A backpack is a great choice for sewing enthusiasts looking for a challenge. Backpack designs are popular options among beginner and intermediate sewers taking the next step. While the techniques themselves usually aren’t tricky, the thicker fabrics and pattern combinations can be. Let’s explore eight tips to make your project easier and more successful.
1. Follow a Guide
Creating a custom backpack design can be difficult even for advanced sewers. If this is your first project at this scale, you’ll want to follow a backpack pattern at least. The more in-depth the guide is the better. Backpack sewing often involves many components, including hardware, and the finished backpack will need to support significant weight.
2. Watch Videos
It can be a big help to watch other sewers tackle a project of this complexity. You may not be able to find a video where the sewer uses the same pattern you are, but that’s all right. The important thing is that you can see the hurdles you may encounter. Some of the videos are time-lapsed, which can make long sewing projects much more digestible.
3. Gather Your Supplies in Advance
Sewing a backpack requires a lot of supplies and perhaps much more than you may be used to. That includes the fabric but also webbing, interfacing, and hardware. Knowing what you’ll need will be a lot easier if you’re following a guide. Whether following a guide or not, acquiring everything you’ll need before you start will allow the process to unfold more smoothly.
4. Plan Your Space
Backpacks aren’t usually projects you can complete in one sitting. You may have dealt with such projects before, but a lot is going on when making backpacks. Cleanup and storage can be more difficult than you’re accustomed to. Know in advance how you’ll keep the backpack safe in between sewing sessions and how and where you’ll store your materials and tools.
5. Get Creative With Hardware
Unless you’re using a kit, you may find sourcing some of the hardware difficult. A pattern may, for instance, call for a specific zipper type you can’t find. That’s OK. You can be a little creative here, and that will even help make the backpack more your own.
6. Consider Interfacing Alternatives
Backpack patterns often call for thick interfacing, which is what gives a backpack its shape and sturdiness. For learning sewers, thick interfacing can lead to skipped stitches. If you haven’t mastered thicker materials yet, there are thinner interfaces available. Choose those instead, and upgrade to thicker interfaces with future projects as you become more comfortable.
7. Make Stich Guides
Some aspects of sewing a backpack may require you to make unrepairable holes. A common example of this is applying a leather patch. Using a guide will help you avoid big errors that force you to buy a new patch.
8. Take It One Step at a Time
A backpack is a big sewing project. Break it down into smaller goals. Even if you achieve just one goal every day or even week, you’re making progress.
When you start a sewing project to create a backpack, follow these tips so you can sew the backpack of your dreams.
