Project: Spacer’s Duffel (part 1)

While doing research for my vest project this spring, I came across the following passage:

“Most sentients who make their livings as common crew aboard large civilian vessels tend to be lifelong transients, wandering from ship to ship and world to world in search of employment. A spacer might serve on dozens of ships during his career and travel untold millions of light-years, his only home the crew berths of cargo ships and the hostels, bars, and entertainment districts of spaceports. Such beings tend to travel light, carrying their entire lives with them from job to job in large cylinder-shaped bags colloquially known as spacer’s duffels. Roughly half the size of a grown human and featuring one large compartment, a sturdy zipper, and a single shoulder strap, spacer’s duffels have become a symbol of the free-and-easy life of the common spacer. Made by many different textile and storage-technology companies, these bags are as essential a piece of kit to the survival of a spacer as his certificates and his spacesuit. Among ship captains and recruiting agents, one of the most common sights in the spacelanes is a grizzled spacer with a hopeful look on his face, approaching with his duffel slung over his shoulder to inquire about work.” FFG, Edge of the Empire – Enter the Unknown, 53.

As soon as I read it, this M1943 duffel bag I inherited many years ago (and which has been kicking around the back of my closet for quite a while) immediately came to mind. I thought it would be a nice challenge—to take an Earth-specific piece of gear and try to make it better fit the Star Wars aesthetic!

<Sidenote, I had forgotten how fun doing genealogy was! I knew the original owner was a relation of my paternal grandmother, but I didn’t have any details on him. A little Internet digging pulled up some good information to better place cousin Carl into my family tree!>

The first thing that needed changing, of course, was the color. Olive drab gear is fairly rare in the GFFA, mostly limited to smaller items carried by background characters and Rebel jungle (Endor) troopers. After the last three+ years of these pursuits, giving OD milsurp gear a dunk in brown dye has become second nature to me now. For this project, a friend suggested that I dye the bag with red dye first, as the red + green would produce brown anyway. Thankfully I went with my gut and decided against using a full packet of RIT Scarlet, as the 2/3^rd packet I did use produced a shade much too red for my tastes:
To help remedy this, I gave it a quick wash in hot water to remove the excess red dye and make it more of a true chocolate-y brown:
(As you can see, the handle reinforcement area stubbornly did not take the dye as well, and remained a bit greenish.)
The original cotton duck carrying strap was in a sorry state (it looked like it had been abused, rather than just having seen some hard use), and would need replacing:
I wasn’t willing to track down another bag to cannibalize for a better strap, but a khaki cotton woven belt came up at the thrift store for less than a buck. It’s super soft and has a cool ribbed effect that gives some needed visual interest. After I sewed one end together into a carry handle, it also went into the brown dye pot. I then stitched the handle into place and reinstalled the locking clip:

The next order of business was to cover up the US Army lettering. I was at a loss for what to use for material, as I wanted it to blend in fairly seamlessly. Instead of tracking down another bag and trying to match the colors, I removed the (really quite superfluous) flap inside the bag’s mouth, and pieced it to cover up Carl’s stenciled details:
(Eventually I may re-do the hand stitching with machine-sewn, but for now it gives a nice ‘repaired in the field’ look).
The prominent “US” on the front of the bag will eventually be concealed with an asymmetrically-placed scrap of milsurp fabric, as soon as it finishes fading (more on that next time).

With the bag effectively disguised, the next stage of the project will be to complete the transformation to a GFFA-specific duffel. The description of the Spacer’s Duffel notably includes a “sturdy zipper”, but I am currently leaning against including it. In addition to seeming to go against Lucas’s intended aesthetic of “no visible fasteners”, I also feel that any aftermarket zipper I add to the duffel would actually be a weak point and would reduce the durability of the bag.

So…I have some ideas already, but I want to hear from you! What would YOU do to this bag to make it look more in-universe? How can one object better tell the story of a lifetime of traveling the spacelanes? Share your ideas and suggestions in the comments below!

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