skanking biker

I need a new bag to carry my crap to and from work and don't feel like spending 100 on a name bag. This weekend I was wandering around the local outdoors/army surplus store and lo and behold I found a nice big cotton/canvas musette bag for a mere $15 and a strap for $2. You can fit so much crap into it---its unbelievable. My plan is to covert it into a messenger style bag by reinforcing it with cordura and lining it with a shower curtain, sewing on loops for the shoulder stap I bought and cutting the existing backpack straps to turn into a cross-strap.

Has anyone here ever done something like this before? Any helpful do's and dont's before I get going?

gehrkead

check out the resource thread thatis stickied at the top and also look in the custom bag thread. there should be some useful information in there for you.

Diggidy_Dylan

I have also recently drifted into the realm of bag making and modification.

1. If you're going through the trouble of attaching cordura, buy a bunch of cordura and make a replica.

2. if you just sew shower curtain together, it won't be waterproof around the seams, and if you try to caulk it with silicon or something it won't stick (i've learned this from expierience)
do you have a sewing machine to potentially sewing through at least one layer cotton, at least one layer cordura and a few layers of nylon strap?

I hope this has been helpful...

I'd like to see before and after pics and also how satisfied you are with your cost... Good luck.

skanking biker

Thanks for the advice--this is going to be a utilitarian bag that will be the FUGLIEST thing ever. I cannot get a hold of cordura at the local fabric store, so I am going to settle with double-overed duckcloth and seam reinforcers. As far as the shower curtain, my plan was to cut it down to a single rectangle and simply attach it around the edges at the top of the bag (essentially creating a pouch) to be sewn on top of the extra layer of duck cloth I am adding.

As far as the strap, I reinforced a standard 2 inch military shoulder strap in the middle with shoulder strap padding from a old nylon backpack. The strap has compression hooks on the end and loops around itself with rings (D-rings???) to lengthen or shorten the strap. I am planning to attach the shoulder strap via metal hooks sewn onto a heavy piece of canvas reinforced with a gromet.

I bought a parachute fastener and I am debating whether to cut the shoulder strap in half and attach to the parachute buckle, or if that will weaken the structural integrity of the strap.

I plan to insert padding into the pouch that holds the original "backpack straps" on the musette bag to cushion my back and absorb moisture.

I do not own a sewing machine and sewed the strap last night by hand---although I broke 3 of my heavy needles and have a bruised thumb.