Gabe's bags

Made a few bags for Gabe, including the heavy porteur pictured. He passed me some waxed canvas to use for the outer and it sure is pretty. I'm thinking I want to use this stuff more..

Also wanted to add a few notes about some new tricks I learned on this one:

Handles -Tthey're so much better when they're made up of at least two layers of webbing. It makes them more solid, really feel like handles, and stick out a bit in a way that makes em more grabby. Previously, I thought this wouldn't work because I use the box sewer to tack the inner webbing to the outer webbing, and with the extra layer of webbing I sew down underneath the handles that would make 6 layers of webbing plus two layers of material - more than I want to put the box through... but this time around I decided to sew an extra length of webbing to the handle piece. Half of it serves as the inner handle. The other half is sewn down to the flap material, bridging the gap that the handle piece leaves. It makes for a more complicated assembly order, but the result is killer! I'll try to remember to take some photos the next time I do this so it makes more sense.

Velcro extensions - Previously I used one sew-on patch per extension to stop it as it's pulled out. However, I've learned, watching these in use, that it's still possible for them to come out of the outer track (the big piece of velcro) when being pulled back into the retracked position. Doh! I realized while prepping the extensions for this bag that if two sew-on patches are used, one to stop each position, this is no longer a problem. Sweet!

And of course, both these details help to add a little more heavy to the heavy porteur bag...