So, I'm quite thrilled with myself, because I made a weapon bag today. I needed something to put my bokken (wooden practice sword)in. I've been taking it to aikido at Clemente, which means carrying a wooden sword on the train and the bus. I needed the bag to have a shoulder strap so I could sling it over my shoulder. I carry a lot of stuff on Tuesdays...my backpack (on my back), a gym bag with my aikido gi in it, and now...my nifty new weapon bag on my shoulder.
I bought some blue heavy duty canvas like material. I also bought blue ?belting? material. It's like the stuff used to make the straps on your suitcase? I think it's called belting. Two plastic D rings. And Velcro.
I had no pattern.
I looked at a different bag to get the basic idea. I managed to cut the fabric ( I actually made measurements and everything--just like I knew what I was doing). I adjusted the length considering the fact that I will also need to buy a jo (wooden staff) at some point and I think the jo would be longer than the bokken. I want to be able to use the bag with both weapons, so I made it a little longer.
To close it, you just fold the top down and let the little strips of velcro I sewed onto the bag take hold.
I am thrilled. This is my first project sans pattern, and it worked.
It's not perfect mind you. I think it's still a little too long, so I'm considering folding it again, perhaps affixing another two strips of velcro to hold it in place, but it is definitely a weapons bag.
The biggest deal for me, was sewing little loops of the belting material around each of the D rings, then sandwiching the loops between the edge of the bag, then sewing up the edges. The canvas (folded over once on the edges) plus the belting material was very thick. I was afraid I was going to break the needle on the sewing machine (which would really have thrown me, since I don't know how to change the needle). I guess I should learn how to do that. I guess I should also learn if there's a special foot to use for thicker fabrics.
Anyway, I'm thrilled that I created that in a couple of hours.
