Sew a Stylish Roll-Top Backpack for Travel

As I mentioned in one of my recent posts, I didn’t do much sewing last year.
But one project I did manage to finish is this roll-top backpack.
I’ve always liked roll-top backpacks. If you don’t have much in your backpack, you can roll it up small. But you can also use it when you want to carry a lot.

The last time I was on a beach vacation, my goddaughter saw a roll-top backpack that she really liked. Luckily for me, the quality of that backpack was very poor. That gave me the idea to sew one for her.
I used the same waterproof canvas as I did for the cat fanny pack.

https://justelly.com/2026/04/05/diy-fanny-pack-for-cat-lovers/

I knew very early on what colors I wanted for the backpack.
I also knew I wanted graphics that reflected her hobbies: traveling and photography.
I spent ages thinking about what I could do. And then, of course, it took a while to find the graphics I had in mind online.
I found the road sign and the backpack pretty quickly. But finding the stick figure with the camera took a while.
I modified the road sign a bit and added the names of the cities she’d been to.

The backpack measures 24 by 14 inches. So there’s definitely enough room to fit a camera kit inside.

When rolled up, the backpack is almost half the size, hehe

Here’s a close-up of the graphic.
I had asked the employee at the copy shop to thicken ALL the black lines. Apparently, he forgot to do that for the backpack in the graphic. Unfortunately, the lines there are thinner.

Years ago, I saw this fabric online. And of course, I DIDN’T buy it because I didn’t have any use for it in my projects. 😀
I searched for it all over the internet and finally found it in Poland. It was crazy expensive, but it was worth it to me. This fabric was the perfect finishing touch for the design on the outside.

I think the backpack turned out great ❤

I so love my self made tartan jacket

Today I show again a part that has taken a little longer.
I had worked last year and the year before last on the raincoat.

At some point I just could not see this yellow fabric anymore. So I just put the coat aside and started with a new jacket that I wanted to make for a long time.

I have an older jacket that I totally love the pattern of. The jacket is light and for summer when it is sometimes cloudy or windy.

This is the jacket I wanted to copy

Jacket-2023-2

Jacket-2023-1

Because the pattern is very similar from a zip-up hoodie, I used such a pattern.
The only difference was that I had to make the cut much larger as indicated. Sweatshirt fabric is stretchy, but my tartan fabric is not.
I just used my jacket as a pattern for the size. Because I knew it would fit me well.

I left out the pocket on the sleeve. On my original jacket, I never used it.

For the back I added such a piece, as you have it, for example, also on the trench coat. No idea what it’s called.
Unfortunately, in the picture it looks like the plaid pattern of it doesn’t fit exactly. But that seems to be because the jacket is hanging on the hanger. When I have the jacket on, the piece and back pattern fit perfectly.

Jacket-2023-5

Tartan fabric quickly looks too much if you don’t work with contrasts. I chose white because you can see the contrast really well and it spices up the jacket.

Jacket-2023-6

The pockets for the new jacket are similar to those from the old one. Here too, as with everything else, I have chosen white zippers as a contrast

Jacket-2023-7

With tartan I associate Scotland, history, past, kings, queens.
That’s why I wanted to have an “old-fashioned” embroidery on the jacket. I thought long and hard about what to embroider on the jacket. Then I found this embroidery with the crown on Etsy.
Now I just needed matching fonts for my name.
This font is called Old English. While embroidering these letters, I sat at my machine and had to recite the alphabet because I just didn’t recognize some of the letters. 😀

Jacket-2023-8

And to give the back of the jacket some contrast, I embroidered two ribbons with the same font.

Jacket-2023-4

What else happened this year?
My fabric store, where I went every Saturday for sewing classes, is closing for good next week Saturday. That is such a shame. You knew all the salespeople, they were incredibly helpful. I’m going to miss them. 😦
Our Saturday group has been offered an alternative starting in April, but we’ll see if the class can be held there on Saturdays. Unfortunately, I have to work during the week and can not go to a class.

After 3 years, it also hit me at the end of February with Corona. And that, although I have 3 vaccinations! It was pretty intense. I am not fit yet. The whole day only exhausted and tired and could only sleep. Hope that passes soon.

My wish sweater

Do you like knitted warm sweaters? Yes? Me too.

But my problem is that when I knit it myself it doesn’t look nice. I already tried to improve it by using different needles for right and left rows. Nevertheless, I didn’t like the result very much.

For a long time I was looking for someone to knit me sweaters according to my patterns. On the internet I found people who knit sweaters as an order. But I was looking for someone nearby to discuss wool, patterns and so on.

And then I was in a shop that sold homemade things for someone. There were sewn bags and pillows AND knitted stockings.
Of course, I immediately asked if she accepted orders. That’s how I met Hanna. She lives in my city which was important for me.

Today I want to show you the fourth sweater – my favourite so far.

Anyone who has read other postings from me knows that I love applications and nautical motifs.
OK, I didn’t want applications on my sweater. So I thought, why not embroider the sweater?

I found a site on the internet where you can buy embroidery designs. https://www.lesbrodeusesparisiennes.com/en/les-/660-le-grand-abc-rivages-a-broder-au-point-de-croix.html (no, I don’t advertise them or get anything from them)

Actually it should say “LA MER” on the sweater, but Hanne said it would be much too big.

That’s why I chose the embroidery pictures WITHOUT the letters.

FRONT

Knitted and embroidered sweater 01

BACK

Knitted and embroidered sweater 03

Here are the embroideries on the sweater

Knitted and embroidered sweater 02

Knitted and embroidered sweater 04

Knitted and embroidered sweater 05

Knitted and embroidered sweater 06

I love this sweater ❤ ❤ ❤
Since this week Hanna is embroidering an advent calendar for me. So for each day a Christmas motif. Then I want to sew bags out of it. Unfortunately she won’t be able to finish it this year. Too much to embroider and I still have to sew afterwards.