Alpine Aster Backpack: Creating a simple frameless style backpack

by | Oct 8, 2025 | Made Inno the Hub, Student Projects

This post was written by Krishna Divakarla as part of the InnoHub blog series focused on how Mines students have used InnoHub resources to bring their projects to life.
“I was inspired by the beautiful colors of the Alpine Aster Flower!”

Concept

After getting more into ultralight backpacking and seeing the various different styles of backpacks people were using, I was inspired to try and create my own backpack.

Inspiration | Process | Finished Product

To gain more inspiration, I scoured the internet, searching through forums of backpackers and companies that provided resources for how to actually make a pack. In the end, I drew inspiration from many different makers and took the Palante simple pack pattern and made it my own. The color scheme was influenced by the alpine aster, a beautiful yellow and purple wildflower which I saw many times while on the Colorado trail this summer.

The materials for this pack were purchased from Rockywoods fabrics–an awesome Colorado based technical outdoor fabric supplier. The main pack body is created from Challenge Ecopack 200, which is a laminate waterproof fabric made from recycled plastic bottles (it also comes in many sweet colors). Other fabrics used were 3D spacer mesh for the inside of the shoulder straps, and a technical stretch mesh for the outer stretch pockets.

The sewing involved many different types of stitches, and the Singer heavy duty machines in the makerspace handled them all with ease. The general process for construction was to make the shoulder straps, attach the pockets to their respective panels, and then to join the panels together. The final stitches were the most rewarding, and turning the pack right side out after finishing up the last bits was such a fulfilling experience.

“Sewing when you are hungry or tired inevitably leads to making mistakes…”
My favorite part of this project was working on the shoulder straps. They were quite complex and consisted of 8 pieces of fabric each, but in the end they turned out great. All the little details that took lots of time to carefully line up and sew make the shoulder straps so much nicer, especially knowing the amount of time I put into them. My advice to anyone who wants to take on a project like this is to not rush it and take breaks along the way.

Things Learned

This is my first big sewing project of this kind, and I think it turned out amazing because of the patience I took when constructing. Sewing when you are hungry or tired inevitably leads to making mistakes, so it is always best to break projects like this up into smaller, more manageable pieces!

What’s Next?

Since completing this pack, my mind has been full of new projects that I want to work on. Specifically, I have a couple of ideas for different styles of fleeces I want to make using the serger, and another pack with vest style straps and more pockets.