Cheap Comfortable Waterproof Carry-on Size Backpack

Hi, everyone,

this is my first Instructable and I want to share this backpack I recently made :)

I'm not professional and still have to learn a lot.

It took me around 2-3 months to complete but worked once a week. I think it could be completed in few weekends.

Total cost was ~30£

• Waterproof fabric ( ~ 2 x 1.5meters)
• Fabric for lining ( ~ 1.8 x 1.5meters)
• Fabric for padding ( ~1.5 x 1.5m)
• Big zipper (0.85m)
• Smaller zipper(0.48m)
• Light flexible plastic for the back (0.05 x 0.3m) x 2 pieces (I used some kind of plastic that I found laying around)
• Bias tape ( ~3 m)

Keep in mind that if you change the design or size you will require more/less of the fabric.

Also:

• Scissors
• Sewing machine
• Fabric glue (optional)

Before I started sewing this backpack and sketched a bit (I'm not that good at it tho) and came up with few specifications.

• Waterproof
• Minimalist design
• Have a pockets for pens
• Have a pocket for 15.6 inc laptop
• Could be opened almost fully
• Comfortable
• Have a back support

This part the trickiest and takes the most patience but practice makes it perfect. I started by cutting all the pieces than sewing padding to it. To the back I sew to pieces of plastic because I wanted to be hard before that covering with padding. After this comes time to add lining and then sewing all the pieces together. I did this in this order :

Sewing :

• all the pieces individually
• front pocket with the zipper to front piece
• straps and to the back piece
• side pockets to side pieces
• zipper to side piece
• side piece to back ( I recommend doing this first instead of front because it's harder to reach back)
• back with front

I found sewing bias tape to raw edges inside of the backpack too complicated so instead I decided to use fabric glue to do the trick :)