesting to see the remaining custom shoe last factory in Australia. As you’d expect, the market for lasts in Australia has been declining. Their main customers now are R.M.Williams, J.Robins, and custom medical/ortho. Almost all the new lasts are high-density plastic, so the wooden feet are rare.

Bruce was kind enough to take me around the factory and give me some advice on what to do, and he suggested that if you can make shoes well, he see there is a gap in the market for custom medical/orthopedic footwear.

I got off-the-shelf lasts for my whole family. I just need to drum up the time, tools, and courage to start trying to make some shoes.

Bandanna/Handkerchief Shell Print

Matt — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 11:05:16 +0000

The local shop had some cloth with a Japanese wave pattern. I thought I’d try making some bandanna/handkerchiefs out of it.

For my first attempt I tried to hand stitch a rolled hem. It was fun, but it was more work than I expected.

I hemmed the second one on the machine.

Farewell Quilt

Matt — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 09:22:57 +0000

I recently left my job after six years. As a gift the staff gave me a stack of denim swatches with goodbye messages written on them. I joked that I was going to sew them into a big diaper for my daughter to wear.

Well, I didn’t make a diaper, but I’ve put them together into some sort of quilt, but I’m not sure what to do with it.

iPad Bag

Matt — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 12:00:11 +0000

This weekend I made a new bag.

A narrower – portrait shape. �The strap/handles are attached to the back body of the bag.

Holds an iPad and your other daily items like phone, wallet, scarf, glasses, sunglasses etc.

Postal Bag for Sale

Matt — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:34:29 +0000

I’ve put a leather postal bag for sale. �Click through to see photos and details on how to order.

Postal v2 Progress

Matt — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 12:16:32 +0000

I’m 3/4 through making a new postal bag. �Overall I think I nailed the first design well.

The minor changes in this one are:

- Silver hardware (not sterling silver), D-rings are stainless steel, buckle and clips are nickel plated base metal (I need to find a source for stainless versions of these).

- I’m making it without copper rivets. �As much as I love the look of the rivets, they are just waiting to scratch the door of your Aston Martin DB6.

- I’ve also made the tongue longer with more holes and room to tighten. � �I found that as the original bag softened I was able to tighten the strap further, but my original design left no room for that.

Anyway, I should have it finished within a couple of weeks, and I’ll take more pictures and put a price on it through PayPal. �If there is interest, I’ll get cracking on another one.

Light Tote

Matt — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 23:30:00 +0000

The Bulletproof Tote is too heavy for my wife, so I got some lighter-weight raw leather and made this one. The leather is half the thickness of what I had previously been using. I also incorporated the pre-fabricated handles and pocket that I got from Tokyu Hands in Osaka.

The strap attachments looked weak, so I riveted them down. I also made some square washers to reinforce the inside of the rivets. I reversed the rivets to the inside so that the metal wont damage clothing it might scrape on. The straps have oxidized to a tan colour compared to the whiteness of the new leather.

I sewed an inside pocket. On the left strap attachment you can see I tried reinforcing it with a leather patch, but this wasn’t worth the effort, so only one of the four is reinforced. Hah.
The sides are double-stitched and riveted at the top.

This last pic has some interesting veining in the leather (click on it for a large view). It’ll be interesting to see how this thinner leather ages.

Making Leather Tote

Matt — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:23:29 +0000

A couple of iPhone pics I took while I was making the tote bag.

Here’s the body of the bag cutout and the first handle rivetted on.

Here’s both handles on, and getting ready to start sewing on that baseplate.

The photos make it look small, but that cutting board is big. A 15 inch laptop just fits in the bag.