Hedeby Style Bag

I had a piece of broken diamond twill fabric that I had woven years ago. It was one of the first pieces that I woven when I first got my 4 harness floor loom. The yarns were Shetland and I used all the shop had in those colors so there was no making more. It never seemed like enough fabric to do anything with.

I got some inspiration from seeing bags made from both cloth and leather using wooden handles based on finds from present day Germany, Haithabu, now called Hedeby. Some of the handles are made of wood and some of bone. I am not wood worker so I purchase a simple set of handles off Etsy. There the project sat. I didn’t have the courage to cut the fabric. 

Fast forward to 2022. I wove some plain weave wool out of my hand spun wool. The project became Skjoldhamn hood. I had already cut out the hood so I finally got up the nerve to cut the diamond twill fabric. The remaining plain weave has become the lining of the bag. 

I wanted a bag that was deep and opened wide so I created a box bag with a gusset all the way around. I sewed the sems with the same 2 ply merino hand spun thread that I used for the hood.

I made the tabs to attach the handles to the bag out of tubes of twill turned inside out. 

I sewed the tabs to the outer fabric then sewed in the lining.

The frost strap I tried was another tube of the twill turned inside out but it was way to thick.

I used tablet weaving to create a new strap out of commercial fingering weight yarn in grey and blue that coordinates nicely.

I’m very happy with how this project turned out.