my aunt saw a picture of my yellow raspberry rucksack and requested one for herself. it took me a long time, but i finally made one for her! i used grey waxed canvas for the exterior and some teal blue quilting cotton i got over 8 years ago for the interior. i wasn’t quite sure about using such a bright fabric for the interior – my natural instincts wanted to use a natural cotton canvas instead – but i gave it a try and it’s not half bad. my aunt liked it, which is all that really matters, and i enjoy the teal blue zipper because it contrasts nicely with the simple grey exterior.

THE POCKETS

she’s got three kids, so i included lots of pockets on the inside and two water bottle pockets on the side. one of my complaints about the fjallraven kanken design that sarah kirsten mimicked with this pattern is that there is a lack of side pockets that can really fit a water bottle. in my previous blue raspberry rucksack, i added a plain side pocket, which was very useful, but still couldn’t fit my largest nalgene bottle. this time, i tried a pleated pocket instead. it worked pretty well; the fit is good, though i goofed on the placement (1.5″ was too high from the bottom, next time i’ll go for 0.5″) and the pocket stays expanded, sticking off of the bag a little awkwardly when there’s nothing inside. arg. maybe fourth time will be the charm with this project? my next modification would be to include a drawcord across the top of the pocket to synch it shut. though honestly, i’m not the biggest fan of this bag design. i don’t like the front flap opening, because it’s difficult to reach items stashed towards the back and i feel like backpack falls apart when i open the front flap all the way. although i really want to nail the water bottle pocket, i will probably end up designing a different bag instead.

THE PROCESS NOTES

my long bag zipper became uneven at the ends because the zipper shifted when i sewed it in place, so i would recommend finding the middle and sewing outwards from there towards the bottom of the front flap piece. i think the evenness is worth the extra seconds of repositioning the bag to start from the middle both times. i finally put together the straps correctly on this bag – turns out i’ve been doing it wrong this whole time and that’s why my straps have always twisted. i did it right this time, and then went and fixed the straps on my other backpacks as well. it was very satisfying to get this right! and i really have no clue how/why i misinterpreted the instructions on my previous backpacks.