Finally, a project post for the travel backpack that consumed my life for a month. I posted about my self-induced struggles with it when it was done, but now I’ve taken it on a trip so I can give a full report.
We’ve seen this shot before but I wanted to show off the stripe webbing and accent zips again:

And here she is packed within an inch of her life. When I installed the recommended #10 zipper for the main compartment, I thought it was overkill–but I’m glad I listened to the instructions in this case, because I’m not sure a #5 zip would have made it:

The pattern suggested a way to make the backpack straps detachable so you could stow them behind the back panel; I didn’t use the silk clips as suggested because I had G-hooks in my stash. They worked pretty well (no accidental detaching so far):

And here they are stashed. The pattern left the back panel design pretty open to interpretation–it gave construction info but no pattern pieces, just inspiration photos. I ended up drafting a piece with curved sides that could also be a sleeve for a rolling luggage handle. (You can see how the whole thing sits crooked in this angle; yes that’s going to bother me forever.)

Other than being bothered by my construction mistakes, was it functional? Yes, overall! I had a moment where I thought a 32L would be TOO big, so I sized the pattern down 10% when I printed it and ended up with a 29-ishL size. Honestly, I could have used that extra 10% and I think it still would have fit under the airline seat.
The pockets were everything I wanted, though, and the fact they didn’t share volume with the main compartment really helped with packing. The front panel pocket fit the carry-on toiletries and the back laptop pocket fit my tech stuff and knitting. I ended up padding the laptop pocket with 2mm EVA foamĀ (on the back panel) and some Soft and Stable (on the inside panel).

I added interior pockets, too, but I didn’t really use them. You can barely see the inside lid mesh pocket in this picture but that was fun to add. (You can also see the hinge about an inch off-center in this interior shot.)

Am I proud of this, despite my errors? Yes. I was at a Cotopaxi store after I finished this and looked at their bags–and while they weren’t sewn crooked, the stitch quality and fabric weights just weren’t as nice as mine. My bag fit a weekend’s worth of clothes and in-flight entertainment and was comfortable to wear through airports, which were exactly my goals.
The details:
- Pattern: Prickly Gorse/MYOG Tutorials “TRVL 32L: Travel Backpack“
- Outer canvas: 600 Denier Magnatuff Plus Polyester from The Rain Shed
- Inner lining: Nylon Taffeta from The Rain Shed
- Mesh for inside lid pocket: KoolKnit Mesh from The Rain Shed
- Stretch mesh for side pocket: Brown Power Net from The Rain Shed
- #10 zippers for main compartment: The Zipper Lady
- #5 zippers for pockets: Wawak
- Gucci stripe webbing: Sewtopia (the link is to 1.5″ but they had 1″ in store, which is what I used)
- Back panel spacer mesh: in stash, originally from Salt Lake Sewciety
- 2mm EVA foam for straps and back panel: in stash, originally from Amazon
- Grosgrain binding in stash, originally from Wawak (huge rolls!)
- Assorted foldover elastics and hardware from stash