alvin’s mini messenger bag

so. i went and got more leather, one of which alvin promptly claimed as his own.

since my husband only owns one bag which he uses everyday (one. bag. i still can’t get over how ridiculous this is and i live with this fact everyday.) and rarely shows interest in bags in general, i cannot, in good conscience, deny him this piece of leather.

he wanted something smaller than his messenger bag, but still big enough to fit an ipad mini, a small notebook and an assortment of things he totes around everyday. the bag took me two sessions to make; i finished the body first then added the straps, pockets and other little things later on.

i also used an old belt buckle to connect the ends of the straps; i couldn’t figure out how to attach it so alvin had to help. he also measured and cut the straps because i realized that that was the part i dislike doing the most, haha!

alvin and his new bag!

front and back

the bag has a pocket!

off to work!

show & tell

i’ve been in love with leather for a while now and have been wanting to try working with it, just to see if i can, because, you know, how hard could it be, right? (oh, how my raw fingertips are laughing!)

i attended a leather cuff crafting workshop a few months ago which came with basic leather tools, and i have been itching to get my hands on some nice leather ever since. i was finally able to go to marikina a couple of weeks ago, where, after rummaging through shelf after shelf piled high with rolled-up leather, i found a couple of interesting ones.

dark and light blue leather from otto in marikina

after days spent poring through various leather crafting video and blog tutorials, i held my breath, crossed my fingers and started cutting.

the dark blue leather became this:

i love this bag’s flap!

dark blue bag details

and the light blue leather turned into this:

front and back

i was stumped for a few days because i didn’t have one long, continuous strip of leather for the strap, then i thought: rings!

front and side details

bag details

there are still a lot of details and little things i want to polish but, all in all, i’m happy with how the two bags turned out. now, i need to go get more leather. 🙂