October 6, 2015October 5, 2015 by retoolsf

Custom Order Roundup

Here are some of the latest custom .retool. creations:

Justin wanted a pair of seatbelt pouches.
David B. wanted a little bit of everything – a seatbelt wallet with coin pocket, grommet, ID pocket, extra card pockets, and an elastic band closure.
Amy wanted a wallet with velcro and elastic.
Douglas didn’t want velcro or elastic, but he did want an extra bill divider.
Britt wanted a batch of brightly colored wallets.
David N. wanted a triple stripe wallet with an ID pocket and elastic band.
Damian wanted a triple stripe wallet with a coin pocket and ID pocket.
Caroline wanted a small seatbelt bag for daily use.
Sean wanted a wallet with 2 ID pockets and an elastic band.
Kevin is a San Francisco Giants fan who wanted an orange and black triple stripe wallet with coin pocket and ID window.
Rod wanted a small billfold with an ID window and lots of places to put cards. In addition to the interior card pockets, there are two exterior pockets – one top load and one side load.

February 25, 2015 by retoolsf

Custom Order Roundup

Custom orders are a great way to explore different options from new features to different color combinations. Here’s a look at some of the .retool. custom orders from the past few months. Enjoy!

Lisa wanted a coin pocket wallet with an extra bill divider.
Irene liked our ID wallets and wanted an elastic strap added for some extra security
Jeremy wanted an industrial strength case for a Nexus 7 with gumdrop case. It has a pen pocket, too!
Bess was looking for gifts for her nieces. She asked for a pair of front zip tablet cases with handles.
Lynne is a repeat customer who wanted to update her fall accessories with a new checkbook holder.
Sam requested a couple of our coin pocket wallets with no velcro.No velcro? No problem!
Amanda turned to us for a new laptop case.We were happy to oblige.
Teresa had a special request for one of our Classic Mini Card Holders with Elastic – she wanted an extra card pocket on the outside.
Kristin wanted a laptop case for a Lenovo Yoga 2 11.
Catrina wanted a large bag. Really large. This one is about 14″ x 13″ x 5.5″ and has an interior zipper pocket.

February 4, 2015 by retoolsf

Glenn’s Bag

Last week I wrote about the bag I made as a holiday gift for my friend, Pam. This week I’m back with details on the bag I made for Pam’s husband, Glenn.

Glenn wanted a messenger bag around 12″ x 12″ x 4″ with two 5-6″ interior slip pockets and one exterior zippered pocket.

The body of the bag is made of 1000D Cordura® nylon. The print used for the flap is cotton. It reminds me of brushstrokes, which is especially cool since Glenn is a painter.
The flap pocket is lined with nylon made from recycled plastic bottles.
As requested, the inside has two slip pockets to help keep things organized.
The flap closes with a side release buckle.

I was pleased with how the bag turned out. I decided to make a few tweaks to the design and add it to the shop. More on that later!

January 27, 2015 by retoolsf

Pam’s Bag

Late last year I was making a lot of wallets in preparation for a couple of holiday shows as well as stocking the online shop and local shops that carry .retool. products. I decided I needed a break, so I got in touch with my friend Pam and offered to make her and her husband Glenn each a bag as a gift.

I suggested a new design I was testing out, but she threw me a curve. For her bag, she countered with a list of features that bore little resemblance to my initial offer. This gave me the opportunity to try something different that I would not have come up with on my own. It also sparked some ideas for some new designs, so it was well worth it!

Pam wanted something similar to this toiletry case I made for her a couple of years ago. She loved the size, but wanted some more depth, instead of a flat pouch. She wanted a black print, a 1 inch strap, and an interior pocket. So, basically she wanted something more purse-like.

Here’s what I came up with:

Pam’s a cat person, so I decided on this adorable CoCoLand print from Kokka. I moved the zipper to the top of the bag. The bag is about 1 and half inches deep.
Back view. The 1 inch wide strap is adjustable and clips on to the bag.
The grey lining is made from recycled plastic bottles. My favorite part is the lining of the interior pocket.

I’ll write more about Glenn’s bag next time.

July 28, 2014 by retoolsf

Custom Order Roundup

Here’s a look at some of our latest custom work.

Click on the photos to make them larger.

Laura wanted one of our coin pocket wallets in a custom color combination and with an added grommet hole. We loved the colors so much we’ve made several more of them.
Mark wanted a keychain made of webbing. Here’s what we came up with.
Pete wanted a matching travel set all in black – a wallet with grommet hole, a passport case, and a pouch to hold computer cables, chargers, etc. Happy travels!
Jessica wanted one of our ID wallets with an added elastic closure. Not surprisingly, we are especially fond of the orange pocket.
Drey saw our new triple stripe seatbelt wallet on facebook and wanted one for herself in custom colors. We love the extra bit of color on the inside.
Bess wanted a new phone case and laptop case. The laptop case is one of our favorites.

That’s it for now. Keep those custom orders coming! 🙂

April 26, 2014 by retoolsf

Duffle Bags!

This week’s post features a couple of duffle bags I made over the past few weeks.

The first was a modification of a custom bag I made a while back. Here’s the original version:

It’s difficult to tell from these photos, but the bag has a sort of teardrop cross-section. The bottom is rounded and the sides taper as they go up. The top of the bag folds down and clips to the sides to create a more typical duffle bag shape. This version had one external side pocket and one interior zipper pocket.

After several months of use, the owner asked for a wider mouth to make it easier to pack and unpack the bag. In order to make the mouth wider, I had to make a bunch of other changes as well. I ended up changing the profile completely. I replaced the sides and the lining, added a second zipper to the top of the bag and a second external pocket. Here are some photos of the modified bag:

I was pleased with how the bag turned out and wanted to make another one. Fortunately, my vacation trip to Kauai was rapidly approaching – the perfect excuse to try my hand at making a carry-on sized version. Here are a few photos:

This bag has a zippered pocket on each end and two interior zippered pockets in the lining. The outside is made of 1000D CORDURA® nylon and the lining is 4 oz. pack cloth.

I scavenged the shoulder strap from an old laptop bag – it’s way too long for me and needs to be replaced. I just haven’t had a chance to make a new one yet.

The bag performed well on its inaugural trip. It held all of my stuff with room to spare. It was comfortable to carry and fit easily in the overhead compartment. I used one of the outside pockets for a pair of water shoes and the other for snacks. The inside pockets worked well for small stuff like my camera battery charger and more snacks.

The new bag will get its second test this Sunday, hauling wallets to and from the 16th Annual Glen Park Festival in San Francisco. If you are in the area, stop by and see it (and us!) in person. Here are the details:

Date: Sunday, April 27, 2014
Time: 10am – 4:30pm
Location: Diamond St b/t Chenery and Bosworth; also extending down Wilder St

Note – Our booth will be on Wilder St.

Hope to see you there!

March 29, 2014 by retoolsf

Custom Order Roundup

It’s been a while since our last roundup post and we’ve had a bunch of custom orders lately – everything from credit card wallets to messenger bags. Have a look:

Credit Card Wallets

The simplest custom job we’ve had in the last few months was a custom color combination for our Classic Credit Card Wallet – black and foliage green.
Jim contacted us about making a variation of our slim mini credit wallet. You can see an example of our standard version here. He wanted an extra row of pockets and a strip of velcro running the full width of the wallet.

We posted photos of Jim’s wallet on our Facebook page and one of our customers saw it and wanted one for himself in red and black.

ID Wallets

We have had a couple of recent requests for variations on our ID wallet.

Brett wanted an ID wallet in one of our favorite color combos – grey and foliage green. He also wanted an extra row of card pockets and an extra bill divider.
Matt wanted an ID wallet in custom colors – blues on the outside and purple on the inside. Colorful!

Standard Billfold Wallets

Donald wanted our standard billfold wallet with a twist – no velcro. All black, with just a hint of grey in the inside. Nice.

Coin Pocket Wallets

Here’s an orange and black coin pocket wallet in a non-standard height and width (smaller in both dimensions). We overlapped the webbing and trimmed off as much length as we could.
Mathilde wanted a coin pocket wallet with grommet hole in custom colors – blue and yellow.