How to Make a Duffel Bag that's Better than Santa's
(Page 4 of 5)
November/December 1978
by Joan Hyme White
As soon as both circles are securely stitched into place, turn the duffel bag right-side out. It's finished!
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THE "EXTRA" TOUCHES
INSIDE POCKETS:
If you like, you can fashion two inside pockets for your sack from a pair of 6" squares of cloth and two 7" x 18" fabric rectangles.
First, run a 3/4" hem along one long side of each of the larger pieces of material. Then, beginning at a corner, sew the other long side of the rectangle right around three sides of one of the squares (Fig. 12). Pull 6 inches of shock cord or elastic through the 18" hem and stitch its ends to hold it in place. Repeat with the second pocket. Then turn the bag inside out again and sew one of the pockets into each end of the sack (by starting at one side-center mark on the bag's end and stitching right down around the bottom and up again to the opposite center mark).
OUTSIDE POCKETS:
These are attached before the ends are sewed onto the bag. Cut out an extra 9-1/2" disc of fabric, cut the circle in half, and make a 1/4" hem along the straight cut (Fig. 13). Then separate a zipper (which is as long as the diameter of the circle) and sew one half across the middle of one of the full bag-ends with its teeth pointing up (Fig. 14) and the other half across the top of the half circle, also "teeth up" (Fig. 15). Zip the halves of the closure together, then rezip (as described in SACK STITCHING, STEP FOUR) so that both ends of the fastener are closed and the slider is in the middle. Stitch around the circumference of the pocket to hold it in place and then sew the modified bag-end onto the sack so that, when the duffel bag is turned right-side out, the pocket will be on the outside.
STORM FLAP:
This protective cover for the bag's main zipper is attached before the handle strap is added to the carryall. Turn and hem all four edges of a 7-1/2" x 22" rectangle of fabric (which will leave you with a rectangle that's just slightly shorter end-to-end than your bag's main zipper). Sew the "pile" side of your Velcro fastener to the underside of one of the rectangle's long edges and then stitch the fabric's opposite long edge to the bag (so the strip of material covers the zipper and extends far enough across the sliding closure for its Velcro pile to engage the second half of the Velcro fastener on the other side. Then align the Velcro's halves and sew its "hook" section to the bag (Fig. 16).
ADJUSTABLE SHOULDER STRAP: If you add this accessory, and you, should, it's almost indispensable, its D-rings or drapery hooks should be slipped onto the doubled carrying-strap tabs before those tabs are sewed to the bag (see SACK STITCHING, STEP FIVE).
Then, after the duffel bag is completed, take a yard-long section of webbed strapping, sew a buckle onto one end (Fig. 17), slide a hook fastener (Fig. 18) onto the strap's free end, pull the strap through the buckle (Fig. 19), and sew on a second fastener so that you wind up with a strap like the one you see in Fig. 20. Snap the fasteners into the D-rings mounted on the bag and adjust the strap's length with the sliding buckle.
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