Bags, tool rolls, etc made by me

hoovers & sellotape

I....... don’t understand!

Can I have a saddle roll please? Not that fussy about colours, don't mind paying a bit more for cordura if that became an option.

Don’t think, just say yes to the chunky zip so I can make your pouch already!

Ha! Permission to sew :-)

I’m in London this weekend, so if anyone is around central on Sat/Sun (at a push, Mon AM around Victoria) let me know asap if you want me to bring anything for you to look at or buy.

Ideally I don’t wanna be carrying shoulder bags but an extra tool roll/musette/wallets I can squeeze into the bag.

Need to know by the end of today in case I must make it tomorrow. I leave Friday AM, and can’t make anything extra after Thurs lunchtime.

Bumming around central with a friend today and possibly tomorrow too, wearing the hip bag if anyone wants to see one for real. Free for a chat over coffee too. Gonna hit the galleries around W1.

Belated thanks for my tool roll - looks great in red and paddling pool black. very quick turn around, too.

will post post pics after i'v cleaned my bike.

Thanks @ChasnotRobert !

Passed by the London Graphic Centre today, checked IRL the quality of Freitag and the price, if/when I go ‘proper’ business I think I should be within my right to inflate prices!

Yes, I think so.

Choose a nice, slightly abstract name, get some cool little labels to sew in, put prices up by 60%.

Maybe offer free UK postage after the 60% price increase as people don't like paying for postage these days. That's consumer logic for you...

Make it worth your while to do is the main thing. Work out all your £ and time overheads and then price accordingly. I think it’s always tempting to try and keep unit price low to not put off customers, but if that’s not sustainable then it’s not worth doing unless as a pet project.
I’m sure you know all this, but it’s something I constantly have to remind myself about :-)

@ChasnotRobert Yea there’s the name I’m using on the insta, which is fine, and I have started sewing in name labels. It’s not in every item yet (will explain another time), but some are going out with the name labels now. The labels are actually clothes name labels left over from school 20 years ago, which has been kinda funny for me to use. I’ll likely continue with them.

@AlexD yea for sure. At the moment, especially for all the lfgss crew, I’m really doing everything at cost, because you guys are my test pilots.

We’re now reaching the end of a whole year since I started this project, but 6-8 months of time actually spent on it due to personal life stuff. Within 6 months (my ‘full year’) I aim to have a solid business model if this is an actually sustainable project. I should know by the summer. If it’s working and an online sales platform/VAT/business registration etc happens, the price will certainly reflect that.

Well it sounds like you’re much more on it than me. A while back I was doing some on-going work for a small publishing firm. They were lovely to work with and because they were small, I felt like it was fine to be taking a pretty low day-rate. After a while I figured out that yes, they were a small company, but I was smaller so if anyone should be expecting charity in that relationship it was me :-)

There’s an incredibly fine line, but yes if you undervalue yourself from the start you will never be able to up your prices, but overvalue and you’ll fail to get business of any kind.

I’ve had the ‘value’ arguments a number of times back during my photography degrees, and it killed the passion. I’m glad nobody can expect a bag/pouch/whatever in return for ‘exposure’ or for looking good in my ‘portfolio’. That nonsense was right next to mates-rates on the bullshit scale of how to kill an independent.

Recently I’ve been faced with the mates-rates issue more than anything, and certainly there are two schools of thought - you’re a mate so you get a bargain/free, you’re a mate so you should pay greater than the asking price to show your support. Normally the wrong school applies to the person.

I think ‘mates rates’ or whatever is only really fair when there’s some sort of reciprocation. My sister in law has a vintage clothing business and shop. I do design work for her without charging and she gives pretty much unlimited free clothes to..... my wife.

I’ve just seen the flaw in that arrangement :-)

Got an image of a malnourished designer sitting naked behind a mac, and his mrs stood behind looking in the mirror like a child pretending to be michelin man from all the extra layers of clothes. Draw it, make it happen.

I’ll just take a photo next time I’m working - that’s basically 100% accurate.

“NSFW bags for sale and naked forumer pics thread”

Received my second item made by @pdlouche, top quality and a great chap.

Well worth buying if you are after a new bag/tool roll etc etc.

Been really busy helping family this last week, and also insulating and rearranging the shed-workshop a lot. Just about making again.

Making the most of the sun while it’s out. Pretty much nailed the basic seatbelt pouch, shown here as a modular on the seatbelt starp on the hip pack. This one is a little shallower than normal. Convenient to access while cycling, and secured with a prym snap fastener.

Hip bag fits a lot and is a flat design, rather than my older version that is somewhat spacious. This is a real modular setup.

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Just a general bump to point out that makers like @pdlouche are the true heroes of this forum.

#unconditionallovefortheforum

Hey all.

So a big sorry to people who reached out the past six months - it’s been one health problem after another. As far as I know nobody is out of pocket (except me!!) as I took no deposits for bags or anything. I posted on the workshop in progress thread that my health has been bad, and though it’s not improving I am managing it!

Anyway, I’m making again now, slowly. A couple weeks ago I got a compound feed machine so heavier duty and more difficult stuff is possible. I’ll be doing the hip bags, tool rolls, jersey pouches etc etc.

Gonna go through the materials I have and see what’s possible. Hopefully over the next week I’ll have some pieces on here for sale, and update as I make and have each available.

Next for sale will be one of the foldover hip/shoulder bags, in black with black webbing. Then another in black with neon yellow webbing.

Updates to come...

If you ever feel like making a framebag. Hit me up!

All best with health and bags and all things!

It's not easy trying to be creative when you have health problems. Take it easy and use the time for working on designs. :)
All the best!