Trying to think of a tagline for this blog, I really wanted to say "Where art meets, science, technology, maths and engineering." In short "where art meets STEM," but not everyone knows what STEM stands for, so I went with science as it seemed to best capture what I was trying to say. After all, maths is the language of science, the shorthand by which we can describe the world, and of course, technology and engineering are the application of science.
Today's make was inspired by technology (and a confirmed order). We like those!
The brief was for a laptop bag that could be worn across the body, like a messenger bag, to fit a fifteen inch laptop, with a pocket for the power supply. Colours and design were up to me.
In the craft cave there was some lovely black denim, nice and hardwearing for a bag that might see a lot of travel. There was also some printed cotton. The pattern is somewhere between a Monet painting and the deep space photos from the Hubble telescope. But what to use for padding? Quilt batting didn't seem to offer enough protection, even with several layers stacked up. I looked around. By the door of the craft cave was the bag of shame. A bag of oddments that had been waiting to go to the charity shop for at least six months. Eureka!
During the Christmas frenzy of 2016, it became apparent that the somewhat gauzy, but very sparkly tablecloth, made specially for the festive feast, wasn't going to offer the table much protection from hot plates and bowls. Cue a trip to the fabric store in search of heatproof matting to put underneath the cloth. In my haste, I didn't do anything useful like measure the table and being so close to Christmas the saleswoman was in up-selling mode. I left with enough heatproofing for two tables.
I must have been very late to the (heat mat) party, because even on the local Freecycle site there were no takers and eventually, during the big spring clean of 2018, the extra mat was put aside with a few other bits and bobs, destined for one of the many charity shops in town.
The mat has a polyester felt backing, with a PVC embossed top. It's around 2.5mm thick and is dense enough to afford a reasonable amount of protection, but easy to cut with a pair of scissors. You can buy a similar product with a leather look top, but I was drawn to the octagon tiled effect of this brand. A similar product can be found here.
The bag is based on a fairly standard tote design. A rectangle of denim for the front, base and back was quilted with a layer of Decovil for structure and heatmat for protection. The lining fabric was quilted with just heatmat. A large zip pocket at the back provides a safe place for a phone, purse, keys, or a power supply cable.
I usually like to use zip closures but the owner of the bag will be cycling around in all weathers, so it seemed a good idea to have a fold over flap for extra weather proofing. Side release clasps seemed to provide the best combination of security and ease of use, so two 25mm clasps were added to the flap, using some of the lining fabric for a dash of colour.
A divider was added by quilting a piece of heatmat between some lining fabric. The divider was sewn in place between the front and back lining fabric. Then the whole lining assembly was dropped into the bag and topstitched together around the top edge.
An inkle band was backed with a strip of the denim to form the strap. A cushion, padded with more of the heat mat, was added for extra comfort.
Hopefully the owner will love the bag as much as I do. I really like the vertical stripes created by the quilting. I think they make it look very smart. Just right for the young woman about town. The Monet/Hubble fabric gives it a pop of colour and a playful edge. All in all I'm pleased with the design.
It was hard to let this one go, but I think I can improve on it. Having the zip pocket at the back is a nice safety feature if you use it to hold your purse and phone, but it might not be very comfortable with the charger stored in there. So maybe moving the charger pocket to the front, under the flap, or inside the bag would make for a more comfortable design.
What do you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment