This is the backpack I take to work. It’s the perfect size and I I absolutely hate to buy new things when I don’t have to. So when I noticed that the strap of my backpack was tearing, it seemed like the obvious choice to fix it so I could continue to use it. This is a pretty basic repair, it took about thirty minutes. Because backpacks take a lot of stress and the fabric used in them tend to be thicker, canvas type materials, I recommend using a heavy duty needle and thread. This will prevent you from having to come back and make repairs multiple times.
Taking apart your backpack
I started by looking carefully at my bag to see exactly what needed fixing. For me, it was the strap that had starting to rip away from the bag, and the thread was coming undone around the strap.
I pinned the areas that would need to be unpicked since the thread was pulling and breaking in these spots. Then I unpicked all the thread between my two pins.
Fixing the backpack strap
Once the strap was removed from the bag, I cut the frayed parts off and zig zag stitched over it. This isn’t necessary since I will be finishing the strap off with bias tape, but I wanted to really reinforce the strap.
Next, I pinned the strap back into place. I also pinned the loop into place. After this, I sewed it onto the back piece of the backpack. I followed the stitches that were previously there, it was about 1/8″ seam allowance
Now I had to connect the front and back of the backpack. I pinned this and sewed over it. Again, I followed the stitches that were previously there, this time about 1/2″ seam allowance. This part was falling apart on my backpack in more places than just the straps, so I had to sew a pretty big line (this is where my two original pins came in)
My last step was to sew the bias tape back on. I made sure that I had pinned this really well since I needed to make sure I caught both sides of the bias tape. I sewed right along the inside edge of the bias tape to finish. This step involves sewing over a lot of fabric, so go slow and make sure your sewing machine can handle the fabric. Now you know how to fix a backpack strap!
