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One of the first things I did, as a kid learning to sew, is figure out how the lock stitch worked on a sewing machine. You had a bobbin of thread in the bottom and the machine wrapped the top thread around it without getting tangled up (for the most part.)

This image is the best explanation I have found for the process. Very cool to see how it works. The bobbin is feeding out the blue thread and the main green thread comes from the top. Compare this image to your sewing machine and you will be able to identify the portion around the bobbin that fills the role of the red section in that animation.

Here is the most ambitious thing I’ve made with a sewing machine.

I have been unable to find a pannier set that works exactly as I would like for the under-seat rack on my RANS Rocket. I like the panniers made by Arkel of all the panniers I have looked at and used.

I decided to make my own set tailored (quite literally) exactly to my needs and I borrowed quite a bit from Arkel’s design work. Below is a description of the process for those who would like to do the same.
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I have been searching for a lightweight, waterproof bag to protect my Martin Backpacker Guitar for some time. Typical dry bags used for water sports are seriously overbuilt for bicycle touring and backpacking use, where weight is a very large factor. They use clear vinyl or heavier vinyl coated cloth and weight many pounds. My search for a waterproof bag to use with my guitar never yielded any results.

I ordered a set of front panniers and some lightweight waterproof bags to use in the panniers from Arkel. You can see the “roll over and snap” type closure of the dry bags I received. In these bags, I saw the perfect material to produce a travel guitar dry bag. I asked Arkel about getting a custom bag made, but they turned me down. Their supplier did not have the flexibility for a custom project. The design of these bags is dead simple, so I decided to just make one. This page is my first attempt at making the bag and shows a large collection of what not to do if you attempt the same thing. Hopefully there are enough tips that you will be successful. You should be able to follow this page to make waterproof bags for any shape you want to, even simple squares. Although, If Arkel carried the size I wanted, I would probably just purchase it from them as the cost for materials and time to build a bag makes their prices really reasonable. Just remember to leave the biggest side open! Read the rest of this entry »