The Making of Tiflis

Hi there, in this article I would like to tell you the story of how I created Tiflis backpack. Most of the times I just make something and everything goes as expected and that is pretty boring. This project was my first one after a long year of not being able to work and there were a few things that went wrong :) 

It's been a while since I wanted to create a bigger version of Puppy and thought its name would be Doggo, which sounds logical, but then I decided I would honor the beautiful city I moved to. Tbilisi was called Tiflis before 1936 and I think this sounds great. 

It was a bit scary to start such a big project after a long break but sometimes I don't choose what I create, it chooses me and I gotta obey :)

I made a sketch: 

I ripped them apart and decided I'd try something else.

On I went, and assembled the whole thing. As I don't have (yet) my hot stamping press (it's still on its way along with the rest of my workshop and the Skinny Bitch) I decided I would try wet stamping my logo on the veg tan. Which was a bad idea because I do not usually do this type of thing and everything that could possibly go wrong, did go wrong. 

Which was a great idea - the strap attachment openings on top of the backpack were horizontal and when the backpack was worn on both shoulders it caused a slight deformation of the flap and it would become concave - all because the straps would want to spread further apart. You can notice that on this picture:

Not only I had to make a new flap, I also had to make the whole back panel to change the angle of those openings. 

 So, I ripped apart everything but pockets :) Also I found out that horizontal pocket zipper on the back was not very convenient and made it vertical which is much handier in use. 

In total, I stitched 6 zippers while making this design. 3 of them went to scraps (not really, because the 2 from the pockets can be used in some other project sometime). 

From start to finish this project took almost 2 weeks, which is a lot comparing to all my other projects (usually they take from 1-2 days to a week max). It does require a lot of stitching, but I've rarely had so many fails in one bag - however, it still was fun to create. I did manage to finish it right before my birthday so it became a birthday present to myself.

Oh and also, do not buy cheap cutting mats! :)