I asked my son to pick out a style of men’s cross-body bags from several pictures I had saved. He picked this one:
I made some changes, since that overlap at the sides was going to be extra layers to sew through and I knew my machine would not like it. I boxed the quarters instead. I also added a pocket to the back that would face the body to have the items you don’t want to get pick pocketed. Otherwise, I kept it mostly the same and just made up my own measurements.
This is a mix of machine sewing and hand sewing. It is really hard to line it, too, based on how you need to put it together.
These are the majority of the pieces. Not all of the tabs are included.
For the process on this one, I did the back, then the front, then the middle and put all of them together.
This is how the first one turned out:
That was the protype, and it took many days. The second one took less time. Part of it was the leather was thinner so my machine didn’t act up as much. I was able to get through it easier.
This is the one I wanted to make for my son with the deerskin.
Now I think I got everyone made something with the leather from my grandpa or my grandpa’s brothers. I might get some requests from more extended family, and will deal with that when it comes to it, but there really isn’t a lot that is useable left. I may make something with the stained leather that looks more “lived in”, but we will see if I can figure out how to make it still look nice. In the meantime, I have several other things I would like to focus on first.
