US2450040A - Combined shopping bag and handbag - Google Patents

Description

Sept. 28, 1948. w. P. GIBSON COMBINED SHOPPING BAG AND HANDBAG Filed March 5, 1948 INVENTOR. hJl-umw PFTRICK G Patented Sept. 28, 1948 g.

COMBINED SHOPPING BAG AND HANDBAG William Patrick Gibson, Plainfleld, N. 1., asslgnor to Holdall Bag Company, Inc., New York, N. Y.

Application March 5, 1948, Serial No. 13,150 1 Claim. (01. 150-437) 1 This invention relates to bags, and more particularly, is concerned with convertible bags of the typewhich can be changed by folding from a large to a small size or vice versa.

It is an object of the invention to provide a foldably convertible bag of the character described which can be quickly and easily converted from its large to its small size and back again.

It is another object of the invention to provide a foldably convertible bag which can be manufactured at a low cost and which, when fully folded, is not unduly bulky and closely simulates a conventional pocketbook.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a foldably convertible bag which may be reduced to its small size with a minimum number of folds.

It is an additional object of the invention to provide a foldably convertible bag in which one or more special pockets are incorporated in such fashion that they are convenient to use when the bag either is in folded or unfolded condition.

It is yet another object of the invention to provide a foldably convertible bag which, when fully folded has no gaping openings to indicate that the bag is anything else but a pocketbook.

Other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and in part will be pointed out hereinafter.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combinations of elements, and arrangements of parts which will be exemplified in the bag hereinafter described and of which the scope of application will be indicated in the appended claim.

In the accompanying drawings in which is shown one of the various possible embodiments of the invention:

Fig. l is a front view of a fully folded bag con-- structed in accordance with the invention;

Fig. 2 is a side view of said folded bag, but indicating in dot-and-dash lines the appearance of the bag at the first step of its unfoldinge'xpansion to a larger size;

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 1, but showing the bag after the first step of its unfolding expansion;

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3, but showing the bag after the'second step of its unfolding expension; and

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the bag as it appears when fully unfolded.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, the reference numeral l denotes a bag made in accordance with my invention. For convenience of 2 description, the construction of said bag will be outlined with reference to Fig. 5. Said bag comprises a long, broad fabric strip which is doubled over to form two side panels l2, I! which are stitched together along the side edges i6, i8 of the bag and are joined by a bottom fold IS. The upper edges 20, 22 of the side panels are provided with suitable handles, such as the strap handles 24, 26. The ends of the handle are secured, as

by stitching to the upper edges of the bag. For a reason which will later be apparent the ends of the handles are located at points spaced inwardly from the side edges of the bag an amount not exceeding, and preferably slightly less than, onequarter of the'width of the side panels.

One side panel, e. g. the panel I2, has permanently secured to it, as by a line of stitching 28, a cover panel of flexible material. This flexible material, although it may be of any type well known to the art, preferably is of the kind having at least one surface thereof resembling the exterior surface of a conventional handbag.

- Thus, the cover panel may be made, out of a plastic material like a vinyl copolymer or any other well known synthetic plastic, and the exterior surface thereof finished to resemble leather or fabric. The height of the cover panel is slightly more than double the height of the bag when in its fully folded form, and the width of said panel that the side and cover panels are'free from one another except along the boundary of the cover panel. However, the line of stitchicng 28 does not joi the cover and side'panels to one another along their upper edges between the two ends of the associated strap handle. These edge portions of 'the two panels have attached thereto in some suitable manner, as for example by stitching, two mating slide fastener stringers 32, 34 which are provided with a conventional slider 36 adapted to mesh or unmesh the slide fastener elements ofsaid stringers. It will be appreciated that when the slider is pulled toward the permanent'bottom stop 313 access will be had thereby to the compartment between the cover and side panels. Moreover, this access is limited toslightly less than one half the height of the cover panel by a line of stitching. 40 parallel to the upper and lower edges of the cover panel and extending between the side edges of said panel along a zone spaced from the edge 22 a distance equal to the height of the fully folded bag.

The bag is provided with three sets of rapidly attachable detaching means of the type which secure local attachment. kind and which is preferably employed in my invention is snap fasteners. One set of snap fasteners consists of the male and the female halves 42, 44. These are disposed in vertical registry adjacent the side edges of the cover panel,

A typical means of this the two halves being disposed equidistantly from the line of stitchirg 4D. The second set of snap fasteners constitutes the male and female halves 46, 48 which are disposed in Vertical registry adjacent the other side edge of the cover panel. The snap fasteners of the second set are horizontally registered with the snap fasteners of the first set. The third set of snap fasteners comprises the male and female halves 50, 52. Said last pair of snap fasteners likewise are in vertical registry. However, they are not both located on the cover panel. Only the lower snap fastener half 50 is disposed on said panel, being located midway between the side edges of the cover panel 30. The other snap fastener 52 of this pair is on the inner surface of the side panel l2. Attention is directed to the fact that the first and second set of snap fasteners are located between the ends of the handles and the side edges of the cover panel.

The reason for the particular arrangement of the snap fasteners and handles and for the size and location of the cover panel now will be apparent from the following description of the manner in which the bag is folded to reduce it from the large size shown in Fig. 5 to the compact size shown in Fig. 1.

The bag first is folded about a horizontal line 54 (see Fig. 4) which is slightly above the bottom edge 56 of the panel 3,0. This line will take on the form of a crease after the bag once is folded by the manufacturer or user, or, if desired, a permanent crease may be formed in the bag along this line in any manner well known in the art. The distance from the fold line 54 to the top edges 20, 22 of the bag is double the height of the fully folded bag. The distance from the fold line 54 to the bottom edge IQ of the bag is slightly less than one-third of the full height of the side panels. The fold about the line 54 should be made in such fashion that the surfaces of the bag brought into contact by making the fold are those of the side panel M, i. e., the side panel which does not have the cover panel thereon.

It is pointed out that the fold line 54 is disposed between the'snapfastener half 50 on the one hand and the pair of snap fastener halves 42, 48 on the other, whereby, after the fold is made, the snap fastener half 50 is on one side of the bag, and the snap fastener halves 42, 48 are on the other side. The snap fastener half 52 is spaced from the fold line 54 a distance equal to the space from its mating half 52 to the top edge 22 of the side paneli2.

Next the two lateral portions of the bag are folded over on to the side of the bag having the already folded bottom portion thereon. At this time the bag, will have the appearance shown in Fig. 3. These second fold-s are made about the vertical fold lines 58;" 60. Each of said lines is disposed between one end of a handle and the associated set of vertically registered snap fastener halves so that'when this second folding has half 52, if the upper central portion 62 of the panel M be disregarded or folded down as seen in Fig. 3.

The third or last fold takes place about the horizontal fold line 64 midway between the fold line 54 and the upper edge of the bag. Inasmuch as the snap fastener halves 42, 50 and 48 are spaced from the fold line 54 a distance equal, respectively, to the spacing of the upper snap fastener halves 44, 52 and 46 from said fold line, the various halves of each set of snap fasteners will, upon this last folding be in registry and opposition (the portion 62 having been folded down), so that the two halves of each set can be detachably secured and hold the bag in its fully folded position shown in Fig. 1.

In Figs. 2, 3 and 4 I have indicated by arrows the directions in which the various portions of the bag are unfolded when the bag is being expanded.

It will be noted that when the bag is folded, the line of stitching 40 is at the bottom of the bag, coincident with the fold line 64, so that the compartment to which access is had through the opened slide fastener is limited both by the bottom of the bag and by the stitching 40. It also will b noted that, inasmuch as the cover panel 30 is slightly more than twice the size or the fully folded bag, the edges of the panel are infolded so that the bag will simulate a conventional hand- It thus will be seen that I have provided a bag which achieves the several objects 01 my invention and is well adapted to meet the conditions of practical use.

As various possible embodiments might be made of the above invention, and as various changes might be made in the embodiment above set forth, it will be understoodthat all matter contained herein is to be interpreted as illustrative, and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

A foldable convertible bag comprising two coextensive side panels joined to one another along the side and bottom edges of the bag, a pair of handles, one associated with each of the upper edges of the side panels, a flexible cover panel superimposed upon one of said side panels, the side edges of said cover panel being disposed between the side edges of the bag and the ends of the handles and the bottom edge of the cover panel being spaced from the bottom edge-of the bag, the width of said cover panel being in excess of the width of the folded bag and the height of the cover panel being in excess of twice the height of the folded bag, the upper edge of said cover panel being in registry with the upper edge of the side panel on which it is disposed, said bag being adapted to be folded to a smaller size by folding the side and cover panels first near the bottom and then near the side edges of the cover panel and then by folding the side and cover panels in half parallel to the upper edges of the side panels, means to detachably secure the folded portions of the bag together, stitching to secure the periphery of the cover panel to its associated 5 side panel except between the ends or the handles, and means to detachably attach the remainder of the cover panel to the registered edges of the side panel along their lengths.

WILLIAM PATRICK GIBSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the tile of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Number Berlrowltz Aug. 24, 1926 Number 3 1,606,107 1,719,455 1,730,603 5 1,990,360 2,036,326

Number 10 1 254,847 306,267

- Great Britain Feb. 21, 1020

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