G4 Pack, Part 9: Finished

The front goes on

Last I left it, I just needed to sew the front panel and the collar on.  For some reason, I found the stitch attaching the front to the side was one of the hardest of the project.  With all the fabric there, I kept catching other parts in the seam, not realizing until the very end.  I guess just use more pins

Side/front detail

You can see that matching the curved piece of cordura to the straight edge of the ripstop forces you to make a few tucks–not a big deal.

The front fully attached

With the front panel attached, it was officially now a backpack.  Above, it’s stuffed with a sleeping bag to fill out its shape.

Next step, make the collar.

Loop and hook on the collar

The instructions don’t give you much information about attaching the hook and loop to the collar, but I found another version online that explained it a bit more thoroughly.  There are also some fairly serious mistakes in the instructions, but they were obvious enough that I could pick them out before I got too far along.  For example, the hook in the center of the collar should be attached to the wrong side of the ripstop.

Forming the casing and joining the ends

The other mistake is that the two sides need to be joined before you form the casing.  As you can see above I had to undo a bit of the casing so I could sew down the seam allowances on the collar seam.  Thus when you remake the casing, the openings will be double layered and more durable–nice.

Finished collar

Collar pinned to the pack

Next, the collar is attached to the pack.  Somehow, the circumference of the two matched up perfectly, so this was supposed to be a pretty simple seam.  Unfortunately, I ran out of bobbin thread, and my main spool was almost out as well.  This meant that I had to wind the bobbin a little without running out of spool thread.  Then the bobbin ran out again…etc.  Pro Fabrics sent me some 70% Polyester 30% Cotton thread in addition (I guess they ran out of the 100% Poly), but I was nervous about using that as cotton is supposed to be rubbish.

All done!

And that was that!  One (long, annoying) stitch and the pack is finished.

Collar detail

The final result

The final weight was 398 g = 14 oz, which means that the straps, buckles, etc. contributed 70 g to the total weight.  I’m pretty happy that it came in below a pound!

Hopefully I can try the pack out sometime soon to see if it actually works.