Coffeehouse Satchel

I love the sleek and timeless look of a good messenger bag style satchel. They seem to have an air of sophistication and sturdiness—the kind of bag you buy and use for decades. What’s better than a messenger bag? A handwoven messenger bag, like the Coffeehouse Satchel by Cei Lambert in Easy Weaving with Little Looms 2018.

When you handweave a messenger bag you have full creative control. You can make sure it perfectly fits your laptop or tablet, whatever the size. You can make sure it’s sturdy enough to handle a whole pile of books after a trip to your favorite local bookstore. You can weave the bag simply out of wool and full it until it’s nice and sturdy like Cei did, or you can go the extra mile and line your bag and add pockets and pouches.

Cei Lambert’s Coffeehouse Satchel is just the right size for a notebook, your favorite novel, and whatever other necessities you might need to tote around.

I also can’t help but think of all the matching accessories that one can weave to go with this bag. The Harrisville Designs’ Highland yarn used to weave this bag would also make for a perfect matching scarf or even a lovely, tweedy bow tie if you’re so inclined. Trim the bag with leather like Cei did or use it as an opportunity to pull out your inkle loom and weave up a coordinating strap.

Now just in case you think woven bags like this are the territory of multishaft loom weavers or weavers with extra large rigid-heddle looms, think again! Cei wove this on his 12” rigid-heddle loom. All it takes is some careful planning and strategic use of your yardage—and fortunately for you, Cei has already done the heavy lifting as far as that’s concerned.

Whether you weave this project as written or use it to create the handwoven messenger bag of your dreams, I hope you have fun!

Happy Weaving, Christina

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Project at a Glance:

Equipment Needed: Rigid-heddle loom, 12” weaving width; 10-dent heddle; 2 shuttles; sewing machine.

Yarns: Highland (Harrisville Designs) Black and Charcoal.