Adding O-Rings to Non-TB bags

[FoxValleyDame]

After being exposed to TB bags, I've come to decide that o-rings are now a necessity on pretty much all of the bags I own. However, I have a couple of instances where a non-TB bag is the ideal option for me. I'm curious if anyone has added their own o-rings to non-TB bags? Please share your thoughts and/or techniques.

[Jaffa]

FVD,

I also thought this, o-rings are sooo useful, I have a non TB bag that would benefit from an o-ring or two.

Jaffa

[aedifica]

Yes! @twosandalz posted about it over on Ravelry here: Ravelry - a knit and crochet community (I think you have to be logged in to Ravelry to see forum posts there.)

Following posts include more tips from twosandalz and other forum members. I added an o-ring to my wallet after reading those posts!

[twosandalz]

Hooray for O-rings! Like #Aedifica said, I've added them to pouches and to my backpacks. I'm not the best sewer, but it wasn't too hard. To save you the fuss of creating a Ravelry account, I'm copying what I'd said.

Use polyester twill tape for the leash that attaches the rings and melt the ends together. Cut a length of tape, fold it around a ring, hold it together, and hold a flame to the ends. This will make the leash more manageable.

Beware too long a leash. On the finished product, the ring will flop around which takes a bit more futzing to clip into.

Another time saver was to not pick out serged seams. There’s an eighth inch of space between the straight stitching and serging. Just pick out the straight stitching, push the ends through the seam, and butt them against the serging.

When sewing a seam shut, the standard presser foot kicks the ring aside and pulls the leash out of the seam. Use a zipper foot instead [this suggestion came from someone else on Ravelry, and it worked nicely]

When I added O rings to my packs, I hand sewed them onto seams, rather insert them into a picked-apart seam. I didn't want my so-so sewing skills to mess up my backpacks. I doubled up the yarn and did a couple rows of back stitching. The black leash blended into the black seams and hid my crappy hand sewing.

[aedifica]

And sources for the parts are useful too: I found polyester twill tape in the ribbon section of the craft store near me (a Michael's) in several colors. I haven't found o-rings the exact size of the Tom Bihn ones, but these slightly smaller ones are working for me: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B004BFGPZE/

I now have a white-leashed o-ring on my blue wallet, and I also made a packing cube with yellow fabric, orange trim, and an o-ring held on with an orange leash. :-) The orange twill tape actually matched the orange bias tape and zipper I had already bought, which was a very useful coincidence.
(Buying a packing cube would have been way easier and possibly cheaper than making one, but I wanted a particular size that I couldn't find anywhere so I made my own.)

[AlaskaGirl]

Greetings,
While my old non-TB bags have been phased out, I still prefer not to carry a bag if I don't have to. My minimal carry is a wallet, lip balm, and house key in one pocket with my phone in the other pocket. When I remove one item, because the pocket is small, it tends to dislodge the other items. Since an O-ring and leash would be the perfect solution, I'm hand sewing O-rings into my jackets.

Thank you, Tom Bihn and Crew, for creating such simple yet elegant solutions! elisa