Rear Bag

[BillyNg]

Very unexciting to most, but as my first ever sewing project beyond basic clothing repair for my family, I built a rear bag tonight and am quite proud of it. Filled it up with a bunch of blue aquarium gravel I had in the house. It isn't much, but it came out far better than I ever expected it to. 4" x 6". Material is called duck cotton (a heavy canvas cotton). Wanted Cordura, but my local fabric supply had no idea what that was.

 

[want2learn]

that looks perfect....truly really nice, i'm so impressed.

unfortunately i never took the time to learn how to use a sewing machine. I might have to check out the local thrift store, sounds like a cool project to learn on. Doubt it'll look as nice as yours however.

 

[CaptNemo]

Nice first article
Amazon is a decent source for cordura nylon and I’ve been using plastic beads intended for filling dolls at Hobby Lobby

 

[acudaowner]

I liked that you added a zipper rather than just a closed bag you can either remove or add in the future if you want to is a nice touch . A great diy project .

 

[Romeo458]

That's a lot nicer than my sock full of airsoft bb's.

 

[BillyNg]

Wow, thank you all for the nice words. As far as learning to sew, I took an old t-shirt that was done-for, and started playing. Youtube was a great help for things like zippers and what different thread is for. The Jason of All Trades has a good channel for sewing guy stuff: https://www.youtube.com/user/thejasonofalltrades

And as far as the zipper goes, this is my first rear bag. So I wasn't sure how much to fill it. The zipper was as must.

Thanks again all.

 

[Bluewater132]

Looks great! I learned in middle school and then again through Youtube. It's a great skill that helps when you have kids.

 

[CaptNemo]

I have been using the sewing machine that my mother bought before I was born.

Fill material - I chose it for availability - I’m open to suggestions

A few of the bags I’ve made

Old BDU pants, old jeans, etc. are good sources for cheap material as well.

 

[sam4886]

I had my wife make me one as well. 3x5x7, I think, filled with air soft beads. I really enjoy the 3 options for height. The beads work well. But I've been thinking about getting some of the get lite fill and see how that goes.

 

[simpletoms]

I've gone round and round trying to make the perfect bag. The weighted poly beads are the best I've found for density and form.
These are a smaller version I've made, it's about 2.5" tall x 4" wide and 8" long, but can be varied a bit in volume.

And for those of you rolling your own, nice work. While I have too many hobbies, I seem to make the time to work on my own gear. I started with a $40 kenmore about 5 years ago...

 

[BillyNg]

I had my wife make me one as well. 3x5x7, I think, filled with air soft beads. I really enjoy the 3 options for height. The beads work well. But I've been thinking about getting some of the get lite fill and see how that goes.

Thank you for the idea. I thought the 3 size bag was better than my cylinder, so I built one. I thinks it's a little big, so am going to build one that's 2x4x6.