The Duct Tape Messenger Bag How-to

The Duct Tape Messenger Bag Hot To is a part of my regular site, Kevin Myrick Dot Com (which for some reason went down. This of course was not due to traffic coming from the Make Magazine Blog that posted the How-to on their site.)

Since I can’t really remember what I wrote at this particular moment, and made the mistake of not saving the text to somewhere useful, I’m gonna wing it and see what I can come up with. Everyone cool with this? Good.

To make the bag, you’re going to need two large pieces of duct tape fabric (note: if you don’t know how to make duct tape fabric, here’s a good link from the Duck Tape Club on how to make fabric. I would not suggest people try this project if they’ve never tried to make duct tape fabric before right here and now.)

The two pieces of the bag, front and back, should be at least two inches bigger on each side than either a 12″ laptop or your largest 3-ring binder. (For students or professionals who still use 3-ring binders.) The back piece should be double the height than the front piece in order to make a flap to cover the front.

Now that you have to large pieces of fabric, I’d suggest making a smaller shorter piece of fabric for a pocket on the front, and attach it to the front face down, keeping in mind that what is face up will be the inner portion of the bag.

Next thing you’ll need to do is make a piece of fabric for the bottom that is the length of the width of the main pieces, and at least three strips wide (you’ll want a good, flat bottom. I’ll get to that in a minute. This piece needs to be attached to the main pieces on both the bottom and the top using at least two pieces of duct tape on each. This will make the bottom a little more stable.

Now, make side pieces of fabric in much the same fashion. Attach them in the same way you did with the bottom piece, on both the top and the bottom of the center bottom piece.

Now fold up the the main pieces and the side. Make sure the flap doesn’t get in the way. You’re going to tape the sides to the main pieces on both the inside and outside of the main pieces. The bag should be able to stand on its own now.

Now that you have the bag in a whole form, it’s time to add a strap and some pockets. The strap should be at least the width of a single piece of duct tape, but you can go wider if you choose. Wider in that, you can do what I did and make your strap at least three strips wide. Why did I do this? I like sturdiness. And comfort. The weight on my shoulder from the bag is lessened when the strap is wider for some reason… maybe physics or something I don’t understand. Anyhow, make the strap out of at least 36″ strips of duct tape, and attach them to each side from the bottom and sides. You’ll want to tape on the sides to keep the straps from moving around a lot, and attach it on the bottom so the strap won’t break as easily. You’ll need to at least tape the bottom edges of the strap to the bottom in two places and on the sides in two places.

Now we’ll add a pocket to the side over one of the straps. Make a small piece of fabric, attach it to the side in three places, and test out and see what you can fit into it.

And finally, the coup de gras, the bottom umbrella pocket. This is a feature I’ve seen missing in messenger bags for a long time. with the size of my messenger bag, you can fit a small personal umbrella (with the handle sticking out for easy access) in a long pocket on the bottom. Make a piece of fabric the same size as your bottom piece and add that sucker on, and you’re good to go! Umbrella storage that won’t ruin things inside of your messenger bag when it’s raining!

 

And that should be it. With the creation of the fabric, it should take at least 1 1/2 rolls of duct tape to create the bag (not including colored duct tape) and about 6 total hours of time to build. Things I’ll be adding in the future are a place for a bottle (of coke or water…), a place for carabiners to attach whatever I might be hauling around, and pockets on the front flap that can be clasped easily.

Hope you all enjoy!