A bit of a bodge job

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You probably know by now I never like to throw away anything that could possibly be useful… I have this little overnight case, I think I received it as a gift when I was a teenager. Most of it is still in good condition but the handle wore out at the points where it passed under the metal fittings, and there wasn’t any sensible way to repair that. But I did have the straps I had saved from my last little backpack. Of course they are two separate pieces and I didn’t have a sensible way of joining them together, but then I hit on the idea of making some holes with a leather punch and then ‘stitching’ the two pieces together with something like a shoelace. I actually found half a broken shoelace in my collection so I didn’t even have to use one of a pair of new laces! It’s a bit of a bodge job but it does the trick for now, even if it doesn’t look particularly elegant! All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2026.