Make A Brand New Bag

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Down with hook and loop!

I don’t really like hook and loop fasteners.

Cons:

they’re noisy

they acquire lint quickly

they snag on fabrics

Pros:

they’re flat

they’re sewable and easily shaped as desired.

Even so, I recently bought some “omni” hook and loop. This is a strip where alternating rows of hooks and loops are applied, with the loops standing a bit taller than the hooks. Theoretically, fabric won’t so easily snag on the hooks because it would have to push its way past the loops, and by the same token, it’ll catch less lint. So maybe less strong than regular hook and loop, but I thought the benefits of omni outweighed the costs.

It still snagged on the shoelace-like bit of cord I also bought.

All hook and loop is terrible. I’ll have to figure out some other way.

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Zippers - multiple pulls

In zippered bags, the typical design is one or two pulls. With one pull, you know where the zipper is, because it’s at one end if it’s closed and the other if it’s open.

With two pulls in “X configuration” (pulls mounted end to end), the pulls are at each extreme when the zipper is closed and at one end or the other when the zipper is fully open. Or they’re somewhere in the middle if the zipper has opened mid-way. (This is related to how two zipper pulls on separating zippers, as in jackets, work.)

With two pulls in “O configuration” (pulls mounted head to head), the pulls are at each extreme when the zipper is fully open and they’re anywhere in the middle when closed.

A few backpacks like 5.11 and Outlier have pioneered “quad zip” configurations with a long zipper opening the top and the entire sides of the pack, where four pulls are mounted as two X configurations in sequence, with the middle two pulls forming essentially an O configuration in the middle. Thus, the outermost two pulls allow for quick side access to the pack, and are found at the two bottom sides of the pack when closed. Meanwhile, the middle two top pulls allow for top access to the pack and are generally found at the middle/top of the pack.

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Sourcing stuff

Minor lament: it’s relatively easy to make a bag, but to get the fanciest materials and hardware is muuuuuuch harder. I’ve been driving myself crazy looking up all sorts of esoteric places to get plastic hardware, magnetic buckles, fabrics, and even so, there are some things* that simply aren’t sold at retail for DIYers anywhere.

I’ve resigned myself to mostly sourcing things from eBay.

* like:

certain Fidlock fasteners - there are a few places that sell Slider or Snap or V buckles. It’s considerably harder to find a Snap fastener or Push/Pull buckle though.

many plastic hardware pieces (buckles, loops) from Duraflex or Woojin or Nifco or basically any brand name plastic hardware manufacturer.

black retroreflective fabric -- as far as I can tell, right now this is pretty much limited to transfer film sold in wholesale increments, which one would have to iron on to the final fabric.

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Zipper Pulls

I bought a pack of ten zipper pulls from eBay and I’m quite happy with them. They’re a bit of soft rubbery plastic, with a textured grip:

And here’s one of them mounted on the sunglass case I also got from eBay, because the original zipper pull is flimsy and unsatisfactory. I looped it through both holes of the original pull because looping it through just the end hole made for a longer and clumsier pull than I wanted.

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Fabrics - waxed canvas

In casting about for waterproof fabrics for the bag, I also considered waxed canvas. It’s appealing for a few reasons: it’s sturdy, waterproof, looks good, and ages nicely for a legit patina as time goes on. But it’s also relatively heavy and I didn’t want to have to re-wax the bag every year or two.

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Fabrics side note - UHMWPEs

There’s actually a competitor to Dyneema called Spectra. Both are “ultra high molecular weight polyethylene” fibers, both made roughly the same way and both with similar characteristics. But as far as I can tell Spectra (from Honeywell) has made less effort to get into the high performance lightweight fabric world.

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Fabrics

So since I wanted a lighter bag, I thought finding a lightweight fabric would be important. And so I thought about ripstop nylons -- nylon fabric with embedded stronger threads woven in to strengthen the overall fabric and prevent rips from getting larger than the space between reinforcement threads. But they’re not that waterproof. Sure, many of them have DWR (”durable water repellent”) treatments. DWR is “durable” in the sense that it doesn’t evaporate away in a week. And DWR is why water-repellent jackets have water bead off rather than soak into the fabric. That’s not Gore-tex. The Gore-tex, if any, is a layer below the outer layer of hardshell jackets.

But DWR isn’t really permanent. If you have a DWR-treated item long enough, eventually you’ll need to refresh it with an aftermarket spray.

So then I leaned towards laminate composite fabrics. Broadly speaking, these kinds of fabrics are a layer of PET film -- like Mylar -- bonded to something else to make the film other properties more suited to bags. The PET film itself is waterproof. The other layers are there for looks, or to make it more workable (so that the sewing needle doesn’t essentially create perforated lines so it can tear itself apart) or to add strength. With a strong mylar component, these fabrics tend to crinkle and retain permanent folds.

The main competitors in this space are:

1. X-Pac fabrics from Dimension Polyant. (Technically not all X-pac fabrics incorporate a PET film layer, but eh.) Most of these are a PET film, a diagonal X grid of very strong and thick polyester threads, and a face fabric of polyester or nylon, and often with a thin backing fabric as well. The naming scheme is a little complex but usually refers to the features (the X is for the X grid, if any, the V is for a backing fabric, if any, and the number usually refers to the denier of the face fabric. A higher denier fabric is usually heaver and tougher than a lighter one of the same composition.)

2. Dyneema Composite Fabric (DCF) from DSM, formerly known as “Cuben fiber”. Dyneema is a super fiber. Weight for weight it’s even stronger than Kevlar. It’s light enough to float on water. DCF is a thin non-woven grid of Dyneema fibers bonded to a PET film. DCF hybrids are DCF bonded with an additional (usually polyester) woven face fabric for a more traditional look. Regular DCF could theoretically be entirely taped together; hybrid DCF is probably better sewn.

All of these composite laminates are waterproof off the roll, but sewing them is literally puncturing them with needle holes hundreds of times, which means making a truly waterproof bag with them tends to require that their seams are sealed with either a liquid seam sealer or a strong seam tape.

DCF is wildly expensive per yard, while X-Pac is a shade less so. DCF reportedly doesn’t have great abrasion resistance, esp as it as a polyester face fabric. X-Pac usually has a nylon face fabric, but then again the thick X grid tends to focus abrasion at the reinforcement threads and esp at the intersections.

High end bag makers make bags with both DCF hybrid and X-Pac.

So anyways, I guess I’m currently leaning towards X-Pac VX21, esp because I’m leaning towards making the bag unlined for cheapness and for weight savings.

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Flaps

Why do messenger bags even have a flap? It adds a bunch of unnecessary weight to the bag, because covering the top of the bag is maybe 15-20% of the flap’s total surface. The rest is relatively unnecessary to protecting the bag’s inner contents. As best as I can tell, it does allow for quick access because unbuckling it opens the bag up faster than a zipper would. But even when it’s open, it’s awkward dealing with the flap.

I propose instead to make the flap optional. The bag should close with a (water-resistant) zipper and then a flap should attach via a MOLLE/PALS-inspired system, except that the PALS-ish webbing should be rotated 90 degrees along the back of the bag:

The flap will then have a handle attached, for a briefcase-style carry. A separate strap could also be threaded through the flap’s webbing for a flap-less handle.

The flap itself will be shorter than most messenger bag flaps, because the main goal here is just quick access. And it’ll have a Fidlock buckle. The front of the bag will have a single short piece of webbing to snap-attach the other half of the Fidlock buckle, so that all parts of the flap can be removed as necessary.

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Nah. A day later I decided the flap/zipper idea is too complicated. I’m gonna go flapless and dedicate the Fidlocks to flap-opening pockets.

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Buckles

A classic side-release buckle can be operated one-handed, esp in the case of messenger bag flaps where the flap largely guides the buckle. But it’s still not ideal: buckles can pinch, and just fail because over time the side-release action fails when the plastic becomes brittle and snaps.

In the course of research for this bag, I learned about Fidlock magneto-mechanical buckles, which rely on magnets for guiding the closure, but on a mechanical gate for staying closed. They only need a light touch perpendicular to the direction of tension to release, and the magnets almost self-guide the closure when close enough -- they’re much easier to operate than standard classic buckles.

They’re also expensive and relatively hard to source for DIYers. Few retailers sell them at all, and only in one or two sizes, but I was lucky enough to find a hockey equipment store in town that sells Fidlocks for hockey helmet use.

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Flaps

Why do messenger bags even have a flap? It adds a bunch of unnecessary weight to the bag, because covering the top of the bag is maybe 15-20% of the flap’s total surface. The rest is relatively unnecessary to protecting the bag’s inner contents. As best as I can tell, it does allow for quick access because unbuckling it opens the bag up faster than a zipper would. But even when it’s open, it’s awkward dealing with the flap.

I propose instead to make the flap optional. The bag should close with a (water-resistant) zipper and then a flap should attach via a MOLLE/PALS-inspired system, except that the PALS-ish webbing should be rotated 90 degrees along the back of the bag:

The flap will then have a handle attached, for a briefcase-style carry. A separate strap could also be threaded through the flap’s webbing for a flap-less handle.

The flap itself will be shorter than most messenger bag flaps, because the main goal here is just quick access. And it’ll have a Fidlock buckle. The front of the bag will have a single short piece of webbing to snap-attach the other half of the Fidlock buckle, so that all parts of the flap can be removed as necessary.

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Shoulder Straps 2

The swivel hooks from Op/Tech are already much more than I need. They’re metal, and they weigh 40 grams each. I replaced them with plastic swivel hooks from ebay for 4 grams each. These were almost the only hooks I could find on the internet that were

cheap

plastic (for light weight) but have a metal spring rather than rely on plastic spring action

fit 1″ webbing

Next up, glue the swivel hooks in position so they don’t swivel. I wanted quick-attaching hooks in case I wanted to move the strap to another bag; otherwise I could have just looped the strap through a rectangular loop for ultimate light weight.

But swivel (or rotating) hooks are dumb. Most straps with swivel hooks are sold online with the promise that the swivel action reduces twisting. This is nonsense. The swivel action is why the strap gets twisted!

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Shoulder straps 1

The shoulder strap of a messenger bag (or cross-body bag) can become fatiguing. Many shoulder straps have a pad to distribute the weight a little, but it’s still not great.

Tom Bihn actually offers a substantial upgrade in the form of their “Absolute Shoulder Strap”, which uses neoprene not as a shoulder pad but as the middle of the strap. That means that instead of just padding sitting between the strap webbing and the shoulder, the neoprene is a weight-bearing part of the strap. And neoprene stretches. The elastic action theoretically reduces perceived weight.

So I wanted that. And after a bunch of websearching, I found out that the Absolute Shoulder Strap is a rebranded S.O.S. Strap from Op/Tech, albeit with upgraded swivel hooks. And Op/Tech makes three versions of the S.O.S. Strap: the curved version, the regular, and the mini.

So I ordered the Mini S.O.S. Strap. It’s the cheapest of the three and while short, it’s still enough for me to wear the bag cross-body, because I’m not that tall.

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Design goals

Here’s what I like about the bag:

nearly the right size for me

useful pockets inside and out

easy to open

And here’s what’s frustrated me with this bag:

the strap isn’t well padded

the strap isn’t replaceable

the flap adds unnecessary weight

there’s no padding for the iPad.

the bag’s fabric is tough and durable but not as water-resistant as I would like.

keeping the water bottle inside the bag has led to a couple of near-disasters

accessing almost anything, but esp the sunglasses case, is a big hassle of juggling objects.

So I want a new bag that’s vertically oriented but addresses these issues. I’ll detail my thoughts in future posts.

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This is the Tom Bihn Medium Cafe bag and the main things I keep in its main compartment, shown in approximately the order I pack them in:

A sling bag/fanny pack for my wallet, coins, and misc stuff.

a 500 mL water bottle, filled from 25%-100% full depending on how long I think it’ll be before I can fill it again and how much water I think I’ll need till then.

a glasses case

a sunglasses case

Not pictured: miscellaneous stuff (travel size hand sanitizer, pen) or clothing/equipment (hat, scarf, cooling towel, umbrella).

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Towards A Brand New Bag

I used to use a backpack. Then I had a messenger bag. Then, a rolling briefcase, which was optimal for taking a load off, but I did worry about the what the rattling of city sidewalks did to any electronics inside.

Then I was gifted a Tom Bihn Medium Cafe bag, which is basically a messenger bag, but smaller and with a more vertical orientation. It carries basically everything I need, but it’s just not quite ideal for my needs. I’ll post a picture of it next, then discuss what I’d like in a better bag: