How To Guide: Tail Carrying Bag

[malinghi]

I just made a bag for my tail. Its nothing amazing but I didn't see many threads about tail bags so I figured I'd share it.

I made the tail using stuff I bought at Jo Ann Fabrics. The fabric is called duck cloth. I'm unsure whether that's the same as canvas. The thread is nylon thread. The straps are 1" wide nylon webbing. The straps each have a plastic adjustable buckle. Not sure how much it cost because I bought extras of everything, plus some supplies I didn't use but I think the materials probably cost around $7 for one yard of duck cloth, $3 for two yards of webbing, $4 for a two pack of buckles, and $3 for a spool of thread.

To start I laid the tail down on the fabric and used a sharpie to draw lines where I wanted the seams to be. The duck cloth was 59" wide and folded in half. I laid the tail so that the bottom of the bag would be along the fold. After sewing along the two sides I would have a big pocket made from a single piece of fabric. In the photo there are some extra lines since I changed where I wanted to make the seam.



Each strap has an upper part and a lower part that connect at the adjustable buckle. The bottom part of the straps would be sewed into the seam. I chose where I wanted the bottom straps to meet the bag. Since I was going to fold the whole thing inside out to make the seam look nice, I placed the webbing so that it would stick out at the correct angle after the bag was turned inside out.

For the straps I used 1 inch wide nylon webbing. While this worked out, I think wider webbing would have been better since wider straps might distribute the weight over more area on my shoulders, making the bag more comfortable. Before sewing the seam with the webbing in it, I got the webbing ready- I cut it to 18 inches and used my stove to melt the cut edges. If you weren't aware, since nylon is a plastic you can prevent any item made of nylon fibers from unraveling by melting the cut edge.



I sewed along the two seams using nylon thread, since its my understanding that nylon thread is good for making strong seams. I don't know what stitch the machine was set to. I just used whatever it was currently on since I don't know anything about sewing. I also used the needle that was currently in the machine. I was worried that duck cloth with webbing would require some kind of heavy duty needle, but it didn't.



After turning it inside out I checked that the tail fit. Then I selected where the upper part of the strap would be placed. I used a backpack to get an idea of how far apart backpack straps typically are. Based on that, I put them 6" apart.

After sewing the upper straps, I connected the straps with plastic buckles. Then I tried it on. It fits great! Its worth noting that wider straps or padded straps may be useful for many people, since my tail is light by silicone tail standards. I've never weighed my tail, but considering that I used a total of two gallons of Dragonskin, some polycarbonate for the fin, and two Finis Zoomers fins, the whole thing can't be more than 20 lbs.