u/Worried-You9307

Just finished this quick and dirty mini project of finally sewing a fabric cover for my blank pot cozy.

The insulation is some kind of aluminium (?) coated foam that was taken from a windshield cover. I’d double layered in both directions, so in theory it should also be possible to keep contents cool.

Fabric is a Cordura of unknown weight.

It’s designed to fit a 750ml pot or a 550ml pot with an additional collapsible cup and a drip coffee filter.

I want to make a fancy pack with a compartment for my glasses/sunglasses and want to use the same fabric as in one of my sling bags (as shown in the photo).

Does anyone know what kind of fabric this is or what an equal fabric might work for this purpose?
This fabric is soft and thin, so not fluffy like fleece or terry cloth.

Thanks for the help!

This weekend’s project: dry bags made from 20D ripstop nylon, TPU coated on both sides.
I’m a bit paranoid about electronics getting wet since I trashed my phone on the second day of a three week vacation during a kayaking trip. That’s why I always wanted a small dry bag for phone, power bank, wall charger and head phones.

Now I made one myself. No-sew heat bonded with ~5mm seams (never doing heat bonding on such narrow seams ever again!), using a regular clothes iron. I had experimented with this before, but this fabric was especially sensitive to temperature, pressure and duration. Turned out well anyways, it’s 100% waterproof, if rolled up without folds.

I don’t know how to create captions for the pictures, so:

Pictures 1/2: dry bag unrolled/closed,
Picture 3: detail of finished bonded seam,
Picture 4: creating “basting points” on a seam,
Picture 5: series of basting points, each one indicated with seam clips,
Picture 6: bonding of seam with the edge of the iron. After that, the seam was folded over and bonded flat. I used a Teflon fabric to avoid the tpu from sticking to the iron, it also adds an interesting texture to the seam itself

I’ve finally gotten around to finish sewing a backpack, for which I had the fabric panels already cut and lying around for quite some time but didn’t get to it. Now that it’s done, I’m really happy about it, despite some minor flaws.

The pack it’s about 35ish litres in volume at a weight of 705g in this configuration, so without a hip belt. I couldn’t find the time to make one, so I used one of a previous pack in combination with the provisional lumbar pad. The weight doesn’t include the thumb loops, because they’re detachable and only used when I don’t have a shoulder strap pocket and a bottle holder attached to the straps.

The fabrics i used are x-pac x21 rc, a lightweight 4-way-stretch mesh, a thin 3d air mesh for the trampoline and some regular 3d mesh for straps and the lumbar pad.

The frame is made from two 12*2mm flat strips made from pultruded carbon and they’re inserted into sleeves that are made from folded nylon webbing. They’re held in place with a Velcro tie wrap, because I also haven’t gotten to make an x-shaped sleeve to replace it.

The shoulder straps are connected to the body with a single silk clip and are adjustable. Unfortunately, i made some measurement mistakes on that construction, which lead to the size range of 47-65cm back length. Lucky for me, I need a length of 48cm…
Before you ask: no the body doesn’t shift left or right because the load lifters stabilise it.

And there’s another mistake I made, the load lifters aren’t connected to the frame. This way they only work as desired, if the pack is filled high enough so the contents help push the body into the frame. Nonetheless, the frame diverts the weight onto the hip belt just as it’s intended to do, making the pack as comfortable to carry as I hoped it would.
I already tested it on an overnighter last weekended and it performed very well with ~9-10kg load.

All in all, I find it to be a successful experiment, especially because this is my first framed pack and there are not many existing packs with an x-frame construction that could serve as examples for how to construct the frame.

Made a convertible sling a while back and forgot to post it here.

It’s heavily inspired by the Cotopaxi Allpa X sling, but with a couple of alterations to meet my taste and use case.

For EDC it is used with a regular strap, that can be attached with wiregated g-hooks. Initially I wanted to make a strap with an integrated shoulder pad, but I didn’t get to it (yet?).

For trekking use, the padded wings can be folded back and tucked behind the back padding. It then can be used to close the hip belt of my backpack, using Siamese silk clips. Or it can be used by pushing the hip belt through the channel behind the back padding. But so far I’ve only used it as a hip belt closure.

I’m currently looking for a specific fleece fabric by Polartec, the thermal pro pique textured fleece.

The only retailer I could find only sits in the US and shipment costs to the EU are freakishly high (starting at $115!).

So I wondered if someone here might know where else to find it. Best case would be in the EU, but a retailer elsewhere with more reasonable shipping fees would be okay, too.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Last year I went hiking through Vorarlberg, got up early to catch the first sunrays from the Hochstarzl.

There are worse places to have your morning coffee!

Saw someone with a chest pack on a hike a while back, which looked very convenient, so I built one, too.

Main fabrics are Ecopak EPLX400 and 70D hexagonal ripstop nylon. Seams are sealed with seam grip.

Not depicted parts are a harness that can be attached to the loops on top and the sides and a divider that can be attached to two loops on the inside and to the Velcro patch on the back panel. The divider adds another two mesh pockets on one side and has elastic to hold maps on the other side.

The logo on the front is cut out, the grey fabric behind it is reflective.

Edit: it can also transform into a sling pack with another strap I made for it. All attachments are made for Siamese silk clips, but there are attachments for carabiners, too.