More costume accessories to showcase! My ultra-functional canteen bags! Ever been to an event and not drink enough water? That’s every event, right? I try to drink a lot of water every day, but it’s really hard when you’re busy having fun walking around at a convention or fair. So for this past weekend’s Vermont Renaissance Fair, I made these pleather bags to hold modern day water-bottles!
Both canteen bags needed to be so functional that they would do more than just hold water. In addition to being sturdily made to hold pounds of liquid, each bag has additional pockets for added small storage. The small bag holds my water-bottle (a metal flask-shaped thing that I got at a craft store), and the big one holds Jake’s Nalgene bottle. Jake’s bag also has a pocket for credit cards, a knife, and an extra loop so that he could wear it on a belt if he so chooses.
For each bag I made a 56″ cross-body 1″-wide strap from two layers of pleather. The straps connect to the bags with D-rings and swivel lobster clasps. This way the straps can easily be removed and interchanged for different straps or fastened to our person via clips on a belt or harness in the future.
The bags are decorated with faux fur scraps leftover from other projects. They function as heavy pocket flaps that better secure our items when the bags are tipped and thrown. I did a blanket stitch around the top edges to finish the edge and add some texture. The closure on the small bag is a simple leather cord draw-string, while the big bag has a faux fur flap secured with a bead and tassel through a hand-made button hole.
