With an imminent trip to warmer climes looming, I needed to sort out something to take with me. I had intended to tweak the two-tone Tote bag so decided to make a ‘kit’ to take with me. The idea being I would do all the cutting and prep work here and therefore avoid needing to take an entire set of leather tools with me. AA Crack do a good selection of Nubuck hides so opted for a blue annd cream combination for the sides although the remainder would be in a dark brown. The issue with the Nubuck is it has a fairly soft handle and so the bag would have a tendency to be quite floppy. To overcome this I thought bonding a fabric lining would stiffen up the Nubuck sufficiently. However the cotton twill fabric has two issues – fraying and being quite porous, so not ideal for the water based contact adhesive. So the approach will be to back the lining with a fusible interface and then bond that to the Nubuck.
The stitch holes were made in each piece when the original two-tone bag was made. However his caused problems as, even though the stitch line lengths should be the same, the reality is that there would often be additional holes in one of the mating pieces. This then requires stitches to be dropped and these can often be obvious in the completed article. So this time the stitch line will be punched but only on the out piece. The two pieces will then be bonded and then the holes re-punched through both pieces to avoid the issue.
Leather: Sides in Nubuck French Navy and Vanilla 1.4/1.6mm, Base, Handle and pocket in Badalassi Carlo Minerva Box – Tabacco and Castagno – 1.7/1.9mm
Threads: #5 Vinymo, Colours 121 with stitch length of 3.5mm
The eight side pieces were cut and the stitch holes punched in the right-hand edge, with each piece having one in both colours ….
The white fusible lining was ironed onto the lining pieces.
The lining and interface are then bonded to the back side of the out piece. The Outer 3.5mm of the leading edge was masked as the lining will be cut short along this line to avoid it showing on the outside of the bag once complete.
It was only once I had completed the 8 lined pieces that it dawned on me that I’d had a bit of brain fade! The colours alternate around the perimeter of the bag. Having one of each colour for the 4 pieces doesn’t work – each piece needs to be in one of the colours otherwise it’s not possible to alternate all the way round. I therefore had make four new pieces in the correct colour. Rather than throw the wrong ones away, I decided to made 8 new pieces and make two bags.
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The base was made up of a lamination of outer pieces of leather and some bonded leather to give more rigidity.
Glueing the bonded leather to the out piece.
The completed ‘kit’ for one bags: handles, pocket, base, top edge binding, two-tone side pieces.