This was my first proper attempt at a bag, a very uncomplicated messenger. I created it from scraps of old fabric in my mother’s fabric pile, dating back to seventies. The detailed print I top stitched onto the bag originally covered our living room couches when I was a kid.
This bag has traveled with me for the past ten months from provincial northern South Africa and through Nairobi onto Taiwan and then California and parts of the Southwestern US. It journeyed with me through Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam and was by my side when we finally settled down in our Bangkok apartment just over a month ago.
It served me very well and was the ideal travel bag and is still handy for trips to the weekend market or the next trip to the beach. But I needed something a bit more sleek, a little more funky and slightly more functional for urban living here in Bangkok.
And so one morning on the way to work, Bangkok Post clutched under one arm and bag slung over the shoulder, an idea began to take shape for a new shoulder bag. I wanted something with a special pocket for my morning paper and then some.
It’s been a couple of weeks of on and off sewing since I started the bag, but this week I finally ended up walking to work with a new bag on my shoulder. The idea changed a couple of times since I first drafted a pattern and sewed a mock-up of the product; the straps were lengthened and moved, the side pockets changed a bit and I decided to add a lining.
My favorite feature of the bag is the newspaper pocket, the other outside pockets include one for my i-Pod and one for my cell phone. Inside I added some additional fabric to the lining and divided it into two smaller pockets for notebooks, wallet and keys, which left a lot of space available for lumpier items.
It had an exciting first day in Bangkok. Alexander picked up the paper on our way to work so I can try out my favorite pocket and it was a perfect fit! Besides traveling to work on the BTS and MRT trains it also sped down the tiny Bangkok klongs to Banglamphu and later traveled back here by river boat taxi and again the BTS.
Thanks again to Alexander for the photos.
October 14, 2007 at 2:23 pm
fantasties! so goed afgewerk. is dit ‘n rek bo-aan die ipod-sakkie? ek laaik daai koerantafdeling baie- very sophisticated!
October 14, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Thank you idiwidi. Het inderdaad ‘n rek gebruik met die sakkies, gaan nie claim dit was ‘n huge sukses nie, maar dit het soortvan gewerk! b
October 14, 2007 at 4:38 pm
very nice! i love a bag with pockets for all the right things.
October 14, 2007 at 6:00 pm
cool, cool, cool wanneer kry ek myne…verjaarsdag is net om die draai…o en ek kort ‘n nuwe ipod om in die sakkie te pas ook en dalk ‘n paar oosterse notaboekies en ek wil ‘n karavaan he wat soos ‘n druppel lyk maar hy hoef nie in my sak te pas
October 17, 2007 at 9:20 am
Hoe kon ek hierdie post mis?! Ek is bly jou nuwe bag is klaar. Hy lyk baie nuttig. En ek is mal oor die lining. Dit sê nogal iets oor jou, en jou liefde vir naaldwerk…
Geniet hom.
October 26, 2007 at 12:42 pm
pragtig pragtig. dis regtig oulik.