Am in a serious mood for makin' stuff these days, good for me, bad for my marriage
Latest project was a kind of follow on from my kettle sleeve project but to take my trusty trangia as well. I'm toting this about in one of the nylon gym bag thingys I got from Edinburgh Bicycle so time for some nice canvas. Here's the finished article;
Had some serious drama with this which is one of the reasons why I did it, I wanted to see if I could make a canoe pack similar to the Lloyd, and 86inch creations on SotP and the Kerne and Topknot ones on BCUK. I had real trouble visualizing the thing when it was inside out, lot's of staring into space moving hands about in a virtual manner... First thing was to check out Mrs C's sewing machine capabilities. All in all handled 2 or 3 layers pretty much OK. I did have some real trouble with the thread though, I picked up some Size 100/16 needles and some 30m Gutermann Top Stitch Thread in a couple of colours but for some reason it kept snagging on the needle and backing up badly. Played with the tension until the cows came home but simply wasn't happening, am wondering if it was the bobbin tension or something??? SWMBO had me under strict instructions that I'd be in the garage if I wrecked her machine. So, 60metres of Gutermanns was used in the above, most of it was unpicked and binned though!
Definitely a good learning exercise, deliberate mistake in leaving the black edge line on the wrong side.... The leatherwork was the easy bit for me although I figured out I was punching holes too big which led to the wonky rivet in the above pic, it could float about in the hole and when it was set, it floated off to one side.... grrr. Wanted to figure out how to do the tumplines and thatworked out great apart from my dodgey stitching. I'd reverted back to quite thin polyester thread at this point and normal needles and the machine coped a lot better.
Punched in a couple of eyelets and still haven't figure out quite what to do with them so there's some leather thonging in there at the moment but not happy with it....
It's a good size, my trangia and both meths and coleman fuel fit in with room to spare leaving enough room for utensils and probably even food for a day trip. Check the dodgy stitching on the right hand flap
Lastly an empty shot
So am I going to go ahead and make a big pack for myself, well maybe not just yet, the machine can't hack it and I can't hack the hand stitching, I had to do quite a bit on this project and my fairy soft hands are feeling it!! Handstitching the lid (seen in 2nd photo) was a killer alone, let alone the reinforcing stitches and round the corners where the machine couldn't go. I wonder if on a bigger scale the machine could go round the corners... hmm?? Overall quite pleased, machine can do the easy stuff and I can do the leatherwork required so all that's needed is maybe some different thread to try or a bigger machine....
Looking at this reminded me of the old surplus satchels that were kicking around when I was at school and rummaging around on ebay and various surplus stores came up with this which may lend themselves to a bit of hackery and additional leather work to make the look better... Bit bad hacking up and old '37 pack but just a thought! Nice pic from those nice people at endicotts, imagine it with some leather on.... hmmm
Cheers,
Alan
Had some serious drama with this which is one of the reasons why I did it, I wanted to see if I could make a canoe pack similar to the Lloyd, and 86inch creations on SotP and the Kerne and Topknot ones on BCUK. I had real trouble visualizing the thing when it was inside out, lot's of staring into space moving hands about in a virtual manner... First thing was to check out Mrs C's sewing machine capabilities. All in all handled 2 or 3 layers pretty much OK. I did have some real trouble with the thread though, I picked up some Size 100/16 needles and some 30m Gutermann Top Stitch Thread in a couple of colours but for some reason it kept snagging on the needle and backing up badly. Played with the tension until the cows came home but simply wasn't happening, am wondering if it was the bobbin tension or something??? SWMBO had me under strict instructions that I'd be in the garage if I wrecked her machine. So, 60metres of Gutermanns was used in the above, most of it was unpicked and binned though!
Definitely a good learning exercise, deliberate mistake in leaving the black edge line on the wrong side.... The leatherwork was the easy bit for me although I figured out I was punching holes too big which led to the wonky rivet in the above pic, it could float about in the hole and when it was set, it floated off to one side.... grrr. Wanted to figure out how to do the tumplines and thatworked out great apart from my dodgey stitching. I'd reverted back to quite thin polyester thread at this point and normal needles and the machine coped a lot better.
Punched in a couple of eyelets and still haven't figure out quite what to do with them so there's some leather thonging in there at the moment but not happy with it....
It's a good size, my trangia and both meths and coleman fuel fit in with room to spare leaving enough room for utensils and probably even food for a day trip. Check the dodgy stitching on the right hand flap
Lastly an empty shot
So am I going to go ahead and make a big pack for myself, well maybe not just yet, the machine can't hack it and I can't hack the hand stitching, I had to do quite a bit on this project and my fairy soft hands are feeling it!! Handstitching the lid (seen in 2nd photo) was a killer alone, let alone the reinforcing stitches and round the corners where the machine couldn't go. I wonder if on a bigger scale the machine could go round the corners... hmm?? Overall quite pleased, machine can do the easy stuff and I can do the leatherwork required so all that's needed is maybe some different thread to try or a bigger machine....
Looking at this reminded me of the old surplus satchels that were kicking around when I was at school and rummaging around on ebay and various surplus stores came up with this which may lend themselves to a bit of hackery and additional leather work to make the look better... Bit bad hacking up and old '37 pack but just a thought! Nice pic from those nice people at endicotts, imagine it with some leather on.... hmmm
Cheers,
Alan
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I like those.
