SCA: Yet Another Hedeby/Birka Bag

You know how much I love these things. This one is all made from scraps - gray linen from a pair of pants I recently made, wooden slats from an old furniture project for the handles, a bit of red silk ribbon and cotton weaving thread from my stash. 

This one is a rectangle like my others, though I gave this one a box bottom so I’d have more space inside. The bag is lined in the same gray linen, and the whole thing is hand sewn. I used the Leens hat herringbone stitch on the seams and the box bottom for a bit of extra decoration. 

 

I made the blue woven band on the front of the bag, and the red and navy strap. The strap is a new pattern for me, and I love it. I used the same pattern for a belt recently, too. 

One of my favorite parts about this bag, though, is the handles - or, rather, how I made them. A friend recently picked up a scroll saw for me on her neighborhood online swap group - I was SO thrilled! A pair of these handles (this is the “sawtooth” Birka-style handle) would normally take me several days to make with hand tools, but with the scroll saw I got these done in AN HOUR. I can’t wait to make more of these things!