Tom's Bag

ctmidd
Jan 30, 2020
5 min read

I have followed an artist called Tom Mead for years, I saw his work first a long time ago in Bristol but couldn't afford a piece. Last year when I had a new job and was earning better wages I decided to treat myself to a piece of his work. I bought a print of his and a few weeks later I commissioned a piece, a creepy sea witch mermaid thing in fact, and I adore it. During the time it took him to do the drawing we chatted on twitter and I became more and more transfixed by his avatar, a jagged toothed, hollow eyed cat type creature. Over time I designed a bag in my mind, I could not get it out of my head, I had to make it.

I knew what I wanted to do, I knew exactly the kind of leather I wanted to use but it took me so long to find. I finally bought a pair of leather trousers from a vintage shop in Birmingham. They were black, looked slightly tatty with a sort of blue/grey effect on the surface. I sourced some gunmetal colour fittings, mostly from Ebay, I got out a red leather coat I had used for a previous project and a piece of white leather that I got in a mixed bag of bits. I ordered some waxed linen thread for the main seams, cotton fabric for lining and some webbing for a strap.

I drew a few versions of the bag and showed those to my friend who picked her favourite shape, she chose the same one as me, so that was good.

I drew up a pattern for the bag and front flap, moving the pattern pieces around on the trousers I decided what seams to unpick and which to leave. I then cut out the largest pieces for the main bag and the flap, I then unpicked the pockets and put those to one side. I cut pieces of red leather to trim the edges of the flap and stitched those round the edge with red thread. I used sheet glue to stick canvas onto the back of the flap to stiffen it but also prevent stretching. I blew up the avatar and traced it onto the back of the white leather. I cut out the teeth, the holes for the eyes and the larger black areas. I stuck the white leather to the bag flap and stitched it into place by hand with white thread. I added the top of the bag part way through as the ear folds over onto the top. When I had finished stitching the white I swapped to a thicker black thread and started putting in the detail. It took a long time to add all the black marks to bring the creature to life. I took some progress pictures as each section took an age. I used a fine black suede to line the flap, I cut a piece big enough and stiffened it with canvas. I then turned the red under and used contact glue to secure it. I added half of a magnetic clasp under one corner of the flap lining. I made a tab from leather and stitched that onto the flap, then stuck the lining in place with contact glue and stitched around the edge in red thread.

After I finished the detail work on the flap I moved onto the main bag. I backed all the sections with canvas and decided where to place the pockets that I had taken off and set aside. I put one on the back and one under the flap, I used the red thread to stitch them in place using the existing holes. There were a few lines of holes left over from where I had taken off the pockets and unpicked the fly. I decided to just stitch these in the red thread to create a random feature.

I often stitch my bags with the edges of the leather showing, for this bag I decided to have the edges on the inside. I used the waxed linen thread to stitch the back to the sides, then hammered the seam to make the leather sit at a right angle. On the front section I added the other half of the magnetic clasp and stuck a small piece of leather over the back of it so it wouldn't rub the lining too much.

I had thought for a long time what to use for a clasp, I wanted something weird or unusual but I just didn't know what. Then I remembered I had bought some wild boar teeth at a LARP event (I don't LARP, I just like the shops). One of the teeth was pleasingly curved with a pointed end and I thought it might look cool. I know Tom is partial to bones and skulls. I had to drill a hole through the tooth, I used my Dremel, it took a while to get through it, and it smelt awful, but I managed not to make a mess of it. I cut a slot in the tab I had stitched in the flap. I cut a small piece of leather to make a piece to poke through the tab and the tooth could stick through that to make a clasp. I plaited some of my thick thread and put that through the tooth and stitched that to the back of the poke through piece before stitching that in place. Its hard to explain, I'm self taught so I don't know technical words for things.

I stitched the front to the sides and hammered the seams again, and stitched a piece of plastic base mesh into the bottom for stability.

I made two tabs of leather and used those to stitch two D rings to the sides of the bag for the strap to clip to. I stitched one end of the strapping to the gunmetal slider, threaded it through the clip, back through the slider and stitched another clip to the other end.

The fabric I got for the lining was a black and white stripe, the stripes were different widths like bar-codes. I wanted to make a padded section in the back for a tablet. so I cut out sections of the fabric and backed it all with sheet glue and cotton sheeting. I used quilt wadding in the back sections and stitched diagonal lines to create a diamond quilt pattern. I have vertigo that pops up now and again, sewing diamonds into striped fabric made me horribly dizzy, I had to leave it for a few days until my balance returned. I added a small magnetic clasp at the top of the quilted pocket, I fitted that into leather and stitched the leather in place. I made two smaller pockets on the front piece of lining, one big enough for a phone and one a little larger. Then I stitched all the pieces of lining together.

I stitched the top of the bag to the back, then I stitched the lining of the top to the main bag lining. Then I pushed the lining inside the bag and stitched around the top edge. I hammered the last seams to make them bend the right way and it was finished.

I think this is one of the best things I have ever made, I'm very proud of it.