Ready for a new adventure
It has been ages since I last updated my blog, and for that I’m extremely sorry! The last few months have been so busy with mask making that I’ve completely neglected my blog and you my readers. I know there are no excuses for this. But I promise to try and manage my time better in the future. Another reason I’ve been so busy lately was because I wanted to enter a bag into ithinksew’s summer competition. It didn’t take me long to pick a bag pattern. Ithinksew’s Brendan Backpack was already sitting on my to do pile – the competition gave me the perfect excuse to fast track the project!
Now you all know my love for bags and over the years I’ve made quite a few. What you probably don’t know, and I don’t think I ever mentioned it, was that backpacks were not my favourite type of bag. I used to always prefer crossbody and shoulder bags instead. I think partly because backpacks reminded me of the boring bags I had throughout high school, and partly because I didn’t find backpack designs very exciting. That was until very recently – where I’ve found a love for backpacks I’ve never had before! The designs I’m finding now, such as the Denver Backpack, are exciting and so different compared to years ago. And ever since I did my back, they are also a lot more practical to carry.
The Brendan Backpack is aimed towards Advanced Beginners. I think this is pretty accurate. You would certainly want to be fairly familiar with bag construction and confident installing zippers. There are probably a few things to keep in mind if you decide to make this bag. Firstly the instructions list a 9” zipper for the front pocket, but I found this was too long. It wouldn’t be a problem if you are using a nylon zipper since you can sew over the teeth. But I because I was using metal zippers I couldn’t do this. Luckily I had the same colour in an 8” zipper which I used instead.
Another thing I noticed was that there seemed to be a few steps missing in the instructions. Especially around the attachment of the front pocket. There wasn’t any information about how to treat the raw edges of the gusset when attaching the pocket to the bag. So I decided to hide the seams by folding the edges towards the lining of the pocket and then topstitching the pocket onto the front. Not very easy to do, considering how small the gusset is. I also didn’t like the raw edges inside the pocket so covered them with bias binding. It did make attaching the pocket harder though so I don’t know if I would do it again. I also found the written instructions for threading the backpack straps a bit confusing. In the end I just grabbed one of my store brought backpacks and copied how it was threaded.
The front pocket of this bag is it’s main feature and I just love the look of this type of pocket. Especially if it hass been attached correctly to the main bag. But actually sewing these pockets correctly is very difficult and I’ve never enjoyed sewing them. It’s just so hard to attach and have it look straight and neat. I found this pocket particularly hard to attach because of the narrow gusset (made harder by my bright idea of adding bias binding). I did make a small mistake when applying the pocket as the gusset bulges slight at the bottom, but decided not to try another attempt because the pocket was nice and straight.
I’m so happy with the end result and really love my Brendan Backpack. Luckily I finished it just in time to enter it into ithinksew’s Summer competition (along with my Shiloh Blouse). The cloud 9 fabric I used (Organic Meadow) really looks lovely with this style of backpack. And the style itself is quite unique and modern compared to most patterns. Certainly not your average backpack shape, which is one of the things I love about it. I’m not sure how practical my new backpack is yet, because we are still under restrictions. But the minute I’m allowed out I’ve got a new bag to take with me!
