While most things fea­tured here at Se­cret Forts only get bet­ter with age, there does arise the even­tual oc­ca­sion for mend­ing, darn­ing and up­grad­ing. Picked up at a flea mar­ket some years ago, this selvedge HBT tote has al­ways been a fa­vorite of mine for its sim­plic­ity. And as most things do as a re­sult of con­stant use, it be­gan falling apart. This is where it helps to have friends who prac­tice a craft, know what they’re do­ing and do it ex­cep­tion­ally well (*that would be Chris and Lind­say at Stan­ley & Sons) and who don’t mind be­ing asked a fa­vor of that when put up against meet­ing pro­duc­tion dead­lines and other more press­ing busi­ness, un­der­stand­ably drops to some­where near the bot­tom of the “to-do” list. Well worth the wait. What’s old is new again.

I had asked Chris to re­place the carry han­dles, add the ex­te­rior and in­te­rior pock­ets and ba­si­cally just make it awe­somer. Mis­sion ac­com­plished.
An enor­mous thanks to good pals Chris and Lind­say at Stan­ley & Sons for hu­mor­ing my re­quests. And oh yeah, Stan­ley & Sons is now on In­sta­gram. You know what to do…

then

now


then



now


then




now (in­te­rior)