Now that I have had my set and feeling better about the pipes, I went and bought some beautiful material for the bag. My wife is an accomplished embroiderist who is confident with the stitch. We do have the following questions:
When making the measurements for the cover should the bag be fully inflated?
Whats the best way to work around the portion of the neck which connects to the Chanter and whats the best way to work around the bellow connecting input of the bag.
Thanks
Yes. Leave enough room for full inflation - you don’t want to hinder it or to tear away the seam.
Work that part just like you would on the sleeve of a shirt - a gentle taper up to the end, then tuck the fabric back into itself and stitch it up. Same way for the bellows pipe.
Well the mission of making a cover for my bag and blow pipe has been accomplished and was successful on the first try. My wife made the cover in about 45 minutes and it looks and fits very nice. It feels a lot better than the vinyl and looks fantastic. I will try to post a pic.
Please do! It must feel good to have something that you can look at and say “My wife made that!”
Now, does she make chanters?
I have 5 children that my wife made 
Slán Agat
Uilliam
Pictures Uilliam, pictures! 
Actually, I don’t see why you’d need to inflate the bag. The surface area won’t get any bigger than it is when deflated, unless it stretches, which it shouldn’t. If the bag is X cm long and Y cm deep deflated giving it a total surface area of Zcm then by my understanding Z will remain constant. Why? Because if X represents the height from top to bottom, as you inflate the bag you will notice that the height decreasesand a new variable is added, W (width). As X decreases, W increases and Y (length) stays pretty much the same.
So if you take X, Y and Z individually and make the cover X + 1 by Y + 1 then you should get a perfectly well-fitting cover.
Still, I may be totally mistaken.
Cheers,
DavidG
bad
It really helped to inflat the bag and get a total circumference measuremnt so that the material of the cover would not give as a result of the bag inflation and pressure.
Its a beautiful bag which matches the Chanter really nice. So two out of three of the goals have bben met:
Now if I can only begin to play it awsomely I’ll be 3/3… 
Patience, Grasshopper, patience. When you can take this tune from my hand… 
Piping is all about patience, allowing the tune to be heard and self control. This does not come in a day or two months. But with dilligence and a strong steadfast will, it does come in time.
Here ye go Joseph 
myrddinemrys wrote.. bad ??? :boggle:care to expand!!
**ausdag..**Ye are right.I can knock covers out in jig time and I’ve never bothered with the scientific formulae for the inflation dimensions.Now that I know it then I can continue what I was doing quite happily secure in the fact that the scientific community is behind me..
Keith,
What material do you propose using? Beware of fabrics which are too smooth as the bag will constantly slip down.
The bag is vinyl so I choose a material with a lining that would grab and hold onto the back…its a tweed-type materal that I used.
i hope you got to help.
I hope you helped her make them,I always help my wife when it comes to making babies!!!
RORY
I’ve nine in me family
And none o’ them is me own
I wished that each and every man
Would come and claim his own
With me right finnik an airy-o
Me tip finnik a wall
With me right finnik an airy-o
We’re tippin’ it up to Nancy
That should be fine. Lots of pipers use velvet covers. You have to be careful with velvet and consider of the direction of the pile (angle of the fibres). Otherwise you end up with a very slippy bag.
P
No velvet here or there or anywhere… 
Kilt – the other bag cover.