BAGS
At the recent village fete, I bought a new cloth bag to replace my old one, which is still serviceable but is a bit floppy and without enough pockets. There was stall selling bags and other fabric items, and this particular bag took my fancy.
I love the sewing themed fabric which forms the pockets on the outside – a large pocket front and back, and smaller ones on the ends for drinks etc. It is padded and quite substantial, and very well made.
The only problem with it was that it has no long handle. I can put the long handle of my old bag around my body for when I’m walking out to the car etc.
Adding a detachable handle
I gave this some considerable thought. Originally I thought of putting eyelets on the sides of the bag, and making a new handle out of something that would co-ordinate with the colours of the bag, and also be strong enough, but I didn’t have anything suitable in my stash. My eyelets are all too small. I looked on Amazon and there were plenty of large eyelet kits for tarpaulins etc., but none of them could guarantee to go through the thickness of the fabric of the bag and I really didn’t want to spend money on something for which I had limited use, and which might ruin the bag in the process.
My house bag
After sleeping on this problem for a couple of days, I remembered about my house bag. I bought this some time ago. It is a marvellous bag with tons of pockets and an additional insert I bought for it. I put all the stuff in it that I need on a daily basis and it goes up and down the stairs with me.
On the sides it has D-rings for a detachable handle, which I have never used as it just gets in the way.
The bag actually came with a choice of two handles – one to match the colour of the bag and the other being more fancy. I had a job finding them as I’d put them away thinking they might come in useful for something one day. Eventually I found them, and was amazed that the plain green one was almost exactly the same shade of green as the handles on the new bag!
I decided to remove the attachments from the sides of the house bag and attach them on the new bag. I unpicked them with no problem, and carefully hand-sewed them onto the new bag as invisibly as I could. I was able to do this without anything showing on the inside, which was a relief.
Here’s a detail of the attachment.
The handle is adjustable which is so convenient, and I can clip it on and off as required.
Problem solved!
