I’m back at it with another sewing tutorial! This is one of the most fun projects that I have made in a good long while. It involved some number crunching to come up with the tutorial, but now that all of the tedious parts are done, you guys can skip right to sewing a color-blocked backpack. This is a DIY backpack that you will actually want to use and will be so proud wearing it. Let’s jump into the tutorial. Fair warning- there are a lot of steps to this project. But while it is a more time-consuming project, it is still relatively easy. All straight lines!
- canvas fabric
- patterned or colored fabric
- canvas cording
- 1.5 in canvas webbing
- 1.5 inch slide buckles
- 1.5 in rectangle buckles
- Coats & Clark Extra Strong Upholstery Thread in Natural
- 14″ Coats & Clark Tim Holtz Eclectic Elements Zipper in Natural
- sewing clips
- sewing pins
- rotary cutter
- fabric scissors
- erasable marker or pen
MEASURMENTS
Front and Back Pieces (2) – 16 by 11 in
Side Pieces (2) – 9 by 7 in
Top Piece (1) – 22 by 7 in
Bottom Piece (1) – 11 by 7 in
Pocket (1) – 11 by 7 in
Straps (2)- 40 in
Strap Connectors (2)- 2 in
Handle (1)- 12 in
Step One: Fold the strap connector over one side of the rectangular buckle. Attach the two ends with a pin. Fold the strap over the other side of the buckle. Add the slide buckle to the strap so that it is adjustable. Repeat this process for the other strap.
Step Two: Attach the straps to the right side of the back piece with pins. The ends with the strap connectors should be attached to the bottom 1.5 inches from the side edges. The other ends should be attached to the top 3 inches from the side edges.
Step Three: Attach the handle just outside of straps with pins as well.
Step Four: Hem one long edge of the pocket piece 1/2 inch.
Step Five: With both pieces facing right side up, attach the pocket piece to the front piece with pins.
Step Six: Sew a recessed zipper into the center of the top piece. I love how this Tim Holz Eclectic Elements Sipper from Coats & Clark looks with the canvas fabric! If you need more instructions on how to do this step, check out this helpful instruction guide.
Step Seven: Clip a side piece to both short ends of the top piece and sew them together.
Step Eight: Clip and sew the side pieces to the bottom piece so that it makes a large loop of all four pieces.
Step Nine: With the loop facing right sides out, attach the back piece so that the straps are facing inwards . Align it with the bottom first, then clip up the sides, and across the top. Then sew. Once you have the back attached, make sure the zipper is unzipped at least halfway and then attach the front the same way making sure the pocket is facing inwards.
Once you flip it right side out, you have an amazing backpack that is sewn by the one and only! I love the look of this backpack. Upon first glance, the 16 by 11 size may seem small, but it is actually a good-sized backpack as you can tell in these photos. I think the 7 inch deep sides help a lot because I am able to hold a lot of stuff in this backpack. I purposely made mine pretty lightweight, but you could easily add some stabilizes, even foam interfacings to give it more body and stability. I hope you all enjoyed this project! As always, if you have any questions or get stuck along the way don’t hesitate to reach out to me for help and guidance!
