Duct Tape Union Jack Messenger Bag

I was inspire to make this bag for my favourite little sisters birthday she, like me, enjoys duct tape and has been known to impersonate Brits on occasion. I thought this bag would be a perfect fit for her.
I thought a messenger bag would be the most appropriate and functional style to make, but with these basic ideas you could make anything you wanted!

I measured a folder I had, finding it to be 9.5x12 inches i decided to make the bag 11x13 inches with a 3 inch width so the bag was big enough to be functional.

I used some poster board left over from another project and cut out 3 pieces that were 11x13 inches, 2 pieces that were 3x11 inches, and 2 pieces that were 3x13 inches.


I covered each piece with the navy blue duct tape (DUCK brand)


Then I started to create the flag image in layers, first the white, then the red. It is key to have the solid blue background because you can easily un-peal duct tape from itself to reposition the tape, but not from paper!



once the flag was done i covered up the raw edges on all the pieces that would not be joined to another piece.up next is assembly join the two edges position the rectangles appropriately and tape one continuous piece of blue duct tape on each side. continue until the basic bag shape ifs formed.
next form the strap by cutting of two pieces of duct tape in the desired length and carefully attach the sticky sides to each other.

To attach the strap to the bag place one end of the strap inside the bag and tape in place.
Then staple the strap to the bag with the bottom of the staple on the inside of the bag, about 4 staples should do it.


To disguise the staples and to keep you safe double over a piece of tape to act as a pad over the staples on the inside and them put one final piece of duct tape over the stapled are on the inside and out.The finished bag!