The Long-Awaited Handbag

Quite some time ago, I said that I would make Annette a good sturdy leather bag to replace all her store-bought bags that had a distressing tendency to fall to bits after a year or two of use.

After literally years of procrastination, this is that bag.

It may have taken a while to get here, but it should last longer than either of us, and it's of a size that will make a useful work bag as well as a lollygagging-about bag.

It has a simple two-part buckled shoulder strap, not shown in this photo because it just gets in the way of the viewer's appropriately awed appreciation of its majesty. At the moment it's just a single gaping cavity, but I'll probably do something about making some modular removable pockets for its innards, for phones and what-not. However, as of this moment it's a usable bag, for the carrying of Needful Things.

Stitching Pony

After many, many years of swearing and complaining about saddle-stitching, I finally got my arse into gear and made myself a stitching pony.

It is clamped by means of a simple bolt, with the head anchored inside a big wooden knob at one end, and the nut in a socket in the opposing arm. The jaws are faced with leather (flesh side out), both for added grip, and to make sure that the piece I'm stitching isn't marked. The pony itself is made out of a kwila fence slat, and the base is just a bit of plywood I had lying around.