Welcome back! You'll find below the required materials for making the messenger bag I showed you yesterday.


You'll need some thick cotton, upholstery fabric, twill, cord, whatever you fancy really for the outside. If you'd like to use thinner fabric or quilting cotton you'll need to stabilise it well to give it some substance. Seeing as this tutorial calls for stabiliser you can get away with thinner fabric.

Outer fabric - 1.5m (1 5/8yds)
Stabiliser such as fusible fleece - 1m (1 1/4yds)
Lining fabric - 1m (1 1/4yds)
Lightweight interfacing - 0.25m (1/4yd)
Piping (optional) - 3.25m ( 3 1/2yds)

2 x 8" co-ordinating zips
2 x Magnetic snaps (or 1 and a piece of velcro if you're making the back pocket for a tablet PC)
1.5" adjustable strap set - Available here
(You can easily use a different size strap kit, I'll show you how to adjust this when we come to it)



Keyring clip (optional) and short length of ribbon

You'll also need to print out the pattern pieces from here: Just another messenger bag
There are no pattern pieces for Pieces D, E, F, G & H, the measurements for which are below.
The pattern pieces are on A4 paper, I think US paper is smaller so you may need to print them at 95%.

It doesn't really matter fully if they're a slightly different size to mine as long as they're all in proportion to each other.

Cutting out

A - Main Body -                          Cut 2 outer
                                                     Cut 2 lining
                                                     Cut 2 stabiliser

B - Flap -                                      Cut 1 outer
                                                     Cut 1 lining
                                                     Cut 1 stabiliser

C - Back pocket -                         Cut 1 outer
                                                     Cut 1 lining
                                                     Cut 1 stabiliser
Optional padding for tablet PC - Cut 1 batting

D - Gusset                                   Cut 1 outer
13cm x 47cm                              Cut 1 lining
(5 1/4" x 18 1/2")                        Cut 1 stabiliser

E - Zip pockets                            Cut 4 lining
26cm x 20cm                               Cut 4 lightweight interfacing
(10 1/4" x 8")

F - Patch pockets                         Cut 1 lining
26cm x 26cm
(10 1/4" x 10 1/4")

G - Short Strap piece                    Cut 1 outer
(Based on 1.5" strap kit)
15cm x 25cm
(6" x 10")

H - Long strap piece                    Cut 1 outer
(Based on 1.5" strap kit)
15cm x 152cm or width of your fabric
(6" x 60")


I went through and fused the interfacing and stabiliser where necessary onto the wrong sides. As I'm using particularly fray-able fabric I serged the edges before I began sewing.

We'll start on the strap tomorrow.