Every year, Cornell Outdoor Education hosts an annual gear sale. This December, someone brought in their old green Marmot rain jacket. The DWR was gone, and the inner membrane was peeling off. The jacket was $2, so I bought it. I thought it would be interesting to try and turn it into a backpack!
PROCESS
This backpack was a fun build because I had to work around the structure of the rain jacket. I used the hood as the bottom of the bag, and saved the pockets. My favorite feature is that the pack can fold into a pocket. The feature that took me the longest to make were the straps. This was my first time designing an S-curve strap with a sternum strap, and I could definitely improve. In the past, I’ve made very rectangular backpacks with square bottoms or boxed bottoms, so it was fun to venture into the world of more organic shaped packs with this build!
THE RESULT
I made this backpack during finals week at school to destress. I loved using the Juki industrial sewing machines in the studio; they definitely help speed up the process and improve precision!
MTL 