Forage Range Backpack

So of course I had to make a Range Backpack in Forage. I was designing the Range Backpack at the same time I was working on the colors for Forage. I feel like they go together swimmingly, especially with that in mind.

For this Range I used the interfacing combination (as outlined in the pattern in full detail) as I would have for quilting cotton. Now that isn’t to say you could go about it another way, I felt that this combo with Essex went together really well. It’s a bit more interfacing and time (more fusing and basting and then quilting of the back panel), but I feel like it was 100% worth it, and I think you’d agree.

On the front pieces it goes: Essex, Pellon 809 fused to the wrong side, then 10 oz. cotton canvas machine basted (along the perimeter) to the wrong side as well. It’s thicker on some seams for sure. If your particular machine doesn’t like a lot of layers, you might want to shy away from doing this combo of fabrics (but there’s so many others that would work great, too!). I also love the opportunity to quilt the back! It’s so fun because it’s a fairly small piece. I went with the chevron pattern I showed in my video tutorial, but there’s so many more great options, too! I might even have to experiment using a solid Essex and go to town on the back panel quilting just for fun.

Also, wanted to add that I know folks have a love/hate or hate/hate relationship with Pellon 809, but it works really well with Essex. I know with some quilting cottons it can be hard to fuse and wrinkly, but I didn’t have that happen at all with the Essex. Just thought I’d throw that out there.