Urban explorer's patches

The first step in creating the kit bag is to make up some of the cool patches that adorn the outside of the bag. Templates and instructions for the ones I'm making will be included in the downloadable instruction sheets at the end of the project.

If you're not keen on making your own patches and doing your own embroidery, you could collect vintage patches from charity shops; or you might already have a collection of souvenir patches from a recent holiday that you could use.

The patch at left, for example, is one I bought at the Buffalo Naval Park in western New York state. I chose it as my souvenir because the open book, pen and keys mean it's the insignia for a media officer on a ship (the closest I could get to a writer and editor—my day job).

The patches I'm designing for the Urban Explorer's Kit Bag are more cartoonish than this one. There's a groovy "peace" symbol; a rectangle that has a date on it (Shaun uses 1974 in the illustrations—maybe because that's the year he was born—I've picked 2012); a label with a short message or name and address; and a wiggly arrow like the ones in The Lost Thing.