Reviewer Information

Name: Becki Stacy
Age: 32
Gender: Female
Height: 5' 3" (1.6 m)
Weight: 150 lb (70 kg)
Email address: beckistacy at comcast dot net
Location: Royal Oak, Michigan, USA


Background:
I got bitten by the backpacking bug in 1994 when I was a volunteer at the Grand Canyon. My first backpacking trip was the same week I arrived, with gear borrowed from trail crew supplies. Every year since 1998 my husband and I have usually spent at least a long weekend car camping, mostly in Michigan. Our longest trip was six nights hiking the Pictured Rocks. When hiking the Pictured Rocks we took everything but the kitchen sink. We are re-working our gear list to pare down our weight a little without giving up the luxury items we enjoy.

Basic Product Information

Manufacturer: Quest Outfitters
Website:http://www.questoutfitters.com/
Product: Backpack Cover Pattern #8098
Year of Manufacture: 2005
MSRP: $3.75 USD

Note: In this review many of my comments are specific to the use of silnylon. Though this pattern can be used with any fabric applicable to the final product, I felt that my comments on this particular fabric would come in handy to others who might try out this pattern, since silnylon is currently one of the leading lightweight waterproof fabrics and is often on the top of the list for those who make their own tents, shelters, or tarps.

Product Description:

The Quest Backpack Cover Pattern comes in a zip top bag, and includes the pattern, instructions, list of materials required, and a small "Quest Outfitters" patch that I could attach to the backpack cover if I chose to.

I chose to sew the medium/large cover for my Mountainsmith Vista pack. The pattern is 64" (163 cm) long—just under the 1-7/8 yards (171 cm) of 60" width (152 cm) fabric that is listed in the requirements. I don't know of many places that break down fabric by eighths of a yard, but when dealing with silnylon, which is slippery and difficult to keep matched up when pinning the pattern and cutting it, I would buy at least two yards (183 cm) if I needed to get more fabric. I found a place on the Internet that has good prices on quantity silnylon seconds, so in actuality I'm well stocked with the fabric for any other do-it-yourself projects I decide to take on. One nice feature is that the pattern is laid out so I could make the small pack cover by just folding the pattern, as opposed to cutting out chunks that I would have to tape back on later to do a large pack cover again.

I have had some experience in sewing, mostly in Home Economics classes. To be honest, the last time I took out the sewing machine was to create a simple ripstop-nylon dining tarp. I'm not an expert seamstress by any stretch of the imagination, but I do know the basics of sewing and how pattern pieces come together.

To my relief, the pattern for the pack cover was printed on regular bond paper and not the usual sewing pattern paper that has less structural integrity than my bathroom tissue. The pattern has survived one use already, will serve me well again when I make a cover for my husband's pack, and would doubtless last for many more uses.

The instruction sheet is six pages long, and shows how to lay out the pattern on the fabric. It has a glossary with illustrations of some common terms, hints and tips for sewing, parts needed to construct the cover, and the instructions themselves. All measurements use the Imperial system (yards/feet/inches), but a metric conversion chart is included that covers most of the measurements used on the instructions. The glossary, hint and tips cover basic sewing information. Most of this I already knew but might be helpful to someone who is just starting the hobby. A legend depicting different hatching symbols (such as a field of small dots to graphically represent the 'wrong' side of fabric, or repeated upside-down 'v' markings to denote that the material used is webbing) is included under the instructions, and at first I wondered why I would be using reflective tape or mesh for the cover, until I realized that it must be a general legend that Quest Outfitters probably uses for all their patterns.

Despite the "before you start" warning "Read through all of the instructions", I merely skimmed the text and graphics before breaking out the scissors and beginning work. I managed to cut out the mammoth pattern (it's about as tall as I am!), then I had to clear enough floor space to measure out the fabric, pin on the pattern, and cut the silnyon. I didn't manage to get many straight lines, but due to the nature of the project, a bit of an uneven edge won't hurt the final results.

I had read a tip online that a good method of cutting silnylon is to use a hot knife, as this will seal the edge and help prevent fraying. The one drawback is that I could only cut through one layer of fabric at a time - if I tried cutting through the two layers as shown for the pack cover, I would have ended up fusing the layers together. In my excitement to get the project completed, I forgot to seal the edges of the silnylon after I cut the pattern out. Since it would be amazing if I managed to spend more than three weeks (total) of the year backpacking, I don't think the unsealed edges will give me much trouble. However, I will be sure to take a little more time and properly seal the edges for my husband's pack cover.

I bring up this tidbit primarily because all the seams on this project are very simple. To transform the cover from flat to a general box-shape, the edges are folded together, and a line of stitching is sewn 1/2" (1.3 cm) from the edges. The casing is made by folding over the edge of the opening 1/2" (1.3 cm), and placing a seam 1/8" (0.3 cm) from the top. These seams leave the edge of the fabric exposed, and more susceptible to fraying than more advanced seams. For my husband's pack, I will probably add 1/2" (1.3 cm) to each side and double over the casing edge (for the elastic) to help prevent fraying.

Back to the project… Once the material was cut, I pinned and sewed the cover as shown in the instructions. One thing that really confused me at the time was that the instructions call for placing the uncoated side of the fabric in a position so that the final outcome is that the uncoated side is the one exposed to the elements. This isn't really applicable to silnylon, but it just seemed backwards that I would want the waterproofed side of a fabric on the inside. It wasn't until after I had finished that I realized that this might actually be the case with some types of materials. Then everything fell into place. I think it would have been helpful if the instructions included a brief explanation of what side of which fabrics should be the 'out' side, and just refer to the sides as "right" and "wrong" from thereafter ("right" being the traditional term for the side of the fabric which a pattern is printed on, or otherwise is the side that is to be the "outside" of the completed project).

The diagrams were helpful in constructing the cover, and saved me from going nuts over trying to figure out why they would want the uncoated side on the outside of the cover. The only thing that gave me any trouble (not including slightly uneven seams due to the slippery silnylon) was sewing the elastic cord. The instructions simply state "stitch across overlapped section of the elastic cord several times". Ok. Uh-huh. Unless they had meant hand-stitch (and the instructions did not specify) this is quite an undertaking. Round elastic chord does not like to be sewn in the conventional manner. I ended up using some thread to temporarily bind the overlapped ends together, laid them in a side-by-side arrangement under the foot of my sewing machine, and used a zig-zag stitch to bind them together. I went over the elastic chord several times, it's not pretty but it shouldn't come undone anytime soon.

Overall, the construction was simple and straightforward. Two hours and fifteen minutes after I started, I had a brand spanking new backpack cover. I have not seam-sealed the cover yet, but that shouldn't take long at all. Using white silnylon and 3/32" (.24 cm) width elastic chord, my backpack cover weighs in at 2.6 oz (74 g). I've checked out a few manufacturers (by no means all of them), and this weight appears to be on the low end for pack covers.

I adjusted the elastic so that it fits snugly on the pack, and it appears that it fits securely and that it won't blow away under normal conditions. The cover is a bit on the baggy side, but if that becomes a problem it should be easy enough for me to rip out my seams and adjust the size a bit. During my trip to the Pictured Rocks a great deal of gear ended up tied, carabinered, or otherwise attached to the outside of my pack- so a cover on the large side might not be all that bad if I end up the same way again.

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Reviews > Do It Yourself > Plans and Patterns > Quest Outfitters Backpack Cover Pattern > Owner Review by Rebecca Stacy