Evolution of a bag

In my previous post I said I'll show you guys how this shoulder bag came about and I spent this morning going through my archives and it's been quite a journey. First of all, I couldn't find most of my pics taken in 2007 and 2008. I have changed computers several times and I guess some things got lost. Second of all, I wished I had made more of an effort to take photos of every bag I had made. Even this year alone, I know I let a few bags get sold without any photographs. Some days I just forgot and then it's too late. Third of all, my photo taking skills really improved over the years! Anyway, I went as far back as I could dig out - mostly from 2009 onwards. I hope you'll enjoy this little reminiscing.

 

This crane bag more or less started it. Before this bag there were possibly a couple of other similar ones but I couldn't find the pics. So let's start with this one. This crane bag got me thinking if it were possible for me to make one basic sloper (block) and make different variations of the bag from it. When I was learning dressmaking many many years ago, that was what I was taught. You make a sloper and you go from there.

This is my earliest documented variation. I could only find one blurry photo! I made the shoulder straps thinner and sculpted the body a little. I felt the crane bag had a clumsy body. I want to say I was most pleased with this version and made a few more but I don't have the photos to show you.

My next attempt was not so good. I made the bottom boxy and I made the body shorter. The result speaks for itself. The proportion is the problem.

I much prefer the longish look so I went back to it and I kept the boxy bottom. Many customers told me the bag was too long. Sigh. I made a few of this version and I did make the bag shorter.

Like these two. Yep. Shorter was better. But I got bored. I modified the body over and over, sometimes curvy, sometimes more boxy. Below you can see a small sample of the variations. I used one ring to solve the issue of customers of varying heights buying my bags. And that's how the one-ring wonders were born. Nowadays I still fiddle with the one-ring wonders body.

After my one-ring wonder spin-off, I wanted to go back to the less curvy version of the bag.

This was the result. I made a few of these in varying bottoms and sizes such as these below.

End of 2012 I wanted to make smaller versions of this bag. I drafted the pattern but never got round to making the bag until April this year.

This is the first version of the new and improved sloper. You can't really tell how small this bag is but it's only big enough for your essentials. I wasn't sure if anyone would buy this bag due to its size but it did sell.

Anyway, this got me thinking about the old sloper again and I made 2 more for old times' sake.

But I really wanted to work on the new sloper again and came up with these variations.

This is my final version.

I'm very pleased with this version and I'll stick with it for a while. This bag can be a shoulder bag or a crossbody bag. It's just a matter of changing the length of the strap. I hope you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane. Oh, while writing this post, I decided I will make another version of this sloper (so soon!) but this time with zipper. I will try and work on it in September. I can't wait!

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