Musettes of a different sort

Hey there,

I’m part of a small group running a project to help raise awareness of minorities in cycling, and help people remember the incredible global presence the bicycle has.

We’re currently making a small run of waxed cotton musettes with eye-catching prints from African and Latin American communities, with the idea of sharing cultures and starting conversations around our love of cycling.

We have folks with heritage from Ghana, South Africa, West Indies, Central America, North East Africa, and a few other places that escape me currently, and all proceeds are being put into our other community-building and volunteer projects in South London. We tried registering as a charity last year, but in-fighting around our constitution nearly broke the group apart, so sadly we’re not currently a formal charity. Our other projects include a weekly warm spaces meet-up club, an award-winning community vegetable garden, a sewing group, and hopefully soon a dr bike-type setup near Brixton and Camberwell.

Here’s what we currently have on offer ready to ship. You’ll notice there’s a few different sewing styles, and that’s because we’ve been using different machines (we started with a 1952 Singer that only does straight stitches, so the inside folds had to be different to ones made with a commercial overlocker). Tonight is the first time we’re advertising them, so we’re thinking £10 special LFGSS price. If the price is completely off please chime in (preferably politely, please :) ).

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Here’s what I mean by the different sewing techniques on the inside hem. The top bag was made with only a straight stitch machine, so the strap had to be folded into the hem on each side of the bag, which was then ironed and folded again to hide the edges inside the fold, and straight stitched closed. Then a box stitch was added to reinforce the attachment point of the strap. The thread ends were then threaded into the fold by hand with a needle, tied securely, and hidden inside the fold.

The bottom bag was made with an over locker machine, which makes those nice loops to keep the fabric from fraying. A straight stitch is added just inside the overlocked bit to hold the sides together.

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Love a musette so am interested, especially as you guys are close to me down south.
Can you give me some photos of the designs separately and I’ll let you know which ones I’m liking.
Thanks

Hi, yes, I’ll get my partner who’s more tech savvy than me to tidy this up and put clear pics on tomorrow. Thanks for your interest!

No worries, thanks for the quick response

Great idea . Having charity status makes you vat registered and you can claim it back plus gift aid and apply to places like amazon smile the mayors fund national lottery etc so its worth pursuing. Look at the charity commission

Ethiopian or Brazilian bag please.

Sadly charitable status offers very few VAT concessions - many charities end up carrying the full VAT burden as if they were the end consumer. It’s good as a way of becoming eligible for funding, and Gift Aid of course, but many groups work fine without it, enjoying greater freedom.

Sorry couple of questions, are these the choices of fabric or the ones for sale?
Could you do custom sizes?

Hey folks,

Here’s some of the designs and sizes. We do have other patterns and designs, and I’m hoping to get pics of them tomorrow.

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Hey these are lovely. Let me know how I can buy number 1 and number 3 please

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Hi Cornelius, here’s the designs. Let me know which you’re liking. Thanks :)

Hey OldSlowJoe, thank you! Yes I’ll send you details via message :)

Hi Pacef8. Thank you. We’ll look into the charity commission. We have both an Ethiopian and Brazilian pattern but I don’t have pics, so I’ll let you know asap when I’ve posted them if that works for you? :)

I will take a dibs on this one please!

https://lfgss.microcosm.app/api/v1/files/a3b27c45aa5552457c22273144e643fffe3bc66e.jpeg

Hi GoatandTricycle,

These are the bags we currently have pics of and are ready to ship/collect. I’m hoping to meet my partners tomorrow and get pics of the rest of the bags we have. We can definitely make custom sizes and shapes with the fabric patterns we have: for example we made a couple of bags with inner lining (a bit heavier than these bags, which weigh approx. 30g!) for some external partners. For custom orders drop me a line with what you’d like and I’ll reply asap :)

Hi Fly,

Will reply to your private message now, but for full disclosure there’s two of that bag, which is good for everyone because OldSlowJoe was quick on the draw and sent a message last night. :)

hello. these are rather splendid!

i'd like either of the top two from this post https://www.lfgss.com/comments/16778818/ if still available?

thanks!

Apologies if thread de-rail but I'm working with a few charity founders at the moment and most have registered with Companies House as a Community Interest Company - a type of social enterprise setup to support a specific community/group - to get going with the longer-term view of gaining charitable status (and sorry if you're already aware/have done this).

This means you don't have to go through a lot of the governance the Charity Commission requires. Does affect limit some types of funding available from grants/trusts/foundations. It also means if things don't work out it's easier to dissolve than a charity so allows for being a bit braver.

Also - the musettes are awesome!

Hi Bigshape! Thanks! :)

Sure thing, I’ll send you a PM, thanks!

Hi Dsalmon! That’s interesting I will mention it to my partners because we would like the formality and possibilities of having charitable status but we have some group dynamics to figure out. A community interest company sounds like it could be a good fit.
Thanks, and also thanks! :)

Morning can i grab one of these please?

https://lfgss.microcosm.app/api/v1/files/fddd2c0df133dcf7922d03568d3ef7803c6af00e.jpeg

I'd love one of the first one or similar in this post please.

I'd like one or both of these two if still available, please ! Slight preference for the first one but they're both great.

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Let me know when you have the Ethiopian please.