Hinckley Honkers Bag

So, I suppose before I tell you about the new bag I made yesterday, I have to explain the Hinckley Honkers. Basically, Rob and I have too much free time, and some of it is spent eating fries at restaurants while we make things up to amuse ourselves. The name ‘Hinckley Honkers’ came about because I had trouble remembering the name of the local baseball team for a while, so I’d pretend that’s what they were called. Because it was funny and had a pleasing alliteration/consonance. Eventually, we started making up stories about the Honkers, until we’d developed quite a history for the Hinckley-based ‘sports’ team. I even designed a shirt for Rob, and we had it printed through an on-line company.

For Christmas, I created my own screen of the Hinckley Honkers text and goose mascot, and I printed shirts for Rob and my parents (incidentally, one of the guys who works on the house from time to time really wants a Honkers shirt — so I’m glad that normal people don’t think this is crazy). I also printed on canvas to make shopping bags, but I ran out of time/desire to keep sewing.

So when I wanted to make a new bag/purse for myself, I thought it would be fun to use one of the imperfect prints. Usually, I position the text differently over the goose, but (as you can see), the goose’s feet didn’t print well on this pull, so I covered them up. I took inspiration from the bags in this etsy shop (somebody please, please buy one of those bags for yourself, because they’re amaaazing and look so well put together!) and visited the thrift store for purses I could scavenge from.

The cross-body strap came from a funny, soft-sided briefcase thing and was just was I was looking for. And the closure strap and the bottom of the bag were from a small purse (the closure is off-center because I didn’t want it covering the goose, is case you were wondering). Everything that looks like leather is actually vinyl, and I was really surprised by how well the sewing machine handled all the heavier fabrics.

It was fun to make a new bag — I used to sew them quite often, but it’s been a while, because I’ve been using the same Timbuk2 bag for a year, and a Keen messenger before that. I suppose I’ll eventually feel like I don’t need another bag, and that a new one isn’t actually going to improve my life and solve all my problems. But I haven’t reached that point yet.