My Uncle Virgil Hudnall served in three wars during his life and he passed away a little over a year ago. Over the last year my cousin has asked me to make a couple of bags from his Dress Uniforms. She first sent me his Korean War Dress Green uniform and wanted to have it turned into a messenger bag. I used the Sydney Messenger Pattern by Swoon Patterns and enlarged the bag to fit her needs.
When I received the uniform, I laid it out and look at the sections of the uniform that I could use in the bag. I chose the pockets on the jacket to be prominent on the bag and then looked at the features of the pants and how I could incorporate those features into the bag.
As you can see there is the trim down the side of the pants and the tags on the inside of the jacket and pants and I incorporated those on the back of the bag. I them on a “strap” that could be put over the handle of a suitcase when you are pulling it.
I also used the parts of the jacket at the top that displays rank and used those on the side of the bag as a handle.
As you can see, I also used the buttons from the jacket and some of the medals and honors are pinned on the bag as well. I used rip-stop fabric as the lining to help with the weight of the bag. This is a larger than normal messenger bag with foam stabilizer and was going to be quite heavy, so the rip-stop fabric adds strength but not weight.Here are some more photos of the bag!
My cousin also sent his Dress Blues and I turned that into an Overnight Bag. Can you see where I used all the parts of the uniform?
Here is a video I made of the process:
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