rough guide: how to make a 42-panel bag

brianbear · Post by **brianbear** » 07 Nov 2010 15:34

Making a 42-panel bag is a lot like making a 32-panel standard soccer ball style bag. I'll start with the specifics: 12 pents, 30 hexes
Dimensions on the 42 template:
Pents: whatever side length you use for your normal 32's. (~1.5-1.8cm)
hexes: same side length for lines a and b
length C should be between: 0.6cm and 1.0cm (.6 will make a smaller more bubbly bag, while 1.0 will make more of a (normal) looking bag.

1st flower: 1 pent, 5 hexes.
2nd flower: +1 pent, +4 hexes.
3rd flower: +1 pent, +3 hexes.
once you have finished with 3 flowers, you can connect the 3 hexagon flaps in the middle like so: just stitch through the corners of the hexes to make a loop and tie it off.
keep adding pents and hexes til the end. when you have one pent left, make sure you have tied up all the loose hexagon corners, so there will be NONE left when you turn the bag inside out.

bag made with close to a 1.6cm side length pents, .7cm length c for the hexes

bag made with close to a 1.7cm side length for pents, 1cm length c for the hexes.

Happy stitching, feel free to ask questions if you are confused.

DimitriFrazao · Post by **DimitriFrazao** » 07 Nov 2010 19:39

These bags are just awesome.
Thanks for sharing brian!

Alf · Post by **Alf** » 07 Nov 2010 23:58

thnx brian!

brianbear · Post by **brianbear** » 08 Nov 2010 09:38

I would love it if anyone who tries this posts pics of the results

beckermj · Post by **beckermj** » 18 Jun 2011 13:44

So I used your advice and tried my hand at making a 42. What got me hung up was what angle to make the "points" of the hexagon. I ended up going with 53.5 degrees (half the angle in a pentagon), but after looking at my bag, I'm thinking it should have been 30. In the end, I don't think it mattered too much.

Wasabi · Post by **Wasabi** » 19 Jun 2011 16:40

Thanks, Brian, for posting the hexagon template. It'll definitely help with making several different sized templates for myself.

I'll try to edit this post sometime tonight or tomorrow with my finished 42-panel.

edit:

First ever Wasabi 42-panel footbag. Colonial Red and Green Grape facile, mixture of steel and tungsten shot and rubber pellets.

Wasabi · Post by **Wasabi** » 21 Jun 2011 20:59

Sewing 42s have taught me that it's like sewing a 20-panel into a 12 or 32-panel layout. Here's my loose-stitch, little to no gather result:

Floppy big 42-panel bag. Loosely stitched (no gather aside from the corner pentagons). Grey Microsuede and Sky Blue "facile," filled with lead, polypel, glass microbeads and rubber pellets.

Love how the microsuede panels "pop" out.

D. · Post by D. » 21 Jun 2011 21:39

You sure you uploaded the correct pic? This bag doesn't looks grey or sky blue...

It's looks sweet though. Are you just using standard size pents that you would use for your 32's??

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 21 Jun 2011 22:43

This is super cool!
My very first freestyle bag was a 42-panel.
At the time it was called The Legend, and I think it was just regular ultra-suede. I lost it in a bush a million years ago

Wasabi · Post by **Wasabi** » 22 Jun 2011 07:51

It doesn't look black, so it must be grey. Sky Blue is the name of this fabric on Field's Fabrics. Pentagons were meant for a 12-paneled bag, or a huge 32, but I managed to find a method to squeeze large pentagons with the small hexagon template I had to make the seams look sharp and crisp while emphasizing on the pentagons "poppy"-ness.

Erik, maybe I'll make you a 42 one of these days.

brianbear · Post by **brianbear** » 23 Jun 2011 09:44

freaking sick stuff waylon, that microsuede one looks sooo nice.

cd · Post by cd » 23 Jun 2011 16:36

How do you cut out the hexes? Trace them out and then one by one? They're too thin to use the magnet trick and they're taking forever...

edit: ok i figured out a shortcut

D. · Post by D. » 27 Jun 2011 02:45

My first 42p. I didn't have enough red or orange to make all 12 pents, so I went with 6 of each in a dual "S" pattern.
Golf ball size, 60g

cheezus · Post by **cheezus** » 10 Jul 2011 14:21

does this look about right? Or am I headed for certain disaster lol.

D. · Post by D. » 11 Jul 2011 03:51

I would say go a little slimmer on the hex's, or stitch a little further in from the edge than you usually do on the hex's. My hex's had 7mm between the stitching (length C in Brianbear's guide at the top of this page) and I reckon it came out perfect.

D. · Post by D. » 23 Jul 2011 18:20

D. · Post by D. » 23 Jul 2011 18:21

Cheezus, have you finished your yet??

cheezus · Post by **cheezus** » 24 Jul 2011 06:49

Holy cow d. That one is wild!!! I wanna buy it lol. Anyways im still working on it. Had to make a few 32s for people before they went back forms vacation. Im not too far on the 42 and its taking me forever but so far I like it.

cheezus · Post by **cheezus** » 24 Jul 2011 10:14

what I've gotten done after messing up a few times and re doing it lol

D. · Post by D. » 24 Jul 2011 15:46

Good work man. I like that your making it 2 stitch. I'm going to make my next one 2stitch now I've seen it looks ok.
Ps. The red and white one is spoken for. Already going to Lotus from Elemental footbags.