Here is a departure from my usual bags. I started making bags to find a use for trauma straps that were otherwise ending up in the trash. Years later, we were eating lunch in a little South Asian grocery store with a little restaurant in it. They had big rolls of nylon straps for sale. I was unable to learn what Indians might use them for but I bought a roll to see what I could come up with.

Here is a picture of the bag I made. I modeled it after a shopping bag we bought when we were on vacation in Mexico in 1992. It has been such a great bag for us for all those years that I decided to recreate it. I have now made two of them and they are great for larger volumes like going the beach. No trauma straps but a fun bag.

I am coming down to the end of some the colored straps I have been holding on for some time. I had just enough red and silver straps to make this nice little bag.

I had a few odd yellow and orange straps. I spent some time trying to come up with patterns that would allow me to use up every last inch of these kinds of straps. Here is what I came up with.

I have not been able to come up with a method to put a zipper in the top of my bag that has really pleased me. Here are a couple of zippered bags I recently made. A real pain do sew and I’m still not very pleased with how they turned out.

I didn’t have quite enough red straps to go all the way around the bag four times. You can see how I handled it by looking at the back.

I have always been limited in my bag making by what straps have been discarded in my emergency department. I recently made these bags, using the very last of the blue straps I have. So, no more blue bags.

What do you do with a single short strap of olive green strapping? It came off of an old, discarded “spider strap.” This is what I came up with. As with so many of my bags, they are one-of-a-kinds that can’t be reproduced.

Rafal, a good friend and nurse from the emergency department, sent me these pictures of him visiting his hometown of Krakow, Poland. I’m pretty sure that’s the furthest a Tad Bag has traveled and come back with a picture to show for it.

I made this bag for my wife to take into the shower with her when we are camping somewhere like in a state park. It has pockets on the outside for shampoo, etc., and room insider for clothing and hair dryer. And it looks great.