If I remember correctly, this patchwork leather shoulder bag is the first piece of leatherwork I ever made, about six or seven years ago. The wonderful Oh Susanna’s Leather was selling bags of leather scraps at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, and on a whim I bought a few of them. Years later, I have a studio full of leather scraps and I’m still making awesome things. 🙂
I love this bag. As with most of my leather creations, I let the scraps inform the ultimate shape of the piece. Pockets were made where they fit well in the leather.
There are two outside pockets on the front of the bag. The one with a snap perfectly fits my wallet, and the zippered pocket holds a deck of playing cards.
On the edge of the bag is a tall thin pocket that fits my cell phone.
Below we start looking inside the bag. A small snap pocket on the outer rim easily holds things like coins, lip balm, and other small items that otherwise get easily lost.
A leather strap across the width of the bag holds my water bottle upright when it’s set in it. This strap is also flexible enough that when there isn’t a water bottle, it kind of folds to the side so bigger items can still fit inside the bag.
On the inner side is a larger zippered pouch, keeping things like my key ring, small notebooks, and pens separate from the rest of the bag.
The flap is long enough that it still covers the top of the bag, even when it’s bulging with items.
Six or seven years after creating it, I still use this bag regularly. It’s has needed some minor repairs a couple times, as I stitched it with running stitch, instead of the much stronger saddle stitch that I use on all my leatherwork now. I love my leather messenger bag! ~Kell
