Creeping towards completion
After missing the December 31 deadline (so I could use it on a January 1st R200 which I obviously didn’t do due to lack of a proper handlebar bag) the big rando bag has been under construction at what can best be described as a leisurely pace. But even with that constraint it’s almost to the point where I can throw it onto the bicycle and take it out for a test ride. I need to sew the seams that attach the sides to the front, and then I need to tape the raw edges of the fabric, and then that’s it for the carcass (unless I want to sew a light/blinkie mount onto the front outside pocket flap.) I’ll need to eventually sew up a lining (and figure out a way of detachably mounting it) but I don’t need a lining to actually use the bag, and I need to go out tomorrow and get bagels anyway.
A couple of things I’ve discovered sewing up this bag:
- All the nice pretty curved edges are a real pain to tape. My home-made edging & bias tape just doesn’t want to curve around corners unless I hand-sew them (or operate the sewing machine by hand.)
- Making my own tape is probably the wrong choice. I’ve got a little hand-operated tape maker which allegedly can be pulled along a strip of fabric with an iron chasing after it to permanently crease the fabric, but I was doing it on nylon fabric, which needs to be pressed until it’s cold before the crease will take. So it ended up taking about 10 minutes to make one foot of tape. Repeat that a dozen times and you’re talking real time.
- Narrow tape may look very nice, but it’s a bit of a pain to sew with a sewing machine, because it keeps wanting to pucker up and shift away from the sewing needle.
The next bag I make will revert to traditional square flaps and use a wider commercial tape. But that’s not going to happen for a few weeks, because I need to test out this one first.