Next up on my Fix It list: My replacement tote that’s barely six months old.
Sadly poor construction quality is not limited to fast-fashion RTW. Tote I lasted me almost two years. So it was definitely a WTF moment when the handle tabs on Tote II started doing this:
I thought the thicker faux leather would last longer. I was wrong. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but here are my suspects:
Different D-rings I used this time have rectangular wire profile where as Tote I had rounded wire profile. Combined with heavy grocery maybe the pointier edge acts like knife edge.- Lack of tab reinforcement from woven interfacing. Can’t remember whether I reinforced Tote I, but Tote II definitely needed this. And it needed a stiff interfacing at that. For these softer tabs keep shifting to the extra pointy corners of the D-rings.
I decided changing 1 would be too much hassle, so 2 it was then. Apart from a layer of old woven interfacing, I stiffened the center bit that goes around the D-Ring with a double layer of Ban-Rol (precut interfacing for waistbands that won’t collapse heightwise). I bought these long before I discovered that standard waistbands don’t like my short-waisted torso. Now it finally found a use!
The replacement tabs had to be hand stitched and the stitching shows on the inside of the bag. Not brilliant. But at least functional. And thanks to an old-fashion thimble and needle grabber, I managed to do it without spilling blood.
While I was at it I tried to enlarge the zipper pull too. Clio was right that Lampo zippers are some smooth operators. And Don Morin was right that a large ring pull is a plus for practical zipped bags. My Lampo’s pull was lamentably anemic. My stash & trash yielded no matching ring pull of any sort, not even a keyring. So I end up wrapping the existing pull with a scrap from the tab redo. Hopefully this tote will now last me a while longer.
Did you make your own handles? It is a great looking tote. I am trying to finish up a carpet bag, I am stalling now that I have to tackle the handles. I like the embroidered desig n.
Thanks!
The handles – yes, I did make them from scratch. I wanted them to match the rest of the bag and be of the right length. So readymade ones weren’t suitable. You can find a bit more info about the making of this bag here.
Try studying the RTW bags you own for handle design ideas. That’s how I ended up with the handles on this bag – I had a RTW bag with handles like this one.