Babylon Leather Kelly Bag Kit
I ordered a Kelly Bag kit this past summer to work on while we were traveling. Unfortunately somewhere between DHL and USPS in Denver the package went MIA. For a MONTH. I was in frequent contact with Lloyd in customer service. (BTW, I think everyone who works in CS uses Lloyd or he is one overworked dude.) Anyway, after lots of fear of being had and lots of assurances from Lloyd that they are legit, he offered to send a replacement. Sure enough a new kit was sent out and arrived in a timely manner. The original kit did eventually show up as well (it took a L O N G time) and Lloyd said to keep it. I give their customer Service top grades. They didn’t create the problem but they handled it. So the bag. I didn’t have time to work on the bags until the Christmas break. I relied on several tutorials makers have posted on YouTube as well as the Babylon Leather tutorial. If I could deduct 1/2 star for that tutorial I would. I had to slow it down to 25% most of the time and often it still doesn’t really show you what to do. The worst example is attaching the handles which coincidentally is the most difficult part of the assembly. It shows her starting the first stitch then jumps ahead to the next step. I searched for more videos and watched every one I could find but none of the makers spent a whole lot of time on this step either. Kind of makes me wish I had made a tutorial myself so I could focus on the parts everyone else glossed over. Anyway, moving on. The quality of the leather seems to be top notch. The holes line up perfectly. I loved the waxed thread which btw is plentiful so no need to skimp when measuring it out. I made both bags with one spool and didn’t use it all. I broke a lot of needles before I figured out that if you make sure the knot is below the needle it’s less prone to break. You also can’t wiggle the needles. They don’t like that. My only complaint on the hardware is that the lock feels cheaply made. I don’t really plan to use the lock so it probably doesn’t matter. The color? OMG the peacock blue is fabulous. Once done, the bag is beautiful and I will wear it with pride. I will gift the second bag to someone deserving. I’m giving Babylon Leather full marks but with the caveat that I would deduct half a star for the tutorial. The bag is beautiful and customer service is top notch. I highly recommend