Envelope tote/backpack hybrid

Some months back I bought a large piece of black chrome tanned leather without really knowing what I was going to make out of it. I usually haven’t been using chrome because of it being much weaker than proper vegetable tanned leather is, and the edge finishing is a pain. On the other hand, it is very nice and soft. Why not make a simple tote out of it?

I started to design it, and remembered an old design for a Fjällräven tote that could be converted to a backpack by pulling the rear strap out. I decided to make my own version of it, and use brown vegetable tanned leather for all the attachments. At some point the “simple” part of the design was lost, and it ended up being rather elaborate… After I realised how much sewing I had planned for myself on the edges, I had to park the project to reconsider my life choices.

I ended up buying a sewing machine, and suddenly this bag became the first project I was going to make with that. It was the perfect project for trying out the new machine that I had never used before (ignoring the fact that it was my first time doing piping and wrapping the edges, first lined bag, first time using chrometan in a large scale, and first inside out design!).

So with other words, it was a perfect simple low risk design to practice with the new machine. (hah)

It turned out pretty well in the end.

Tote -mode. Both straps are stretched upwards.

Backpack -mode. The rear strap is pulled outwards into two backpack straps.

The bag is meant to be a small computer bag for my wife. It only holds her MacBook Air, a reMarkable tablet, and keys and other small stuff in the rear pocket.

Build Log:

The design was rather simple: two large pieces of chrome with vegtan anchors for the straps.

The pocket design was easiest to do with a computer. This way all the angles were perfect and no guesswork was required.

Here you can see the angles for the pocket. The top of it will have much shallower angle than the bottom. This way it shouldn’t sag, while there is still space to hold items on the bottom.

The zipper is hand-stitched with 3.5mm spacing.

I had to be very careful with the stitch tension as the chrometan might rip if I go crazy.

To get the orientation right on the stitching pony, I had to improvise with the rigging.

Turned out good. It’ll settle nicely with some use.

Right. Time to throw any ideas of “simple” out of the window. I’ve never done piping before, so I improved. I used a weed trimmer plastic string as the core.

The whole thing was glued together before attempting to stitch it.

I stitched the pocket into the right shape at this point as well.

The pocket is stitched to the front of the bag with the piping, with help from more improvised rigging.

I modeled and 3D printed the template for the vegtan strap anchors.

The bag’s design features a lot of circular shapes, including the anchors.

The anchors were hand-stitched to the bag.

I also included my maker’s mark on a round medallion on the pocket.

At this point there was a couple of months pause on the project after I realised how long it would take to hand-stitch the sides. It was first after I finished the Workshop v3.5 I continued from here.