Touring Panniers With Home Sewing Machine

I love the thrill of going somewhere by bike, and panniers make it so much easier to carry the essentials. Whether you're going for a month-long tour or a trip to the market, a good set of panniers is key to making the journey work.

I used an old set of flap-top fabric panniers for a while, but I needed an upgrade. Many sold online were too expensive or didn't have the features I wanted, so I turned to instructables for guidance in making my own. I'm indebted to cliveforgets for his post, which convinced me I could make panniers on a home sewing machine. This instructable contributes a new design and a detailed instructions on making various pockets and straps.

Anyone attempting this should have basic experience on a sewing machine, and it's also handy to have basic sewing supplies available. Beyond that, a good plan and some faith in the design process are all you need for this adventure. In total, a pair of panniers ran me about $50 in supplies, but much of that was shipping.

At its essence, a pannier is just heavy fabric made into a bag, which is then attached to a bike rack. The fun is adding a bunch of features: pockets, straps, handles, and more. I'm dividing my materials and patterns into essential and optional lists. You will need the essentials to make a bag; the optional stuff makes it into a nice touring bag.

Supplies

Makes one bag

Essentials:

• At least 1 yd of heavy-duty fabric. I used 500D Cordura (light blue) that I got on sale on Ebay, per cliveforgets's recommendation. I agree with what he says: it sews nice on a home machine and feels super strong.
• 2 spools (each 125 yds) of heavy-duty thread. Mine is Coats & Clark Heavy from Joanne Fabrics.
• 2 yds of 1" wide webbing (black).
• 1 set of plastic buckles.
• 2 hooks and 4 nuts and bolts for rack mounting. As with cliveforgets, I ordered from Jandd.
• 1 metal latch piece, the type used for a sliding lock on doors. See the last step for more details.
• 1 bungee cord with a hook on the end.
• At least a 12" by 14" sheet of backing material. Mine was cut corrugated plastic from an old lawn sign.
• Heavy-duty needle on a sewing machine; scissors, pins, seam ripper, and ruler.
• Drill with drill bit sized to the bolts.

Optional:

• 2 zippers, one at least 6" and one at least 12" long. These make pockets.
• 2 D-rings. When the roll top is clipped down, these make it possible to attach a shoulder strap. When the roll top is clipped up, these make it easy to secure the bag with a luggage lock.
• 14-16" of plastic. I used this (yellow) to make the roll top stiffer, as you'd find on a dry bag.
• 2 more pairs of plastic buckles with at least 4" of 1" wide webbing for each side - that's at least 16" of webbing in total. I scavenged these (black and grey) from an older set of panniers. These sets will be the fasteners for the roll top.
• 6" of webbing to make a handle.
• 1 sliding buckle and about 6" of webbing to make a strap above the water bottle pocket. I installed this so I could carry a baguette in the pocket and secure it to the bag.
• Iron-on reflective tape

Fun fact: "Panniers" comes from the french for "bread basket" and was likely designed for people and pack animals to carry bread to and from market. A trend in high European fashion unfortunately used the idea of saddlebags to accentuate women's hips, creating a skirt shape also known as "panniers".

Step 1: Cut Fabric and Backing

Cut your fabric!

Refer to the picture above with all the pieces of blue fabric. To make just a bag, you will need pieces A, B, C, and H. To add a flap top, cut D and E. To add a water bottle pocket, cut F and G. To add a roll top, cut I and J. To add an inside pocket, cut out K.

Cardboard patterns with the exact dimensions are shown above. All patterns already have a 1/2" seam allowance included. These will make a finished main bag 12" wide, 14" tall, and 6" deep.

• A, B, C: One front and two back panels. Each 13" by 15", with a bottom that tapers down to 8" wide starting 10.5" from the top.
• H: Bottom and sides of the main bag. 7" by 40". This is overshooting the length to account for the way you might draw the curve on A, B, and C.
• D, E: Flap top. Each 13" by 13" with two 6" tall triangles cut out of the bottom corners. The shape resembles home plate in baseball.
• F: Water bottle pocket, back panel. 6" by 8". This size holds a 32 oz Nalgene bottle.
• G: Water bottle pocket, sides and bottom. You're going for an 11" by 9.5" rectangle, but with a "M" shape cut out of the 11" side. This will fold in to create the bottom of the pocket. Refer to the diagram for this cut. The most important feature is that the two interior angles of the "M" are both 90°.
• I, J: Roll top. Each 11" by 19". Being 11" tall, it will wind up creating a roll top that reaches 9" above the main bag.
• K: Inside pocket. I used the pattern for A-C and made it about 8" tall.

Cutting these out on cardboard and using a rotary cutting blade help keep your cuts even and straight.

Cut your backing!

My backing ended up 13.5" tall and 11.5" wide, with 9" of straight sides before tapering. I used my cardboard pattern for A-C to make the curves, and it fits nice and snug in the final product. Make sure you have no sharp edges!

Step 2: Make the Flap Top

This is one of the harder steps, so don't get discouraged. It's easy to simplify this step, too.

Installing a zipper pocket (optional)

Pick one side of the flap top and pin pieces D and E together, outside facing outside, along that edge. Sew a basting stitch to hold them together, then open up the seam. I've found that Cordura doesn't iron well, but you can kinda fold it in place. Put the 6" zipper face down on the back side of the seam so that, when you open up the seam from the front, the zipper will pop through. Topstitch the zipper on, then rip open your basting stitches to expose the zipper. I did a zig-zag stitch, too, because I like the look of it.

Make the flap-top from pieces D and E

Once the zipper is on, turn the bag inside out and lay a 1/2" stitch around the other sides except for the longest one, which will eventually attach to the main bag. Zig-zag for strength.

If you didn't install a zipper, stitch all the sides except for the longest one.

Turn inside out and press seams open.

Topstitch webbing and zig-zag the edges.

I chose to put a 22" piece of webbing from the center top through the point at the bottom. This will hold the main buckle for the bag, so I laid another piece perpendicular to it to reinforce it and make the top look nice. This perpendicular piece also covers the end of the zipper!

First, pin the webbing in place where you want it to go. I've included two loops on the perpendicular piece for carabiners, ties, or bungee cords. One end tucks into the seam below the zipper (on the left), and I ripped open about an inch of seam on the right side to hide the other end. It's tricky to pin them in place - be careful.

Then, zig-zag stitch all the way around the bag, even over the webbing, to hold it all together. I like the feel and the look of it like this. Be careful about stitching through too many layers, especially near the bottom point. My machine got fussy sometimes about going through webbing and 4 layers of Cordura at once.

Finally, stitch about 1/8 of an inch inside the webbing all around. I liked the white, but if you'd prefer you could use black thread to hide these stitches.

Yay! The flap-top is all done, and it should have a lovely 5"x6" pocket on one corner to hold maps, keys, or a phone for sunny day rides.

Step 3: Make the Water Bottle Pocket (Optional)

This is the other tricky part. I went through a few tries before settling on this design for the water bottle pocket. It will fit a 32 oz Nalgene using the patterns for pieces F and G in step 1. If you have improvements on this design, please let me know. This one is very functional, but it could definitely look a little neater.

The game plan is: make a small bag, then topstitch the bag onto piece H, and hey! you've got a water bottle pocket.

Stitch the bottom of the pocket

First, make sure you've cut some key slits in the fabric. Cut a 1/2" slit at the 90° angle as shown in the photo. This will give you easy access to stitch the bottom. Also be sure you've cut 1" slits at a place 7" down from the top of piece G - these will open up the corners for the bottle.

Then, fold the 90° angles in on themselves and pin along the seam allowance. Lay a stitch with 1/2" seam allowance as shown in the pictures. Then you'll have two more pieces of fabric against each other starting where the three fabrics meet (as shown in photo). Pin and lay a stitch along that edge, too, from the triple point to the corner.

Sew the sides together to make a bag

Still keeping the wrong side out, take piece G and pin it to piece F starting at the bottom or top corners and working upward. Note that there will be a 1" square at each bottom corner where the bottom piece (F) is exposed. See photo for more details. Now, I budgeted for a 1/2" seam, but to keep it roomy for my Nalgene I sewed a 3/8" seam on three sides. Sew these seams and turn inside out.

Hem the top

You may find it easier to hem G and F separately, but I didn't have too much trouble doing it once they were together. Fold the top down once or twice, and lay a seam all the way around. This will keep your edges nice and provide the pocket with some structure.

Finished pocket should stand about 6" tall. We'll come back to it soon.

Step 4: Put Straps on the Front

These straps will buckle with the flap top straps in step 2. We're going for a strong, center buckle on the front (piece A). As with the flap top, I chose to lay a piece of webbing across the front to add strength and for fun loops!

Pin the pieces on

You'll need a 15" and a 8" piece of webbing. Find the center of the bottom side (I agree with cliveforgets: fold in half and cut a notch to save yourself some hassle.) Pin the 8" piece going up, then pin the 15" piece across it. I put the bottom of the webbing 2.5" up from the bottom of the fabric, or 2" up from the finished seam. As with the flap top, I installed two little loops, each 1.75" from the center webbing.

Topstitch the webbing and buckle

Topstitch the webbing on, again with a seam 1/8" from the edge of the webbing. Leave the center piece above the horizontal piece alone for now. Then, get your buckle and measure where you want it to end up. I went for about 1.5" above the horizontal piece. Cut and burn the end, to prevent fraying, then topstitch it on with some good strong stitches. I made two straight seams and one fun zig-zag.

Step 5: Attach the Side Buckles (Optional)

The side buckles and straps will secure the bag. Using the roll top depends on the placement of these buckles. I also included a side strap above the water bottle pocket to hold longer objects (like a baguette).

CUT YOUR FABRIC DOWN TO SIZE

In step 1, piece H (sides and bottom of the bag) was cut 7" by 40". Now's the time to actually measure the perimeter of piece A. Use a cloth tape measure, or pin piece H to one corner and work your way around the sides and bottom (not the top) to see how much you'll need to cut it down. Mine ended up coming in at 38", so I cut 2" off piece H to make it fit. Doesn't need to be perfect - we'll make minor adjustments later.

Pin and topstitch the straps

First, close one end of the strap with a nice X pattern (do not topstitch onto the fabric yet). Then, pin your strap in place. I put mine 1.5" below the top, or 1" down on the final product, with the loose end away from the back of the pannier. Then I put a straight stitch on each of the sides. This will get reinforced once the bag gets constructed.

Next, arrange the buckles where you want them to go. As shown above, each strap was centered 4.5" from the top of the fabric. Put the pointy buckle end on one side, with a tail of webbing to be adjustable; put the open end on the other side, not adjustable. Then stitch them down, carefully. X-shaped patterns are pretty easy to do, and they hold really well.

Step 6: Make the Roll Top

A roll top gives lots of extra storage space to your bag, and it's essential for long touring trips. Mine is modeled after cliveforgets, and resembles a dry-bag rolling mechanism when its all done.

Put a piece of plastic in the hem

A thin, stiff piece of plastic (mine is 1/2" wide) will give some added support to this top. A piece of leftover webbing would work well, too. Hem piece I about 1/4" along the 19" side, then put the plastic against the rough edge and fold it over again. Stitch along the same seam.

I hemmed the other piece, piece J, by folding the fabric down twice and stitching it. You'll come out with two hemmed pieces, about 9.5" tall. Make sure they're the same height, and cut one to match if not.

Make the buckles

The buckles that go on the roll top correspond to the buckles we attached to piece H in the previous step. Stitch a D-ring onto these buckles (as shown in photo above) for additional strap possibilities.

Pin and stitch everything together

Place the outsides of pieces I and J together. Remember, we're going to turn this inside out, so take a moment to be sure everything will turn out the way you want it too. Then place your buckles facing inside, sandwiched between pieces I and J as shown above. Pin them in as best you can; it might be difficult. Then pin the short sides together, too. This is a good moment to make sure everything is assembled so that it comes out beautiful when you turn it inside out. Think about how the roll top buckles will match the side buckles.

Then, when you're all set, stitch the short sides with a 1/2" seam allowance. The area around the buckles might be the most difficult for a home sewing machine to get through, so be patient and build up some momentum. Alternatively, you can modify the hem or the buckles so that you're going through fewer layers. Zig-zag these seams, too, for strength.

Turn inside out and make sure everything looks good!

Step 7: Make the Back Panel

The back panel will serve to hold the stiff backing material, and eventually it will hold up the whole bag. This piece has a lot of heavy lifting to do.

Make a cute inner pocket (optional)

This pocket is super easy to do, and it gives your bag a cleaner look when all the hardware is installed. I imagine it would be great for packing thin items, like maps and granola bars.

Take piece K and sew one side of a 12" long zipper to the top, top side of the zipper facing outside of the fabric. Press open the seam. Then position piece K on piece B so that the zipper, when stitched onto B, will let K fold down to line up exactly with the bottom of B. See pictures for reference here.

When the zipper is in place, press the seam open, pin K to B, and sew around the other three sides. Note: unlike other pockets, this one will not get turned inside out. What you see on the outside is what you'll get!

Hem the top and put velcro on

Hem piece B along the top. Roll it down once or twice - aim to make the final height 1/2" to 1" shorter than before.

I added a piece of velcro to secure the roll top when I fold it down into the bag. It's 4" long, positioned in the center about 4" down from the top. Topstitch the velcro onto the bag.

Make the sleeve for the backing

Take piece B, with or without the pocket, and pin it on top of piece C. Cliveforgets recommends folding in half and cutting a tiny notch at the bottom of these pieces to mark the center. Makes it much easier to line up. If you do have a pocket, make sure the zipper pull is slightly open.

Then, stitch the two pieces around on three sides. Stitch over the zipper and up to the top of each side. I found it easiest to start at the center notch and stitch half at a time.

Fit backing material into the sleeve

Take the backing material and put it in. Cut it down if you need to. Any adjustments are easiest to make now rather than later.

Step 8: Attach the Water Bottle Pocket

Another tricky step, since we'll be going through several layers of fabric. If you line it up right, this can be pretty straightforward.

Pin and Stitch

Pin the water bottle pocket to piece H, just below where you attached the strap. I put the top of mine 4.5" down from the top. Make sure it's secure.

Take a deep breath, and start laying a stitch 1/2" in from the edge on all three bottom sides. At the corners, pivot and keep going. Do what you can to make this connection feel very strong.

I left the top edge un-stitched; it's hard to do, and if you leave it open there will be a lovely hidden pocket behind your water bottle, perfect for keeping an extra snack.

Step 9: Assemble the Pieces

Now that we have all the pieces made, it's time to put them together! In the picture above:

1. Front panel
2. Back panel
3. Top flap
4. Sides and bottom with water bottle pocket
5. Roll top

Make the main bag

Take pieces 2 and 4; remove the backing material from the back panel. Starting at the bottom center of piece 2, pin piece 4 along both sides up to the top. Double check to make sure you got the sides correct, so that the outsides will be outside when you turn it inside out. Lay a 1/2" stitch all the way around, then zig-zag the seam to reinforce it.

Repeat the whole process with panel 1: pin, double-check, and stitch all around. Turn the bag inside out and press open the seams. Hooray!

Add the top flap and roll top

Top flap first. *If you want a handle, pin it in here, then pin the top flap over it.* Pin the top of piece 3 to the center top of piece 2. Make sure to only pin the top to one layer of fabric so you don't close up the sleeve for the backing material. Lay a 1/2" stitch along this side.

Roll top next. Turn the roll top inside out and slide it over the bag to line up their top edges. Pin in place (roll top's side seams aligned with the center of the side panels) and sew with a 1/2" allowance all the way around. Zig zag for strength and turn inside out. Yay!

Add a piece of velcro

When not in touring mode, you can fold the roll top inside the main bag. Fold it down halfway on itself, then fold inside. To keep it in place, I sewed on another piece of velcro where the roll would hit the back panel. Centered back, about 4" from the top of the roll.

Step 10: Add the Hooks and Hardware

Last step, almost there. Now, this step will vary according to your specific situation and bike rack. Hopefully this will help you to figure out what works best for your bike.

Add the hooks

Mark where you'd like the hooks to go. Mine are spaced 8" apart, far edge to far edge, bottom of the plate 3.5" from the top of the back panel. Mark the holes, then remove. I put a roll of tape underneath this spot so I wouldn't drill through the other side of the bag. With a drill fitted to the screw, carefully drill through three layers: the outside fabric, the backing material, and the inside fabric. Then attach washers and screws, tighten into place.

Add the bottom hook

With a similar process, attach a metal latching piece about 3" directly above where the bottom rail falls. Mine was 5" down and 1.5" over from the front-most hook. Be careful - this one will likely fall inside the pocket. I again used a roll of tape to avoid drilling through the pocket.

For the finishing touch, thread half of a bungee cord through the metal latching piece and knot it off. This will provide tension to keep the bag from falling off.

That's all - ride well and stay safe!

Shoot me a message at [e-mail] with any questions, comments, completions!