Tote Bag to Messenger Conversion

My buddy went to a SolidWorks conference last fall and got a tote bag. He was going to throw it out and it was made of halfway decent rubberized nylon material. I was looking for a small messenger to use around campus and don't have the dough for a Timbuk2 Classic Messenger Small or the like. So I took the tote and made it into a small messenger style bag. It's functional now, and I'll probably add some features as I go.

If you click through the pictures in the set I've added some notes to the images when you scroll over the various features.

Here's how to go about making your own (or at least how i did it):

1) Slice off the top of the bag with a rotary cutter/scissors.

2) Using a seam ripper undo all the seams in the upper portion you just chopped off. These two rectangles become the flap.

3) Sew the two rectangles from the upper portion together. Then sew them to the back of the bag bottom.

4) Sew the two tote handles together, overlapping about 3" in the center to create a nice long shoulder strap.

5) Cut about a 4" piece of the strap off and loop it through a tri-glide to allow for adjusting the shoulder strap length. This is the only bought piece and costs about $0.40. www.rei.com/online/store/ProductDisplay? storeId=8000&...

6) Sew one end of the strap to the bag on the side of your non-dominant hand. Sew the 4" piece looped through the center section of the tri-glide to the bag on the side of your dominant hand. This makes strap adjustments easier.

6 photos | 15,852 views

items are from 06 Nov 2006.