Cutting A Strap for Sewing A Messenger Bag

Video Transcript

"Now that we determined the size of the strap that we're going to use and we've determined what we need to cut and we determined it was 39 inches by 6 inches. And I just have a piece of fabric that I cut off the main piece of fabric that I'm using. I haven't even cut it yet. I haven't even measured it. But I did make sure that one side of the fabric was right along the grain. And if you have a print on your fabric that's great or if you have a selvage edge that you want to use to measure against that's a really good idea also. Me, I already cut mine. I know it's pretty straight. And so what I'm going to go ahead and do is I'm just going to cut 6 inches in. I'm going to mark the whole thing 6 inches over. Here we go. I'm not even going to worry about the length of it yet because I'll do that right after I cut this long piece. Then we'll just measure 39 inches out and cut that off. I'm just going to flip it over and measure the other side. There we go. Here. That's 6 inches. I'm going to make some marks in between just so I'll have a good guideline when I'm cutting. So now that I have it marked I'm just going to cut this out. Okay. I like the thick straps. It's a good idea because it disburses the weight of whatever you're carrying in your messenger bag across your shoulders. The thinner the strap the more pressure it puts on your shoulders when you're carrying your bag. That's why a lot of the messenger bags you see out there have really thick straps. Usually 2, 2 1/2 inches wide. Sometimes more. Maybe 3. Okay. So, there we go. There's that. I'm just going to get rid of this piece. So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to measure 39 inches out and I have a ruler, a long ruler, a 36 inch ruler on the front of my sewing machine so if you have a yard stick you can just use that. I like to just run over here and measure this. There's 36 inches. And I'm going to do 3 more. Okay so here's 39 inches. I just have it pinched with my finger right here. And I'm going to make a little mark but instead of just doing 39 I think I'm going to cut maybe just a little bit more. I like to be, I'd rather be safe than sorry. And then when I finish making the straps, sewing it together I'll do a final measurement before I actually sew it to the bag itself. But for the next clip what we're going to do. I'm going to show you how to actually make the strap. And let's get started on that in the next clip."