If you’ve ever been camping and found yourself in the dark, rummaging around in the pockets of your various clothes for something, then the Chairbag is for you!
Make your own
camping chair bag / pocket
The Chairbag is a unique, simple to construct design* that effectively gives you one pocket where you can be sure that you have left your stuff. It’s attached to your camping chair, you know where it is, it’s got your things in it.
The Chairbag can take lighters, wine bottles, cake, crisps, whatever you like to have near you during a fireside chat.
Here’s how to make one…
Requirements
You could use any fabric to make the Chairbag but we suggest hard-wearing material such as denim. Up-cycling a pair of worn jeans would be a good choice.
- 90cm x 34cm fabric
- 80cm length of 50mm width Velcro (paired)
- Strong thread
- Sewing machine (or you can hand-sew)
- Sharp scissors
- Steam iron (or similar)
Construction
Step 1
Decide which side of your fabric you want to be inside and which outside. In the figure to the right and the others below “SIDE ONE” represents the outside.
Iron your fabric and cut into a 90 x 34 cm rectangle. Orientate this on your work surface in a landscape / letterbox shape as shown.
Fold over 5.5cm of each long end towards you / inwards and iron flat.
Step 2
With the folded sides uppermost sew along both of their entire inner lengths to create a hem.
Create second reinforcing sewing tracks alongside if you wish.
In the figure to the right and throughout this guide new sewing is shown in yellow. Existing sewing is shown in grey.
Step 3
Cut two lengths of your Velcro strip to the same 34cm width of your fabric. Put aside one of the lengths for now.
Take your 34cm length and separate its two halves giving you a 34cm length of “hooks” Velcro and a 34cm length of “loops” Velcro.
As shown in the figure place the “loops” Velcro length to the left-most edge of your fabric, on top of the fold you made earlier.
Step 4
Sew along both sides of the entire length of your “loops” Velcro strip to affix it to the fabric.
Step 5
Take the second paired Velcro strip that you set aside in Step 3 and separate its two halves giving you another 34cm length of “hooks” Velcro and a 34cm length of “loops” Velcro.
As shown in the figure place the “loops” Velcro length 22cm from the right-most edge of your fabric.
Step 6
Sew along both sides of the entire length of this second “loops” Velcro strip to affix it to the fabric.
Step 7
Folding along a line roughly half way between your sewn Velcro strips bring the two strips together so that they face each other square on.
Step 8
Iron the new fold that you have made to help you keep the fold in place. Take care not to iron too close to the Velcro strips!
Sew 1-2 cm inwards from the top and bottom of the fabric as shown, including over the Velcro strips. Take care not to sew past the Velcro strips.
Create second reinforcing sewing tracks alongside if you wish.
Step 9
Turn the bag inside out.
You should see two flaps of fabric towards the right side top and bottom that lie outside the line of the bag. Fold these over as shown, iron flat and sew into place.
Step 10
Flip the bag over.
Once the bag has been flipped over it should appear as shown with the right-most edge being the 5.5cm hem that you created an Step 2.
Step 11
You should have two 34cm length “hooks” Velcro lengths left over from the previous steps.
Take one of these and trim it so that it is the same length as the hem to the right of the bag.
Place the Velcro strip on the hem (hooks up!) and as shown sew along its entire edge to fix it in place.
You’re done!
You should have one “hooks” Velcro length left over. If you were to decide to make a second bag then you could reverse the “hooks” and “loops” in the design and then you would just need one paired 34cm Velcro length instead of two. Otherwise, give it to a friend for their Chairbag!
Usage
Attaching your Chairbag is easy and just relies on you bringing together the Velcro strips. Detaching it is simple too.
We call the side which forms a bag the “front” and the other side which has both “hooks” and “loops” Velcro strips on it the “back”.
If you are attaching it to a chair have the front of the bag face outwards. Bring the “hooks” Velcro strip over the chair arm and connect to the “loops” Velcro strip on the back.
If you are storing things in the bag and not using it on a chair, say overnight, the “hooks” Velcro strip can be folded over onto the “loops” Velcro strip on the front, forming a lid. Optionally loop a strap or small length of rope through the resultant gap and you have a carry handle.
Enjoy!
“Mine has been a regular fixture in the front garden over the past few months!”
Dan – Brighton
* This design for the Peripatus Chairbag v3.1 is Copyleft and is released under the spirit of the GNU General Public Licence v3. The design may be followed and products may be created from it but in no circumstances should these or direct extrapolations of these be used for profit making purposes without the express permission of the author.