Venturing into bag making, I had not touched this design since 2021 whilst attending university and creating this bag as part of a project. This was the first time I had tried to construct a large bag with little to no knowledge about thicknesses, skiving, reinforcement, linings, chapes, etc.
This is basic, essential knowledge when it comes to creating a bag in the most refined, professinal regard where the highest, meticulous refinement comes into play.
Either way, I was set on my design. I knew I wanted to create a bag for a bottle of wine. Having picked my genre/category to be 'Essentials', I had reviewed some of GQ's videos to find their infamous series; "10 Things (Name) Can’t Live Without".
I found these so called 'Essentials' quite interesting as you wouldn't think that a Candle is an essential, nor would you an Iced Out Audemars Piguet Royal Oak...
I had watched a fair few of these videos and stumbled upon Fat Joe's Essentials.
One of his essentials that stood out to me was his 'Ace of Spades' bottle. This is a very luxurious, expensive Champagne and 75cl Bottles fetch around £300.
Seeing this as one of his essentials sparked some ideas about a carrier for an expensive alcoholic beverage that needed protection when in transport. I wanted something sleek and beautiful that had a heavy emphasis on craftsmanship and high quality materials.
I opted for a Burgundy Vegetable Tanned Leather and light Red Goat Skin Lining with a contrasting cream thread.
Polyester, unfortunately.
After completing this (what I would now called prototype), I knew that lots of aspects needed improvement. The overall techniques for building it could have been a lot better, as could of the preciseness of the pattern making and hardware selection.
I then took it back to the drawing board in mid 2022 as I had more time to revist some older projects that I wanted to improve.
This bag was always in the back of mind whenever I contemplated beginning a bag design. I would then put this off because I would tell myself I should really complete this wine bag before I begin another bag.
So for this updated version, I used a Black Buttero Leather for the exterior, 1mm Bonded Leather for the reinforcement and a Black Goat Skin for the Lining.
This went better, however I didn't skive the edges of the bag, only the edges of the lining. This didn't do me any favours when it came to stitching it as I had to pierce over 4mm of leather which left my hands extremely sore and in pain.
I didn't use an awl (in case you were wondering), as I had punched both sides of the edges to match up exactly. This wouldn't have been an issue if I had skived the edges to 1mm.
But what is a mistake without the lesson?
Regardless of these mistakes and mishaps, I hope you enjoy these photos because the bag turned out wonderful in my humble opinion. It's just the construction that doesn't look great because it wasn't done correctly. I also made a strap for this to be worn across the body. In 25mm, 32mm and 38mm.
The front pocket was original designed for a cork screw but it seems quite large for something as small as a corkscrew.
