Comacchio Leather Bag HowTo

[Martin Moser]

Since I've been asked for specifics on how to make the leather bag as found in the Comacchio ship wreck I thought I might just as well make a little howto out of this.

Ok, first you need the leather parts, see the 3rd pic in the first posting here:

1 rectangle 82 x 29 cm
2 rectangles 39 x 7 cm

Leather thickness is reported as 1mm, the report does not specify what animal the leather is from.

All measures are calculated from the data and drawing of the publication (Berti, Fede. Fortuna maris. La nave romana di Comacchio. Bologna, 1990), so hopefully are somewhat close to the original.

The large rectangle is the bags body, sectioned as follws:

30 cm = front
7 cm = bottom
30 cm = back
15 cm = flap

The 2 rectangles forming the sides are 9 cm longer than the bag is high, this 9 cm bit is folded over inwards (probably for strengthening), taking up the shoulder strap.

Preparation for the sewing: I chose 6mm spacing for the stitches, 3mm from the edge, see here: