I am sure some of you had seen my teasing of a pair of Hedeby bag handles on Instagram back in May.
I had received them from Champagne Faire as part of my Medieval ReCreationist Box last year and just never got to doing anything with them. I pulled them out when I was reorganizing my supplies and decided I should make the bag as most outfits are on hold.
I started with some quick research to see if anyone had a good method. While most people who had made one did a decent write-up, I couldn’t find a tutorial with a step-by-step. So I decided to just wing it.
I wanted the bag to have space and not just be two pieces slapped together. So I had to do some maths.
As you can see I quickly overcomplicated it. Armed with some “should work measurements” I decided to just make a mockup. I hoped I would be able to sort out the shortcomings if I was able to see it in 3d.
Spoiler. I had to re-cut things several times and sew it wrong twice before my mind was able to wrap around it. I had again made it more complex than I needed.
Basically, I needed 2 4.5X 8.5 pieces 2 8.5×2, and one 4.5×2 piece. From there The bottom piece got sewn to the front and back. The sides then filled the gap between the front and back. I made the lining out of some green cotton scrap and the outer shell out of some gray linen.
For decoration, I toyed with some embroidery and then applique. I was a bit hesitant to embroider straight on the linen in case it warped as I had a very limited seam allowance to play with. I ended up putting the whole bag together before I could decide what I wanted and ended up doing nothing.
The next step was to attach the handles to the bag. I had to ponder this for a bit as I wanted something strong enough to hold the weight of anything I would put in the bag but not look messy. I wasn’t able to use fabric tags like others I have seen. So I settled for using some perler cotton and stitching it until it felt secure.
The strap for the bag was the last bit I needed. For that, I had made some cord prior that I hadn’t found a use for. Doubled up it was the perfect length. I may go back and secure the two strands together but for now, I was able to mark it as done!
Overall I am happy with it. I may go back and jazz it up but for now, with my simple garb, it fits. I want to make a larger one as well as having something a little more period to carry around all that having to be the mom at events entails would be nice.
