Make a Lid for the GoLite Jam

This article forms part of the GoLite Jam Extreme Make-over

As part of a radical redesign of the Golite Jam I wanted to replace the roll-top closure with a conventional lid. In part I thought it would use less fabric (it did, just) but mainly it was about making the pack easier to use and solving the problem of rain. No matter what I did with the roll-top it failed as a rain-proof barrier.

I also found that it had a tendency (like many roll-tops) to unroll ever-so-slightly when hiking. This meant that the pack became floppy during a long day.

There were a lot of issues here that I wanted to address. As a challenge(!) I also wanted to see if I could salvage enough fabric from the pack to make the lid. I couldn't.

This is not a project for the faint-hearted. It involves a partial deconstruction of your pack before you put it all back together again.

Materials

• 1 small piece of cordura or PU-coated nylon (for the lid)
• 1 25mm buckle (optional)
• 30cm of 25mm webbing (optional)
• 32cm of 15mm webbing (optional)
• 50cm of 4-6mm shock-cord (optional)
• 2 cord-locks (optional)

Deconstruction

The hardest part of this project is taking apart the pack.

This picture shows the Jam after all the work has been done.

1. Remove the cordlock and cord form the closure

2. Carefully cut off the GoLite buckle and straps. This can be done using a seam-ripper and putting it through the bar tacks a few times. Be very careful. It is easy to cut the pack.

3. Unpick the seam tape around the seam. The seam shown is the one immediately above the shoulder straps where the drinking-tube exit points are. Use a seam-ripper, scissors and patience. It is a little tricky to do without cutting the fabric.

4. Unpick the seam underneath the seam tape. Use the seam-ripper and again be patient. It sometimes helps to break stitches every 10cm or so and then 'rip' the fabric apart. BE CAREFUL.

Construction

1. Fold over the new top-seam of the pack to form a tube.

2. Sew the tube and leave a small gap in it near the back of the pack for the cord. If you wish you can use the exit-grommet on the existing pack and stitch it on as a patch. This will work better than bar-tacks.

3. Cut a lid from Cordura or SilNylon (below)

Note: If you want to fit the nylon loops then it is easiest to do this now. Sew them as shown with two bar-tacks on each side of the loop. Make sure they are at least 1.5cm from any edge since 1cm will be lost to seams. Remember, the narrow part of the lid is going to be the 'back' and sit above the shoulder straps.

4. CAREFULLY cut the spare Dyneema fabric to the pattern shown. The fabric is very tough to cut and you will not have a lot to spare.

5.Sew the Dynema fragments together - using the green seam-lines (as above). There is a 1cm seam allowance in the pattern.

6. Sew the Dynema lid section onto the cordura lid section using the blue seam-lines. The lid is wider at the front than the back and when sewn the cordura lid forms an L shape.

7. You should now have something that looks like a lid.

8. Sew another seam parallel to the existing seams. Make sure that it goes through the existing fabric. You want it to look like a felled seam even though it is not. The main thing is to make sure that the seam will lie flat.

9. Apply a rolled-hem seam (or fold under and stitch) on the bottom exposed Dynema

10. Stitch the Cordura part of the lid to the main pack. The seam-line should run through both water-tube pockets and be above the shoulder straps. The best way to stitch this is to put the right sides together with the lid covering the straps (as if it had been flipped fully back). Sew a single line of stitching and then flip the lid into position and sew a second line of stitching. Don't worry about preserving the water tube exit holes - the tube can easily exit from under the lid.

11. Restitch the female half of the buckle to the lid. Use 8cm of webbing.

12. Restitch the male part of the buckle and the strap as shown:

The strap has been bar-tacked THROUGH the seam where the pcoket joins the main pack body. It has also been bartacked through the front of the pocket (but not the back). The idea of this strap is to ensure that the pack does not slouch too much when fully loaded.

16. Fit the optional internal top compression strap:

This compression strap helps to ensure that the pack can be closed really tight and helps to transfer load from the front to the back of the pack.