If you ask anyone around the office, they’ll tell you that I’m pretty obsessive about material waste so when my last project left me with a bunch of awkward scrap I went looking for interesting ways to use it. This is the first of what I hope will be many ‘diving in the scrap bin’ projects.
This is something of a prototype / proof of concept. Next rev I’ll move the loop closure up a little bit to make room for a button post to secure the closure strap with. It holds fairly well as is but I’d like the piece of mind that comes from a more secure closure without getting into the cumbersome world of buckles that just aren’t practical for getting in and out of the bag quickly.
Side panels were also a little rough. The turns at the corners are a bit too sharp and it puckers a bit more than I like. I’m thinking that the next revision will use a gusset… maybe a gusset with a zig-zag stitch.
The top flap worked out fairly well but I’m still going to move the stitch line back about 1/10" because it’s just a hair too close to the material edge for me to really be happy with how it sits.
Random notes:
Total assembly time: 4.5 to 5 hours from print to finish. My target was to be a 4 hour project and having done it once, I could probably manage it in 4 hours on the next one, so I’m fairly happy with that.
Largest piece of material used: The two largest pieces are approximately 10" long and 3" wide at their widest. The center panel is about the same, narrower at the top, wider in the middle. The top flap’s largest pieces are 5" long by 3" wide and the side panels are 2" wide by 4" tall.
Material Packing: If you tried to print this on a single sheet of 
, it would fit, with enough leather left over for a shoulder strap (which I need to get around to designing / building.)
Final Dimensions: The purse ended up a hair shy of 8" wide by 4" tall by 2" deep. It uses approximately the same amount of material as the Better Together Clutch in the catalog (of which I have made many) but has a significantly larger interior volume (and takes more than twice as long to assemble, so there’s that.)
I didn’t take many ‘in progress’ pictures for this one, I was in a bit of a hurry to get it done in a single evening (and didn’t leave the office until 11:00 at night because I got stubborn about finishing before I went home) but this was a V1 Prototype so I’ll try to take a few snaps of the process when I do the next revision if I can.
As proof of concept goes though, this turned out pretty well… which makes me hopeful that the larger scale laptop bag size version of this will turn out equally well 
