What with the Easter bank holiday weekend falling so close to a full moon, we'd had this trip planned to coincide with Tommo's week off (night shifts don't half mess with one's social life) for some time.
The numbers of interested parties cropping up on the Facebook page [no link for this one - "it's a secret..."] seemed to be climbing, so the bivi spot of choice needed to be fairly accommodating - the spot near Wiggonholt Common that Hoops and I had scoped out several months ago seemed perfect...

So... I'd already made the frame-bag a few months ago, and this had proved invaluable for the bike-packing treks we'd done thus far (by treks, I really mean short distance overnighters...!).
Ray had turned up one evening with his wildcat-gear mountain lion bar harness and I was suitably impressed.
Impressed enough to want one. But not impressed enough to buy one...
I could feel a 'make' coming on...!

Continuing on the bike-packing theme, I saw this tiny frying pan in IKEA and thought it would be perfect for a quick fry-up on the hills (as you do..).
It was only a few quid so worth a punt!
The issue was that the handle was both large (it's all relative) and possibly unnecessary. Thus, the opportunity to remove it was born...

Although you can now get frame-bags from plenty of places (Alpkit and Wildcatgear to name just a few UK places),I quite fancied having a go at making my own as there's an large element of satisfaction in doing/making something yourself (one of my favourite quotes was hearing the reply a father gave to his son when he was bragging on about his iPhone - "you didn't make it son, you just bought the damn thing!").
Also - I'm a cheapskate and if I can buy the raw materials for a tenth of the price of a finished item, all the merrier! (This of course ignores the fact that when you take into account the standard hourly rate for my 'day job', the process of making anything generally equates to significantly more than it would cost to buy over the counter.... hey hum, it's fun!).
The fabric I used came from a decent on-line company; Point North. For the bags I've made I used ripstop nylon and 4oz coated nylon. I ordered a few samples in and the 2oz nylon felt too lightweight.. The ripstop nylon is still really lightweight, but I stabbed it and pulled at it, and it held up just fine! You can see it's only about £5 for 100x150cm, which is plenty for at least 2 bags! Bargain!
If you can get a waterproof zip, your bag will most likely be more waterproof that if you can't. I couldn't. Ho hum. 
The first step was to have a peek about on YouTube as to how others have made their bags - there were several guides on there, and in a way what follows is sort of a translation of a few of the video guides on-line. Not much in this life remains original, and I'm not going to pretend this bag is any different!!