A cool bag for my cool bro

I like sewing.  I really like sewing bags.  I really, really like sewing things for my peeps.  Sewing for my mom, kind of easy.  Sewing for my dad, impossible.  Sewing for my sister, really easy.  Sewing for my brother, near impossible...UNTIL...I came up with an idea.  You see, I had bought him a cool, old-school travel agency bag from a Salvation Army type store.  Only, the bag was old and within a year the vinyl lining was peeling away, rendering the bag see-through and not structurally sound.  I finally had something I could make him - a replacement!  Next problem: my brother is VERY minimalist.  He's not into fun fabrics (well, in all fairness most men aren't) or crazy appliquéd detailing.  My solution was to make him a bag modeled along the lines of his old one out of natural cotton with some simple black thread embroidery.

This is the pencil drawing I made before I started the embroidery.  The design is a tracing I made of a plant shadow.  Organic, yet simple.

This is the front of the bag.  

I don't know what they treated the fabric with, and I probably don't want to know, because whenever I ironed it, the steam smelled like urine.  I warned my brother that he should try not to get it wet, or it'll stink!

This is the back, with a pocket.

This shows the side.  

I had a couple issues sewing this bag.  The one problem were the corners.  They are okay, but I wasn't 100% happy with the way they turned out.  The other problem was sewing through so many layers of thick cotton to attach the straps on the side.  My sewing machine was not very happy.  I eventually reinforced it with a bit of hand sewing.  

The zipper is one that I recycled from an old backpack.  Same with the plastic D-rings.  I'm all about recycling stuff.