What I Made This Weekend

Friday evening I biked down with Cooper to Crunchy's,  and although we ended up leaving almost immediately to join up with Deon to celebrate her birthday, that bike ride was enough to inspire me to spend several hours at my sewing machine this weekend.
See, I was determined to ride my newly-repaired road bike, having been relegated to my old hybrid bike all week due to a flat on the Trek roadie (sorry, hybrid, I love you and all, but you're not a speed demon). However, riding the Trek requires that I bring along my giant U-lock. I don't have a rack on it, since that would be blasphemy, so I therefore need some sort of bag. However, I didn't feel like carrying a big old backpack around while bar-hopping, so I cast around my bedroom for a suitable messenger-type bag. The closest I could find was my SCA retaining bag, so I dumped my stuff in that and was off, only to find that the bag kept swinging around to hang most awkwardly in front of me. I quick fixed it by attaching the bag strap to a pants loop via a carabiner, but the whole scenario got me thinking that I could really use a more functional bag - function, of course, being the key to fashion and comfort, and those in turn being necessary to socialize properly on a Friday night in East Lansing.
So long story short, I designed and then put together a custom reversible messenger bag. Start to finish, I'd say it took me about 8 hours (not including, of course, the internet breaks, the beer break, the going-to-Schuler's-to-read-comics break, and sleeping).
The moral of the story is that, to paraphrase Saint Francis, once you own one thing, you find you need a whole bunch of other shit to go with it (which is why I have a houseful of stuff).
Voici les fotos:
The bag, completed:

Some close ups:
The front (note the personalized monogram! Which means it's MINE!)

The back (these are loops to attach the bag to a belt or something to keep it from slipping around while riding), and side:

The interior:

 
...which reverses into a total party bag! Woo!

The bag also received the official seal of approval from the household feline committee:

The end.