Leather Satchels

Project: December 2020

Writeup: April 2021

Updated: March 2022

The updated 2021 revisions!

This was the Mum's piece from the BV20 Christmas Series. See the Kiridashi project for the others. At some point Mum saw some axe covers or something and assumed that I'd of course then be able to make complex 3D shapes. She requested a handbag with a bewildering handwavey brief which I promptly forgot entirely. So I ended up taking some inspiration from a number of similar pieces I could find detailed images of online and working it out from there. I probably could have bought a pattern, but I enjoy the constant stress of potentially ruining loads of nice material.

Another piece I didn't make a prototype for! Just muddled my way through. I think this came out well though. I've always found leather surprisingly forgiving to work with. After you get it all joined together, it tends to look pretty ok after you fondle it around a bit.

I think this was harder to put together than the leather.

I did make a template though. I estimated how thick the seams would need to be and how the curves would all line up. Seemed to work out well enough because all of the stitching was surprisingly painless. And quite neat I think!

When I need a lot of flat space I crouch on the floor like some kind of maniac

I'm sure there's probably some theory involved in planning stitch spacing for going around these corners, but I don't know it. Because of the way everything folds up, the outer edges of the pieces end up stretching as you stitch them. But I tried not to overthink it and just stuck with the constant spacing all the way around. Then when the pieces were glued together, it was easy enough to wiggle an awl through one side to find the hole on the other. And I didn't have any holes left over or anything, so it must have been fine. Not sure I'd like to do anything more complicated than this though!

There's a little pocket on the inside for a credit card or a maoam. Other than that it's a single big cuboid for your possessions to clonk around in. It's got a single magnetic clasp in the center which felt sufficently grippy to me. I considered buckles but thought they'd be too impractical. The BV20 knob covers up the other side of the clasp and matches the medallions on the Kiridashi presentation boxes.

I ended up making the strap humorously long by fitting the holes perfectly for myself instead of for a normal sized old lady. But some aftermarket modifications have since fixed that issue. I also forgot to put the strap keeper on before the buckle.

I usually enjoy working on things that don't have to be quite so exacting in their appearance: function over form is my preferred tradeoff. But this wasn't too bad. Mum was happy, anyway.

2021 Updates

By popular demand, the satchels returned for Christmas 2021.

Tasteful pose

This second revision features a couple of improvements over the first. And not just because I lost the pattern and had to make it from scratch again. The brass knob on the front is now positively affixed by a threaded rod into which the top half of the magnetic closure screws from the other side, the straps are the right length and the keepers are correct this time.