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Today I finished a project I’d been working on for a while. My own messenger bag! For several years I owned a Timbuk2 bag that I really enjoyed. It worked great, was custom made, and served me well. Unfortunately, one night it was stolen from the back seat of a friend’s car through a smashed window. The bag was the most valuable part of that theft, since it had very little in it at the time, a pair of pliers that I miss now and again, and an old book I was reading.

It’s been about two years since that happened, and I still have not replaced the bag. I use a cheap Swiss Army laptop bag for my regular bag duties, and it functions, but pretty badly. It does not have the cross-wise stability strap necessary for a true cycling bag, and its internal compartments are terribly laid out. Not only that, its falling apart, wretched thing.

After comparing brands endlessly I found myself in a rut. I wanted a nice new bag, but I didn’t know who to buy from.. I could have it custom made from the ground up by Bagaboo in Hungary (nice bags), I could buy it off the shelf from Chrome, I could patronize Canada and get a PAC. The above are all great bags, but not exactly what I wanted, and not for what I wanted to pay.

Then I had a revelation, I decided to make my own!

I hit up a fabric store and found, in the remnant pile, several yards of black, grey and white camo vinyl, of the type used to upholster furniture. Its incredibly heavy duty waterproof material, and because no one in their right mind would upholster a couch with camoflauge, it was incredibly cheap.

The vinyl would be the liner, but I needed an outer layer. I did not feel like paying 12.00$ a yard for Cordura, which would have been the fabric of choice. I decided to go ‘old school’ and use some unbleached heavy canvas I had lying around. For color I ‘crystal wash’ dyed it with Procyon MX cotton dye.

I got some strap material and a few buckles at REI. Then I discovered that the company that makes most of these buckles, ITW-Nexus has a free sample program, and if you say you are a company, they will actually send you 15 free samples of their buckles, you pick what you want! I got most of my buckles free this way. They are very high quality buckles.

I designed my pattern in CAD, and then printed out a life-size copy using Adobe Illustrator. I taped together the many 11×17 sheets that came forth from the printer, and cut out my stencil. I cut out the pattern from the vinyl, and then from the canvas.

It is key to note that at this point I made a mistake. I dyed my canvas after cutting it, and during the washing process, it shrunk a bit. This messed up my pattern a bit, and caused me some trouble down the road. I should have dyed the whole piece of canvas, and then cut my pattern out afterwards.

I took my two pieces, and glued them together with 3M spray adhesive. I left the main flap unglued, however. I started by sewing the 2” D-rings into place. I reinforced the joints with the least graceful of all seamstering equipment, the pop riveter.

Then I began the process of sewing the main bag stitches. I was using a heavy duty upholstery thread, and a big fat needle meant for sewing leather. My friend’s mid-size Bernina had no trouble getting through the vinyl and canvas. I double stitched where I could. I began to suffer from the first of my shrunken canvas problems, as well. It was hard to get the canvas into all the seams, and so there are places where only the vinyl is sewn, and little loose flaps of canvas can pop out. It isn’t bad, but its unfortunate.

On one corner of the bag I looped a small piece of webbing with a 1” D-ring on it through the seam. This D-Ring would secure the cross strap that makes a crappy bag into a cyclist’s bag.

Once I had the main stitches in place, I began to add hardware. I was using 1” webbing for the auxilliary hardware, and so added two side release buckles, and ladder-locs for compression straps. The compression straps have been secured in place with more rivets. Because I had not yet glued down the main flap canvas, I was able to peel it back, and do all this sewing on the flap blind. That is, the items are sewn only to the vinyl, and the stitches disappear under the outer canvas layer when pulled down.

I added two large strips of velcro to the flap and the front of the bag. It is very beefy stuff, and had to be securely sewed in place, despite its adhesive backing.

I added a few more rivets here and there for good measure, and attacked the cosmetics. I used bias tape to sew a border onto the edges of the main pouch. Then I glued the main flap to its liner, and then ran a seam of bias tape along that edge as well.

To top it off, I took a 25 tooth cog from an unused cassette, polished it up, and riveted it to the flap of the bag with three pop rivets.

What is left to do? I’m going to fashion a set of interior pockets for holding pens and keys and stuff, and I need to get some more webbing for the cross strap, though all the hardware is in place. The main strap currently consists of 2” seatbelt style webbing with a cam buckle. The cross strap hardware slides up and down the main strap for easy adjustment, and comes with its own side release buckle. However, this strap is subject to lots of change. The strap is in many ways the most intricate part of this type of bag, and it warrants experimentation. This is why I didn’t sew the strap directly to the bag, opting instead to use D-Rings and snap hooks for easy strap interchangability. I’ll probably be stealing a cue from Chrome and using an old seatbelt buckle, once I can get myself down to the junk yard.

I need to find a suitable seam sealer for the interior seams to waterproof it, and I need to find a good cotton waterproofing compound for the outer layer.

Once I find a suitable carabeiner, I’ll be attaching it to the flap for a top handle.

What did I do wrong, or what would I do differently next time? I made the bag way too big. It’s huge. Giant. Bigger than I need, for sure. But it has good fit, so its OK. The next iteration will probably be much smaller. I’ll dye my canvas before cutting it next time. I’ll probably sew on more of my hardware before sewing the main stitches. It is awkward to move that whole big bag shape around while trying to stitch on a buckle.

However, I’m very happy with myself. See below for some photos, as well as an image of the pattern I used. You can emulate it if you desire.

The overall bag is about 23” x 13” x 9”, and I’m estimating practical capacity at 2700 cubic inches, or 44 liters. That is a big dang bag. When using the pattern, simple scale it until the bag is the size you want. You’ll need to adjust the size of the seam allowances and strap attachments if you vary the size too much.

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Here is the entire bag, in all its glory. As you can see, it’s pretty darn big. Dig on the crystal wash dye job, and the shiny cog.

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A closer image of the strap mechanism. This is subject to change as I figure out what I do and do not want in a strap. The snap hooks are a point of potential weakness, but they can be replaced with beefy metal ones once I settle on a strap design.

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The bag open, displaying the camo liner, and the velcro.

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This shows the compression straps on the bottom of the bag. They are riveted into place, and the Ladder-loc buckle for the compression strap is held in place by the bottom of the side release buckle strap for the main flap buckles. Clever, huh?

Compression straps are my favorite feature of bags, but are incredibly rare. Timbuk2 used to offer them as an option, but no longer does (that is actually the thing that caused me to reject purchasing another Timbuk2).

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This is where the cross strap connects to the bottom corner of the bag. The loop is sewn right into the seam, and there is a D-Ring and a snap hook for easy disassembly (like for flying).

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Here is the bag holding my helmet, to illustrate its size. I haven’t yet performed the customary “How Much Beer Does It Hold” test that all new messenger bags must be subjected to, because its lack of cross strap may affect my ability to carry that much beer. I’m guessing two 30-packs, plus a few extra bottles. It’s that big.

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Here is my skinny ass wearing the bag. Looks sharp, no? Actually, it dwarfs me. I think someone called that the “Turtle Effect”. Oh well, it’ll carry a lot of goodies.

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Here is the pattern for the bag. Just scale it up on the program of your choice, and print out on multiple sheets of paper to make a pattern stencil. Adobe Illustrator makes this easy, but I think other programs can do it as well. Remember to adjust the size of the buckle attachment points to keep them 2” and 1” wide, respectively.

I’ll update with more pictures once I get some interior pockets installed, and the top handle and cross strap.

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