Strap Length for Sewing A Messenger Bag

Video Transcript

"Okay, now that we have the body of the messenger bag cut out, we only have one more piece that we need to think about, and that's the strap. Now like I had told you in the very beginning clip, you know, you can make this different sizes. This one's forty-one inches and this one's cut for me. And a little trick you can use to figure out what size of strap that you want, is just get a little piece of cord--it can be anything, it can be, you know, a piece of ribbon, it can be a piece of measuring tape or whatever you want. And just throw it over your shoulder, if that's the way you want to wear it. Mine is going to be over the shoulder. If you want it straight across, like this, you can do the same thing. You've just got to figure out where you want it, you know, if you want it really short. Just hold your fingers on there--or if you want it really long. Let's say if we wanted it this long. Give yourself about an inch on the end, and find your little marks, and you take it off. Then you can measure it. And I have a ruler over here, and I always just like to measure it. And finished, it would be seventeen plus thirty-six, forty-six, that's forty-two. Then I like to add an inch on both ends, so forty-four inches will be cut. And that way, when we sew the strap to the body of the bag, there will be an inch on the inside of the strap, just to anchor it on the inside. So, but my friend already told me that she wanted hers about four to six inches shorter than mine, and mine is forty-one inches, so I'm going to go ahead and make hers thirty-seven, I'll go on the shorter side--I mean the longer side because I wouldn't want it to be too short for her. So, I'm going to make her strap thirty-seven inches long, but I'm going to add two inches, so I'm going to cut it at thirty-nine inches. Then she told me that she also liked the width of mine, and mine is two and a half inches wide, and you know, it's folded over. So instead of just cutting two and a half inches, I have to cut it five inches, but then I have to add a half an inch on both sides two make up for the seam right here, so instead of just five inches I'm going to cut six inches. Then when I sew that seam it's going to bring it down to five inches, then I'll open it up and press it, and so we've determined now that the length of my strap that I'm going to cut is going to be thirty-nine inches by six inches. So let's go ahead and cut that out in the next clip."