Sprorran: Measurements??

**Tobus** · 11th October 12, 05:39 AM

Originally Posted by BCAC

If you stop looking at the picture (and drooling) long enough to actually read his thread, he says in there that he made it himself!

Ha, I'm flattered that anyone would confuse that sporran with an Artificer creation. If you look at the details, though, they are far lacking. I designed that sporran based on a lot of guesswork as to size and proportions, and generally modeled it after several different types I had seen on the internet (never having seen one in person). But aside from cutting out the leather pieces, my wife did most of the work on assembling it. Which is to say she did all the major stitching and the braiding. In retrospect, I would have done it a little differently at the area where the top of the gusset meets the braided leather cantle area. You can see that it 'gaps' in that area. We made it where the round braid tassels on the sides loop through the inside of the sporran at that point, essentially cinching up the top of the gusset. But I should have tapered the gusset there so it didn't have as much bulk, which would allow the top of the sporran to close a little better. That, and add some bulk/stiffness behind the leather cantle. Oh well, it was a trial piece. But it works just fine and looks good from a distance, as long as one isn't nit-picky on details.

Sporran design is actually a pretty fun and interesting thing to delve into, although I'm just a hack compared to a craftsman like Artificer. But aside from proportions and sizing considerations that I mentioned earlier (which will be unique to each person), there's also a lot of thought to be put into the thickness/weight/stiffness of the leather you use. A small daywear sporran with a flap closure is better when it's made from a stiff leather, while a larger pouch like mine shown above seems to work better with thinner oil-tanned leather. And there's lots of room for details that can make a plain old sporran into a unique, personalised, highly functional one.

This is perhaps drifting slightly away from the original topic of measurements, and I'm getting ahead of myself in posting it now (as I planned to wait until I was finished to post it here), but here are some pics of a sporran I'm working on right now. This one will use my brass MoD cantle. I don't know if you can read the dimensions on my pattern, but here it is. At the left is the pattern I drew in AutoCad, including the layout for my stitches. What I do is print that out on regular paper, cut it out with scissors, and transfer it to a thicker piece of craft paper, which I also cut to size. That's the pink piece in the middle. I use a thick stitching needle to transfer over my stitch layout. Finally, I use that pattern to transfer to the leather, which I mark with a stylus and lay out all my stitch holes.

The sporran I'm working on right now will be lined inside with scrap tartan material left over from my Barb T. kilt. Here you can see the front panel and the gusset, both with tartan cemented to the rough side (interior side) of the leather.

As I said earlier, it remains to be seen whether this sporran will be too big. What I tried to do is make the bag portion roughly the same size as the sporran I posted previously (with the braided leather cantle), with only a slight increase in width, but this one will be about an inch taller than the other one since the brass cantle is larger. Really, what I'm trying to do is up-scale the sporran in size so it looks proportionally the same as my previous sporran, but using the larger brass cantle.

I had built a trial sporran for the brass cantle with the same overall dimensions as my leather-cantle sporran, but it just doesn't look right to me. The larger cantle seems to dominate the sporran and makes the bag look puny and pathetic. This was the trial sporran:

Sorry for the slight thread drift, but the point I'm trying to make is that there's more to a sporran than just the size. Obviously, any useful size can be functional, but will it give you the sense of proportion and style you want? Will it fit with your body shape, kilt length, etc.? Lots to consider! And if you don't have the wherewithal to make trial sporrans for yourself, just make paper cut-outs until you find the size and shape that looks best on you.

**Riverkilt** · 11th October 12, 06:15 AM

RANT: You'd not have this question IF more sporran vendors actually posted the size of the goods they are selling when they advertise. Some sporran vendors have begun to do this (Thank You!) but many just present a photo with a plain background and don't include sporran dimensions - as if potential customers don't care.

End of rant.

**Llama** · 11th October 12, 06:29 AM

Originally Posted by Riverkilt

RANT: You'd not have this question IF more sporran vendors actually posted the size of the goods they are selling when they advertise. Some sporran vendors have begun to do this (Thank You!) but many just present a photo with a plain background and don't include sporran dimensions - as if potential customers don't care.

End of rant.

Hear, hear!

**Chas** · 11th October 12, 08:27 AM

Originally Posted by Tobus

I don't know if you can read the dimensions on my pattern, but here it is.

Sorry, I can't read the dimensions. Any chance of a solo picture?

**sydnie7** · 11th October 12, 08:40 AM

Originally Posted by Chas

Sorry, I can't read the dimensions. Any chance of a solo picture?

Regards

Chas

Just right-click on the photo in question, "save as" to your desktop or whatever, then use the zoom function in your photo viewer and the measurements are legible.

Tobus, I love the tartan lining idea! Hope it turns out well for you.

**Chas** · 11th October 12, 09:51 AM

Originally Posted by sydnie7

Just right-click on the photo in question, "save as" to your desktop or whatever, then use the zoom function in your photo viewer and the measurements are legible.

Your eyesight is better than mine.

**unclevenus** · 11th October 12, 10:03 AM

Elf, I'd be only placing a key ring (five keys), a cell phone and a bifold wallet in there. The design might slightly resemble this:

Would anything over the 8 inch mark be considered a large sporran?

Note from Steve Ashton

With regrets an embedded link in this post had to be removed after a complaint from the owner of the site the link went to.

**unclevenus** · 11th October 12, 10:12 AM

I wholly agree, Riverkilt. My friend was looking for some ideas/guidance and I had to look around a bit. Plus, if the dimensions are not shown, and it's up against a single color back drop or somewhere without a size/depth to gauge, it's hard to just assume it's 7-8 inches.

All, thanks for your feedback!

**creagdhubh** · 11th October 12, 12:23 PM

Originally Posted by Downunder Kilt

If you go to the Scottish Tartan Museum site (link in advertisers bar at top of page) and go to the sporran section, you will find dimensions of most of the sporrans listed for sale. Depth of sporrans really depend on what style you are making. Hope this helps.

***

**Tobus** · 11th October 12, 02:22 PM

Originally Posted by Chas

Sorry, I can't read the dimensions. Any chance of a solo picture?

Regards

Chas

Here are the dimensions of the one I'm working on. Again, I'm still not sure if this will end up being too large and looking silly. I've actually got the bag done; I just need to do the work to get the cantle mounted and the tassels installed.

I typically use a 3/16" seam allowance as well as a 3/16" spacing on my stitch holes.