My oldest daughter wanted a new backpack. I made her one three years ago and while it is still in pretty good condition, she thought it was too small. Since I don’t just make bags whenever someone asks me to (not even if you are my child), I said she had to wait until her birthday. To make my life less complicated I made someone else’s pattern for a change. Figuring out how to sew my own designs usually takes up at least half of the construction time. She requested a bag that opens with a zipper and I liked the look of the Sew Sweetness Marlin Backpack pattern. I made the size small, which is still a relatively small backpack but definitely larger than the one she had.

With the Marlin backpack you have the option to only buy the pattern or to buy the pattern with an online workshop. Since I’ve made several bags before I decided to only get the pattern. When I first looked through the instructions, I was a bit lost and had trouble figuring out how everything was supposed to go together. When I simply started sewing and followed everything step-by-step it all started to make sense though. The one thing I did not like was that the image quality of the photos that illustrate the steps is not great. She also used a busy print for the sample bag which sometimes made it difficult to see certain details. Overall, I think this is a good pattern. Everything fit together well, I learned some new bag making tricks and ended up with a great looking bag.

Fabrics and interfacing

My daughter wanted a blue, green and orange backpack. The blue main outer fabric is a waxed canvas. For the bottom I used cork fabric, I love how this holds up over time. The other fabrics are all quilting cottons. I didn’t have enough of a single fabric in my stash to use for everything so I combined several different ones with similar colours.

The lining fabrics are interfaced with Vlieseline G700. The outer fabrics are interfaced with By Annie’s soft and stable. This was my first time using soft and stable and I am now a HUGE fan. This interfacing gives so much structure to your bag while it is still very lightweight.

There are a couple of places where Decovil Heavy is recommended, but since I already had Decovil Light I used that instead. For the strap overlay I used a single layer of Decovil Light. For the front pocket insert I fused the Decovil Light to another sturdy interfacing that I already had. I think both changes worked fine.

With all the interfacing and layers putting the bag together becomes a bit of next-level sewing machine wrestling to fit all through, but I managed. I should buy more wonder clips though… 

Construction changes Marlin backpack

The instructions tell you to interface the outer fabric with a medium weight fusible interfacing. For the pattern pieces that were made from waxed canvas I omitted this step. Waxed canvas is already quite sturdy on its own and doesn’t really need it. Additionally, fusing interfacing requires pressing with an iron. Ironing waxed canvas melts the wax in the canvas which may result in loss of its water and stain repelling qualities.

For the straps I used 1” wide webbing instead of fabric straps. I think webbing is more durable, looks very professional and it’s quicker. I didn’t really understand how I was supposed to guide the straps through the metal rectangles and sliders and used a single slider instead. 

To the front pocket I added a mesh pocket. This was simply a piece of mesh fabric with bias tape sewn to the top. The mesh was then placed on top of the lining piece and basted in place before using the panel to construct the bag.

My daughter loves her new Marlin backpack and I hope she’ll happily use it for several years to come.