Speedy Stitcher saved my shoulder bag

Published 2020-01-30

My Filson shoulder bag was starting to blow out pretty bad at the corners where the shoulder straps connected. Unfortunately I only took photos of the less bad side:

On the other side, the shoulder strap had pulled almost all the way out, and the edge of the body had detached completely. A little disappointing considering it’s a Filson, but also maybe understandable considering I’ve used it almost every day for the past eight or so years?

Anyway, I broke the Speedy Stitcher out and finally fixed it up. The only challenging part was that five different layers all meet at that spot (outer webbing, shoulder strap webbing, lid, body, and inner section). The Speedy Stitcher had no problem getting through all that, but it was a little tricky holding everything in the right place for the first stitch.

The Speedy Stitcher has a very sharp diamond-shaped needle (the point has three knife-like edges) which definitely facilitates getting through heavy fabric, but I am a little bit wary about whether the fabric will fray over time, since the needle is slicing through fibers. I’ll check in about what it looks like in another eight years!