I made a chalkbag!
Jan. 24th, 2011 07:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rydra_wong posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
sewingI had a spasm of sewing over the last few days, and made myself a chalkbag.
Context: rock climbers wear little bags containing gymnasts' chalk (magnesium carbonate) at our waists; the chalk dries up sweat and helps prevent your hands from becoming slippery.
There are various patterns for chalkbags online (e.g. this one and this one), but they're generally simple cylinders.
I wanted to see if I could steal an idea from my commercially-made chalkbag (a flat back and a curved front panel), while adding in some other design features I wanted (zipped pockets for locker keys, espresso money and mid-day medz).
And then I found a remnant of silvery-grey fake fur in a department store for £2, and it was ON.
Here are the basic ingredients being assembled.
I didn't make a pattern, though some bits got sketched out on paper first, and at one point I have a faint recollection of using a takeaway menu as a straight edge.
(This is sort of why I have "feral sewing" listed as one of my interests.)
This is the back panel under construction.
It was made from a pair of black jeans which had been donated to my scraps bag by a friend; as you can see, the belt loops got repurposed as, er, belt loops (and a side loop to hold a brush for cleaning holds).
One zipped pocket was fitted into the back panel, and another was hidden between the back panel and the front panel.
This is the front panel in progress and looking like shit:
It's a rectangle of fake fur folded and tucked to make rounded corners and so it would curve to fit onto the back panel (that bit did have to get worked out in a paper version first).
I lined it with more denim, as the fur had a light mesh backing and felt quite flimsy (it also tended to fray and unravel when I punched a hole for the eyelet). The metal eyelet is for the drawstring round the inner bag, which holds the chalk.
I didn't manage to get a decent picture of the inner bag, but basically it was a smaller bag made out of fleece, with a jersey funnel (fabric scavenged from some worn-out pyjamas) connecting it to the "mouth" of the chalkbag.
The end result:
This shows the drawstring and toggle arrangement more clearly:
And this is the back, showing the "secret" pockets:
It was all hand-sewn, and all the zips, denim, jersey and fleece were scavenged from worn-out clothes; apart from the fake fur, I think the only thing I actually bought was the eyelets.
I want to neaten up some of the edging a bit, but otherwise I'm very pleased with how it turned out.
Of course, this was just the proof-of-concept bag, and I'm already dreaming of new features …
Context: rock climbers wear little bags containing gymnasts' chalk (magnesium carbonate) at our waists; the chalk dries up sweat and helps prevent your hands from becoming slippery.
There are various patterns for chalkbags online (e.g. this one and this one), but they're generally simple cylinders.
I wanted to see if I could steal an idea from my commercially-made chalkbag (a flat back and a curved front panel), while adding in some other design features I wanted (zipped pockets for locker keys, espresso money and mid-day medz).
And then I found a remnant of silvery-grey fake fur in a department store for £2, and it was ON.
Here are the basic ingredients being assembled.
I didn't make a pattern, though some bits got sketched out on paper first, and at one point I have a faint recollection of using a takeaway menu as a straight edge.
(This is sort of why I have "feral sewing" listed as one of my interests.)
This is the back panel under construction.
It was made from a pair of black jeans which had been donated to my scraps bag by a friend; as you can see, the belt loops got repurposed as, er, belt loops (and a side loop to hold a brush for cleaning holds).
One zipped pocket was fitted into the back panel, and another was hidden between the back panel and the front panel.
This is the front panel in progress and looking like shit:
It's a rectangle of fake fur folded and tucked to make rounded corners and so it would curve to fit onto the back panel (that bit did have to get worked out in a paper version first).
I lined it with more denim, as the fur had a light mesh backing and felt quite flimsy (it also tended to fray and unravel when I punched a hole for the eyelet). The metal eyelet is for the drawstring round the inner bag, which holds the chalk.
I didn't manage to get a decent picture of the inner bag, but basically it was a smaller bag made out of fleece, with a jersey funnel (fabric scavenged from some worn-out pyjamas) connecting it to the "mouth" of the chalkbag.
The end result:
This shows the drawstring and toggle arrangement more clearly:
And this is the back, showing the "secret" pockets:
It was all hand-sewn, and all the zips, denim, jersey and fleece were scavenged from worn-out clothes; apart from the fake fur, I think the only thing I actually bought was the eyelets.
I want to neaten up some of the edging a bit, but otherwise I'm very pleased with how it turned out.
Of course, this was just the proof-of-concept bag, and I'm already dreaming of new features …
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Date: 2011-01-25 07:02 pm (UTC)When I was first learning to sew in school I made a duffel bag with seven nesting pockets in order to pass my Pocket Exam. My teacher was exasperated, but they're very useful for keeping track of kleenex and spare change?
Also, I hear you about Proof of Concept sewing. "I wonder if that would work?" is my major motivator with any kind of handicraft. Sometimes it ends well! It looks like this has!