Remember that gorgeous roll bag our very own Annie made for Joannie Madden…it was really beautiful, but, well, pretty and girly…I asked Annie to make me a manly man case out of leather minimally based on a black nylon roll case with chamois lined interior for chisels from the Duluth Trading Company (tools) catalogue.
I received the bag yesterday and can’t believe the amount of thought and effort that went into this unbelievably gorgeous (yet manly) bag. The green leather is just the right color, very supple and expertly sewn with finished edges all about. The carry attachments are better than I’ve ever seen in luggage shops - both for hand and shoulder carry, each amply padded. The outside is adorned with a beautiful large Celtic knot in black and gold. The inside has twelve slots to house low G through high E whistles, with a pull down cover, all padded in cotton and faced with chamois rimmed with a cotton border. Whistles very securely held and protected for travel.
Now, I think my bag is better than Joannie’s, but my wife noted that she might play a tad better than me. So I’ve asked Annie to make me a magic roll, one that will embue the stored whistles with enough magic to compensate for that very slight difference between Joannie’s playing and mine.
Okay, so you say why is such a manly man agog over a chamois lined roll bag…leave me alone…it’s beautiful, that’s all…
Thanks, Phil! I’m so glad you are pleased with it.
Here are some photos of his Custom Leather Roll
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I’ve got one other leather roll in the works.
(Oh, and Phil,… my minions are in the lab working on that magic formula as we speak. Let me know when the check for that hits the mail, Muuuwwwwwwwwwwwhahahaaaaaaa) (no, Joanie, of course I’m not doing anything of the sort… nooo… )
That is really lovely. It seems like it would have been hard to put that binding on the edges. I guess you had to cut the strips too. Can you use pins with leather? It seems like they would make permanent holes. How do you hold the pieces of leather together while you’re sewing? It looks so neatly done.
And then is it black piping between the chamois and cotton? I can’t quite make out. Good heavens. I can’t even imagine doing this at all.
Nope, pinning isn’t an option with leather. (where’s that ‘tearing my hair out’ emoticon??) "How do you hold the pieces of leather together while you’re sewing? " Pinching with fingers, hand driving the machine at times, and a combination of prayer/expletive usage. I had to get all the details figured out before I could actually touch the leather, as if you make a mistake… the holes are permanent. I may not do too many leather ones!
You know, I wondered if it could look like that. But definitely not. I have made various things in my life, not always with such nice results, and I’m always interested in how people solve the problems. I have worked with leather just a bit in other ways and I’ve also sewn a bit, so my first thought was “How does she hold those pieces together?”. I hadn’t even thought about the not being able to undo mistakes. What a nightmare. That kind of stress I would not need! Anyone who made that is a very talented seamstress indeed.
