Scrap-bin Pouches

“When in doubt, toss it out.” I should adopt that as my cleaning strategy but it won’t work. When I come across stuff I think about tossing, I start wondering how it could be used. As I was cleaning off my workbench from my prior leather projects, I found a bin of a bunch of small pieces of suede and garment leather. I had a plan for them once upon a time. I was almost ready to toss them but decided there had to be some use for the bits and pieces. My level of leather craft can be described as marginals. When things work out, I’m generally amazed.

So what do you do with scrap leather? I went with pouches and bags. Most of the scraps were quite small which limited the scope of the endeavour. A wonderful side effect is if you screw up and it doesn’t work, it was scrap to begin with. Nothing ventured nothing gained.

This simple drawstring model was the first product of the scrap heap. It looks somewhat functional but the leather drawstring fails for a couple of reasons: 1) I didn’t allow enough room on the upper hem for motion and 2) leather on leather doesn’t slide easily. Also, I wondered why I was hand stitching thin leather when I had a sewing machine.

The suede pouch showed up because the simple pouch was so small and I found a larger piece of scrap. Constructed of thicker material, it’d last for a long time but there isn’t anyway it close with a simple drawstring. I still haven’t decided what it would be useful for but its the same simple bag style construction. Just bigger. Perhaps I could add a couple of belt loops and have a much smaller nail pouch for construction work.

This little fellow got downsized due to lack of material but basically addressed the drawstring problem. It’s the same simple design as the prior ones but has a fold over flap. Add a little velcro, and the closure issue is moot. Other than lint or 4-40 screws, nothing is going to escape. Turns out it will hold about 15 dice nicely. If I ever need to pack a few die for quick transport, the pocket pouch would work nicely.

Thinking about dice made me wonder about dice bags. Turns out people love Lyndsay’s Dragon Chow bags because they are ultra functional and stylish at the same time. Who can blame them? I never realized people were so focused on sit flat on the table bags. She nailed usability, form and function.

My scrap variant of the stand-up bag has several issues. The width/height ratio is off. Thin and skinny is not the form factor you want. Adding to the width would make construction much easier. Leather just doesn’t fold like cloth. People also have a fixation on dice escaping. I figure the ones that escape from incomplete closure A) needed to be free and B) did so because I did something idiotic with my dice bag. Who am I to judge?

I’ve determined I will never be a seamstress. I wasn’t planning on it so it hasn’t crushed any wild inspirations. Still, trying to push the limits of what I’m capable of construction has been fun. Not to mention the scrap bin is nearly empty so I accomplished cleaning in a very round about manner.

Tags: Ramblings of Mark