How to Make a Backpack from an old Men's Jacket

First, get yourself an old men’s jacket- they are a-plenty at any thrift or vintage shop. The bigger the better.

Detach the sleeves at the seem. Remove the collar and take out any shoulder pads or stuffing that’s going to get in your way.

Shape the bag, Rob arranges the front pockets of the jacket to be on the front of the bag so he folds the appropriate length over which is roughly four to five inches on each side. Now turn it inside out. Line up the fabric facing each other and sketch out your sewing line. Pin together and sew down your chalk line. Make you leave a half inch seem allowance on your excess fabric and cut off the remainder. Fold those strips down and sew along both sides.

Now to taper off the other sides. Make sure it’s still inside out, line up the new seem with the back seem of the jacket ad pin along the bottom of the jacket. To make sure you don’t sew over or cut into any of the pockets. Take a piece of chalk and rub over the edges of the pockets so you know where they while the jacket is inside out. Once the impressions of the pockets are visible, draw a line up both sides of the jacket and pin down each side. Sew a straight stitch down each side, allow a half inch seem allowance and cut off the excess and sew down both remaining strips. Once the bottom is sewed closed it’s time to square it up. To square the fabric, gather up the corners (still inside out) and make a triangle and pin together about an inch and a half from the tip, sew across, and cut off the excess. Repeat to other bottom corner.

Move to the upper part of the jacket. Turn right side out and cut across the jacket at the level of the arm pits to reveal the top of the bag. Shape the remaining fabric into a square and hem all remaining edges. Pin and hem the top opening of your bag. Pin down the coat lining of the jacket to secure it in place and sew a double hem to the top and sides of the bag. Next is the straps.

Take the sleeves back out and make a small incision at the end of the sleeve and tear open. Remove any lining or extra padding and lay it flat. Fold it over with the wrong sides together and measure out some two to three inch strips of fabric from the top to the bottom. Pin both sides of  fabric down right sides together and just sew down the line and cut them out. Flip them back right side out. Hem the edges of your straps and chalk out where they should go on your bag. This may take a few attemts of trying them on and figuring out where they are most comfortable. Once they’re in place, sew across them a couple of times to strengthen your straps. Lastly, but ultimately unnecessary (since the bag is now basically completed) but really cool- we trimmed down the front flap a little bit, added some Velcro to the inside pocket, threw on a few buttons to flap for fasteners, and spray painted a little stencil to finish it off. Et voila! A new backpack!