Bag Pics

Hello, hello, hello!! I did not really fall off the ends of the Earth!! Here I am a little late but with the promised bag pics!

Last Wednesday was my birthday (50, wooohoooo! I made the half-century mark!!) and I haven't been online too much since then. We finished the bags and have started the next couple, and I have learned a little about how NOT to photograph them, lol.... this is about "as good as I can do" but I still haven't managed to get them quite, er, um... level, for lack of a better term. Oh well, at least you can see that we finished them! *grins*

This is what we start with, a flat pile of pieces... nothing much to look at...

Here I am holding a partly finished bag up for an experimental photo. You can see that the bag has a double-layered back, with green leather inside. What you cannot see is that the needle fell and the thread is dangling as I valiantly attempt to hold the bag steady for Gryph's camera.

Um, yes... what you see next IS a Self-Installing Cat Accessory with Optional Camera-Flash Eye Enhancement. This is Module One, ready to spring into action and plunder the irresistibly sweet booty he has found.

Hahaaaa, he caught it! The Mighty Pirate Hunter with Thews of Steel and Claws of Fish-hook has struck again! No dangling thread be ever safe again, me hearties! aaarggh...

"aaarggh" is right--I wasn't DONE with that bag yet! Luckily for me, un-installation of Piratical Cat Module was successful with no damage to either Module One OR the thread. *whew*

Here are the finished bags. This is the smallest green bag--it's the one with the "snake" on the backside of the strap. We tested it out; it holds a cell phone and a tri-fold wallet easily, plus keys.

This next one is the medium green bag. I confess I think of it as a "Kilroy was here" bag, lol. It is big enough to hold the above plus a checkbook, tissues, sunglasses, etc--about the size of a medium-ish purse.

This is the double-layered medium bag, finished. This bag was done with all seams to the inside, and I've discovered that I don't like them that way; it takes away some of the roominess in the bag and distorts the shape a lot. BUT in the photos, it looks better than the others... clearly I have a LOT to learn about how to photograph leather bags!

It was also a LOT of work to run the strap through the flap and have it measure out properly to both hang from a belt and keep the bag closed. We ended up using heavier leather to get the weight and strength we needed for this bag.

This last one is our biggest bag, ten inches wide at the middle by eleven inches long, and two and a half inches deep. It is easily as big as a large purse, and is made from much heavier leather than the other bags. We got three this size from the hide we bought at the Leather Factory. Two more are in progress.

So there ya have it, our progress so far on the Leather Front. Our goal is to get two of each size made before we mail them out. My fingers are crossed for this week!