Eli of Lemolo

Lemolo bags is a small two man operation fronted by Eli, the nicest guy I met in Portland, but everyone there is super nice, weirdly enough. His shop is in a shared artist space that is a partitioned off old building. It is located in the warehouse area close to the water underneath the Morrison bridge. It's a really beautiful site that would make anyone happy about going in to sew for a few hours. The setup is really modest with two old industrial machines, a nice sized cutting table and a small but choice collection of fabrics in wonderful colors. Eli focuses on backpacks and panniers which have a great level of workmanship.


I cut out of my geology conference during lunch hour to chat with him a bit. We ended up talking about all sorts of fun things, bags, sewing, workmanship, custom bikes, old Japanese trucks. I caught myself staring at his beautiful sewing machine tattoo too much. His tattoo really shows how sewing gets into your blood. His mom taught him, like many of us who find sewing as a part of life, but he had a grandfather that used to work on machines, so it's really in his blood. He started out by making a bag for himself, then a friend, and word travels fast in bike-centric communities and he has been sewing up bags for three years or so now. He was a one man operation until recently an old Seagull Bags seamster moved to Portland and started working for him. He cuts all the bags himself so he has control over the colors. When you look at a Lemolo bag that is one of the first things that you notice is the wonderful color combinations or naturals and pastels.


What else is there to say? I gave in one of the wool hats made out of one of Andrew's favorite old wool shirts that made it into the dryer one too many times, and a bag of chocolates that look like rocks that I snagged from the geo conference. He gave me some great tips on fabric distributors that are competitive to Seattle Fabrics where Russell at Psychlist has been ordering from so far. It must be really nice to live in a place where you can ride your bike to a fabric store and roll out with bolts of cordura on your front rack, although Eli says the travel with that kind of cargo can be a little scary. It was a great visit and I am so grateful to Eli for being so nice enough to show me his shop. I am tempted to move up here and sew for him (it was offered, jokingly), but overall I'm really excited to meet like-sewingloving peeps who enjoy sewing as a way to be involved in the cycling community. So that's all I have to share, but meeting Eli was an unforgettable experience, and I hope we keep in touch.

Check out Lemolo's site here.