adding stiffness into sewing pouches

[taipan821]

Hello all

currently sewing up some new notebook covers/field office rolls for S.E.S use and I was wondering what would the best method of adding stiffness to them so they are easier to write on? thinking about sewing in some sort of hard plastic in a sleeve.

Any other ideas?

[andrewa]

Today I gone through the same thought procession, trying to add stiffness to a leather overnight bag bottom...

There are bag bottom stiffeners out there - a grid pattern which gets glued in. Couldn't find a supplier in Melbourne.

For small bags, what about the plastic bag stiffeners that come out of the bottom of those green bags you buy from Safeway/Coles?

I needed up buying a bit of polycarbonate sheet 1 X 1 m, and 0.8 mm think from Bunnings and contact adhering it it. Looks fine.

You can also harden leather - Google it.

A

[taipan821]

I'll probably go with sewing in a piece of polycarbonate, just want something hard to write on while out on jobs. funny thing is came across this problem while doing a risk assessment for a chainsaw exercise. what did you use to adhere it?

[Moondog55]

Double layer back, insert stiffener , sew top.
Thin ply/Melamine coated MDF with several coats of paint, thick cardboard ditto but stiff plastic is easiest as it is inherently waterproof but you can also DIY something using paper and epoxy in layers, if you had a scrap of CF tissue scrim that would also work well and be super LW as well as super strong

[ofuros]

Art shops have different thicknesses of plastic sheeting
on their shelves...they can also be cut to shape for
leatherwork templates.

[Neo]

Cut the ends off a 2 or 3L milk bottle and iron the remaining 'sheet' to make it flat. Use two etc for a stiffer board.

[Moondog55]

Cut the ends off a 2 or 3L milk bottle and iron the remaining 'sheet' to make it flat. Use two etc for a stiffer board.

I wish I had remembered that Good idea

[andrewa]

I've used contact adhesive to glue the polycarbonate to the leather bag. The other suggestion I was provided with recently was the place plastic stiffeners from the bottom of those green supermarket bags.

A

[Nuts]

It's some sort of stiff laminate, the bag base liners I tried cracked where they bent. Have used the thin chopping boards (available at Kmart here) to stiffen a bike frame bag and a few other little projects, good stuff.