Making a backpack/bedroll
Fed
up of turning up at people's camps with a Tesco's carrier bag full of
beer? Fed up of trying to hide your flask of coffee in your trousers
when adventuring? What you need is an IC pack!
IC Backpack - the easy way
To
be honest, the easiest way to make yourself an IC knapsack is to buy an
old Army Surplus backpack from ebay and dress it with items relevant to
your character. Throw leather over it, wrap belts round it, hang rope,
pans, axes from it, you get the idea.
Or... you could make your own.
This is not as difficult as it sounds. Here are instructions on how to
make a 'bedroll' style pack, i.e. it is basically a bit of leather
which is rolled up to store stuff, not a bag at all.
What you will need
- A large leather or sheepskin coat from a charity shop
- (Leather) needle and strong thread. You can do it with an ordinary needle, but it's difficult.
- Scissors
- A couple of belts (matching if possible)
- A leather punch
Scour
the charity shops around your area for a sheepskin coat and belts. Mine
cost £3, leather belts were 50p each. This is a cheap project!
Making the pack
Initial
advice: when cutting, try to use the seams which are inherent in the
coat. Leather doesn't need to be hemmed, but neat coat seams will make
it look a lot more 'finished'.
* Use the back of the coat to cut a rectangle, as large as possible. This will be rolled up.
* Using spare bits of the coat, cut two pieces about 6 inches wide and
which are long enough that you can make straps from them that you can
put your arms through WITHOUT adjustment! Cut too long rather than too
short - you can always trim later. I used the sleeves of the coat,
doubled over for soft padding. Sew up the sides to make a nice strap,
with the leather side on the outside and the wooly side on the inside.
* Loosely roll up your rectangle into a likely bundle (with the wooly
bit on the inside and the suede on the outside). It will probably look
best if it sits high on your back, so get someone to help you hold it
in place, and mark on where you are going to sew the straps so that it
fits properly. Sew the top and bottom of the strap on FIRMLY. This area
will take a lot of strain, so knot often, use doubled over thread and
sew it well!
* Add pockets to the inside of the roll, as you wish. I added a
cylinder for my flask (which is what everthing is rolled round), a
large multi-purpose pocket, and pockets for my wooden plate and bowl.
Remember that long items will have to be stored horizontally so that
the whole thing can still be rolled up.
* Add the belts to keep it rolled. I did this by punching lots of extra
holes in the belts, and tying them round so that they were level and in
roughly the right place. I then punched two extra holes in the belts
and simply sewed them on with thread, once at the top of the strap,
once at the bottom. It seems to hold fine, so far.
Online Resources
http://www.alleycatscratch.com/lotr/Hobbit/Sam/SFellowship.htm
http://www.hot-lead.org/Samcostume/