Hermespan

For all those who have followed or modified Jane's instructions very generously posted in her blog...

https://www.toehead.plus.com/bagmain.htm

The instructions and dimensions make sense to me except these...

"You will need some sort of stiffener for base and top roll" So far, so good.
Then she gives the dimensions for standard and larger T bags. I include here only the large one which I am endeavouring to get made...

"310mm x 25 mm" for the top, and for the 'base' "395 mm x 180mm" plus "Round the front corners of the base stiffener to match the base piece"

I question whether that isn't a typo: 25 mm is *awfully* narrow, 1 inch in fact. CENTIMETERS make sense to me, viz. 310 mm x 25 cm. What would be the purpose of such a skinny strip?

The 395 x 180 mm makes sense however.

I am asking here rather than directly here because the activity is more here.

Am I ******** in bag design/math/geometry or is something incorrect here? Secondly what *thickness* did you guys and gals use when you did this. I don't quite get wherher she is talking about the thickness of cheap plastic binders for school notes or like the brutally strong one currently inside my Flamingo bag.

jur

That skinny piece is for the roll top. The top of the bag is closed against each other, then rolled up around the skinny strip. Surely you are aware of how roll-top bags work?

Hermespan

Ah, see... to gve something for the fabric to wrap arund. OK

Hermespan

Preparing a colour-coded mock up for a local bag maker who is used to making very standard boxish motorbike bags. If figure if *I* can't figure out the instructions at this stage, and I am a native speaker of English that expecting him to figure out a translation is folly. So I doubled the size (photocopied at 200% on thick paper, transferred all measurements to miniature mock up pieces, then traced on plastically felt. I have photos to show what the beast is supposed to look like. Maybe he has more smarts than I do and won't refuse the task out of hand. These coloured cutouts do not include her suggested smaller middle pocket at the back. I might just ask the bag-maker which is easier for him to make, zipper and fold and clip.

Hermespan

for, literally?

This question is for all of you have have deciphered Jane's detailed sewing instructions. I admit I don't know how to sew. But how difficult can it be ?

One of the first instructions in Jane gives (after explaining how to make a shoulder strap, which I am not doing) is to fold pocket pieces at the dotted lines and sew together. This creates a bizarre pointed pocket shape even if you fold it under. It creates excess material too. Have I missed something here?









Also, what is the point of clip down pockets vs. simple zippers?

I BRING OUT MY BLACK MARKER and mark swathes of Xs 'ignore this! Do whatever works without getting a degree in home economics. Just make me sone bloody pockets that are easy to access and put stuff in.' For what I am spending for an aircon hotel room I could have bought a real Brompton T bag by now.

cpg

I think the idea is that you temporarily fold along the dotted line so that the two edges that form the 90 degree cut out come together. You then sew along these two edges to join them together and repeat for the other side.

Hermespan

Of course, but at this point in the construction I don't see what is the purpose of this, to me, odd shape. I'll let the bag maker do whatever he wants here that works.

jur

+1 seems very straightforward to me, no bizarre shape, just a box to be sewn against the back panel.

Hermers you misunderstood the folding and sewing.

cpg

Its is forming the bottom and sides of the pocket.

fietsbob

it's common to sew the corner making dart, then cut off the excess , the pattern did it first.

a big roll of ribbon and bind the sewn edges against fraying .. is a pro looking job..

Hermespan

"Sew front to inner/outer back unit along side seams (right sides together)"

'Sew' I understand. ;-)

I am being dramatic. 'Inner/outer back unit' is the red and yellow piece - sewn intentionally loose, so as to allow room for frame. 'Side seams' I know what they are because I just hand-stitched the red & yellow piece edges to each other (crossing my fingers I got the directions so far right - upside down sideways inside out right side topside seam blah blah. It's all a blur).

At this moment I am NOT sure about is 'right side'. It's sewing shop talk. It doesn't mean correct, or the opposite of left. Google tells me 'right side' in the arcane world of needle and thread means the attractive side that will be exposed when the project is finished. But I am skeptical because it's clear from looking at this plus reading ahead that later I will disembowel the beast (turn the box inside out).



above is both model pieces and patterns



above is inner/outer back unit



above is front of bag piece

But there's more than that...

The green piece ('front' of bag though it's obvious it's also sides) doesn't wrap all around when I set in the bottom piece with mock stiffener. There's 1/3 of each side missing. Instructions *did* say to get blue square paper and bring up to scale but that was a task in a foreign country where the sweat rivulets down my back after 30 minutes in the sun, so I'm counting on this dollhouse construction project being more or less to scale already. If all else fails I cut back the base.

Hermespan

I think this is it...

Hermespan

No, the OPPOSITE

Hermespan

while the back (red) is as tall as the base (blue), the front (green) is not as tall as the back (red).

Apparently the lesson here is you can 't print out from this website and use that, expecting that to be to scale. But *one* piece being out if scale - that is weird. Maybe Jane or I fouled up. She did mention two options for sizes, but I did select the larger size.

Hermespan

The bad news is...

Apparently all materials are made in China now. And 'artisans' on Hang Trung are not interested in a creative challenge. Price was not the issue. I even tried to buy patio umbrella fabric (water-proof bright yellow, light) for liner. Finished product only.

Reminds me, when I was travelling through Asia and was collecting material to create an authentic costume circa 1630 Holland. I searched high and low for handmade lace. I read articles about obscure convents doing real lace but locating them was impossible without a huge expenditure of time (= money). Guidebooks wrote that artisans in one Vietnamese town were keeping this craft alive, but getting there it was ten years out of date.

Visiting a garment factory outside Hanoi I observed first hand the wholesale scale of business in Asia. Owner-operator cottage industries are a thing of the past. Funny, it's easier to find handmade articles at craft fairs in Oregon than in Asia. Global capitalism (and myself) has killed them.