Been working on this on and off for about three weeks and finally handed it over yesterday. It's a full size backpack in black, with a green accent band across the front beacuse my daughter picked the color combo herself and refused every suggestion otherwise. I started from a PDF pattern but ended up changing a lot of it, mostly making the whole thing bigger so it fits school books and a lunch bag. The gusset nearly broke me. Getting those corners to fold clean took three tries, and I learned the hard way that skiving the fold lines makes all the difference. The flap wanted to curl too, so I wet molded it over a stack of books and let it sit overnight. Stitching everything by hand with white thread took me two evenings on the couch while my wife watched her shows. Hardware was the fun part. Magnetic snaps hidden under the front band, plus a D-ring so she can clip a key fob on. I burnished the edges with gum trag and dye and they came out way better than I expected for a first attempt at this scale. She's alredy stuffed it full and taken it to school, so I guess it holds up.
Finished my daughter's backpack this weekend - first bag bigger than a wallet
Oct 28, 2026
Last reply: 1 hour ago
6 Replies
I remember my first big project was making a small satchel for my nephew last winter. I used some medium weight cowhide that I sourced locally. My biggest headache wasn't the sewing, but actually getting the piece to behave. I had followed a template for the main body but realized the leather was stretching more than I anticipated during the assembly. If I hadn't adjusted my pattern cuts, the whole bag woud have been too stiff and hard to carry. So, I ended up adding about a quarter inch to the seam allowances on the side panels to give the hides some room to move. It made the initial cutting tedious, but the finished product had a much better drape. Getting the grommets set in the strap ends required a bit of patience, especally since I was working with a slightly thicker hide grade than I originally intended for a smaller bag. It was a learning expirience, but it ended up looking great. It seems like scaling up, like making something for a child, really changes the dynamics of working with the material.
I had a similar project with a messenger bag for my son, but I took a different approach to the stress points. Since it was meant to carry heavy textbooks, I wanted to make sure the single D-ring connection wouldn't tear under load. I decided to reinforce the grommet area with a small piece of heavy gauge brass strap, which I soldered over the leather before stitching it down. It felt more industrial, but it gave me real peace of mind about the longevity.
I always worry about the tension where the shoulder strap meets the main body. In my case, I used a double row of saddle stitching right along that curve. It takes way more time than a single pass, but it relly binds the leather togather, making the point feel solid instead of just tacked on. The original poster mentioned using white thread for hand-stitching; I found a slightly thicker black waxed linen thread works better when you're dealing with that kind of high strain. I also noticed the pattern for the main body of the bag was quite wide at the top. When I adjusted mine, I found that the top edge of the pocket needed to be about a quarter inch narrower than the main body panel to prevent any twisting when the bag is full. Small things like that make the whole thing feel much more professional than just guessing while sewing.
I tried making a small pouch for my niece last year and I was worried about the leather tearing when I sewed it together. I didn't know how to reinforce things so I just made the pieces a bit bigger than I thought they needed to be. It took a long time to cut everthing out because I wanted the edges to look nice too. I think just making the pieces a little wider helped so the stitching didn't rip. What kind of leather do you usually use when you are just starting out?
I had a lot of trouble making the main bag body hold its shape when I was working on a medium-sized haul sack last year. The leather just kept collapsing toward the bottom. The only way I managed to get the structure right was by using a thick piece of buckram inside the base, which gave it the needed rigidity before I even started sewing the side panels. It felt wierd to add anything inside a leather project, but without it, the whole thing looked flimsy after a couple of weeks. It made the load much more stable, which was the goal since it needed to carry heavy things. Sometimes you just need an internal structure to support the skin.
I was trying to make a smaller tool roll last month. My main issue was just getting the pieces cut right because the leather isn't always the same size when you buy it. I kept having to trim the edges just to make the pattern fit, which was kind of annoying. It made me wonder if I should be using a pre-cut kit instead of my own template for something this small. I'm still figuring out how to keep my lines straight without a massive ruler, it's not as easy as it looks.
Update: the backpack survived two full weeks of school now. The reply about reinforcing around the D-ring got me thinking, so I added a leather patch behind mine over the weekend since I'd only stitched it to the band. Also she overpacked it one day and the base sagged like that haul sack poster described, so a stiff insert went in the bottom. Holding shape fine since.
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