Handlebar Bag and Hip Pouch

This hip pack is made from durable Cordura and it doubles as a handlebar bag. It measures 10 x 5 x 2 inches.

Here is how I made it.

Materials

- 1/2 a yard of durable fabric. I used 500d Cordura Nylon

- Thread

- 2 yards of 1 inch webbing

- 1 inch buckle

- 10 inch zipper

- Velcro (optional if you want to attach it to your handle bars)

- Shock Cord/Elastic (optional, helps keep the pack stable)

Tools

- Sewing Machine

- Scissors

- Lighter (to keep the webbing from fraying)

- Ruler

- Marker

- Seam Ripper (best tool ever)

- Spring Clips and Pins

I started by drawing up my pieces on the back side of the fabric. The main body of the bag is 15 x 15 inches which includes a 1/2 inch seam allowance. I later trimmed a 1/4 inch from the top and bottom of the main body to account for the length that the zipper added. I drew out the fold lines on the fabric to guide me when shaping the bag into the 10 x 5 x 2 inch dimensions. I also drew out the inside pocket panel which is 11 x 5 inches, which includes 1/2 inch seams and a 1 inch hem at the top. Lastly, I also drew the pieces needed to make the belt attachments. These were trapezoids in shape that measured 4 inches long with a 5 inch and 2 inch base with, again, a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

Once these were drawn up, I cut them out.

I clipped two of the hip belt attachments to each other with their wrong sides facing out. I sewed a top stick along each of the angled edged leaving that 1/2 inch seam allowance. I inserted an 10 inch length of webbing and stitched it down at the narrow end. The corners were trimmed and the piece was flipped inside out. A stitch war round around the outside of the piece with one more to reinforce the strap. This process was repeated with another longer piece (about 26 inches) of webbing to create the other half of the belt.

I decided to add stabilizer loops the hip belt. I cut out two 5 inch pieces of webbing. These pieces were stitch to the webbing belt, flipped, and then stitched to the hip belt attachment to form a loop. These loops are optional, and if I make this bag again, I will tuck the stabilizers in with the belt webbing before I stick it down.

As I mentioned earlier, I trimmed the top and bottom edge of the panel by 1/4 of an inch to accommodate the length that the zipper would add.

I used clips to hold the zipper to the top edge of the main panel with the wrong sides facing out. I ran a stitch along the zipper, then flipped the assembly so that I could run another stitch on the top side of the fabric.

Before attaching the zipper to the other side, I needed to attache the inside pockets and straps. I will cover this in the next step.

I hemmed the edge of the inside pocket by folding the edge over twice by 1/2 inch. I then pinned the bottom edge of the pocket to the main panel, on what would be the inside of the bag. The pocket panel was flipped over and then stitched down at 1 1/2 and 4 inches from the edge of the panel. These stitched would form the individual pockets of the panel.

On the outside of the main panel, on what would become the back side, I attached a piece of webbing. I stitched this webbing down 3 inches from each side. I made sure this strap was high enough on the panel that the stitched would not interfere with the inside pocket.

There is one more strap that I should have added at this point, but I forgot, so I had to do it later.

Once the inside pocket and rear strap were secured, I folded the main panel over, and lined up the edge of the zipper with the edge of the panel. Using the same technique as before,I stitched the zipper down from the inside, and then from the outside. It can be tricky to stitch the second part of the zipper from the outside, but with a some clever positioning and manipulation, it can be done.

You can to make things a lot easier on yourself by clipping both ends of your zipper, removing the zipper pull, and completely separating the two halves. After you get done stitching them down, replace the zipper pull to put the zipper back together.

This step should be done before the zipper is completely installed. When I did it, I had to work around the zipper opening instead of a flat panel.

I used an 11 inch piece of webbing to create a strap centered on the front of the pack. Pins were used to hold the webbing in place while I stitched it down. The two ends of the webbing were folded under and stitched, and two more stitches were spaced to create four loops.

To finish the body of the pack, I trimmed part of each side from the main panel. I tagged the areas to be trimmed in the one of the photos. This step can be done much earlier in the process than I did it.

After trimming, I was left with a 2 x 5 inch flap on each side, which would form the side of the pack. These flaps are attached to the front of the pack and sewn to the top, bottom, and back edges. While sewing the flaps to the back edges, the belt attachments were inserted from the inside, and included in the stitch holding the flap to the back edge.

To finish up the pack, I turned everything inside out, and stitched buckle down to the short end of the belt. The long end was run through the adjustable end of the buckle.

I ran some shock cord through the loops of the belt and the front strap. These loops will serve to compress the pack when it is minimally loaded.

I cut some 3 inch sections of Velcro and used those to attach the pack to the handle bars of a bike.

That was it. The pack is finished