| Cut out shoulder straps, making sure to make right and left. It's difficult to dimension so, HERE is a link for a full size PDF file. If you have Acrobat Professional you can tile small pages and tape them together or take it to Kinkos and have it printed full size. The dashed line shows the finished size of the strap. There is a 1/2" seam allowance. I use 1/2" closed cell foam for padding. Anything thicker is difficult to get under the presser foot of a sewing machine. I like to use a fabric that isn't too slippery for the underside of the shoulder straps. |  |
| Cut two pieces 22" long of 1" webbing and sew ladder lock on one end of each. |  |
| Cut two pieces of 3/4" webbing 17" long. Sew to 1" webbing webbing according to diagram. If you are using 3/4" sternum strap sliders, add 3'4" webbing as shown. If the sternum sliders aren't the removable kind you should install them now. |  |
Sew webbing and buckle to top of shoulder straps. Sew tops and bottoms together inside out. The seam allowance is 1/2". Turn right side out and insert foam padding. If the foam is too large trim slightly until you get a snug fit. Sew ends shut. |
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| I haven't been able to sew directly through the finished strap so I set my machine on the widest zig-zag width and a zero length stitch. Then with the feed dogs in the down position I sew through the shoulder strap at the locations in the diagram. If your machine has one, a stretch stitch is even better than a zig-zag stitch. |  |
| Cut a piece of 1-1/2" webbing to the width of the back panel of your backpack. Sew the shoulder straps to the webbing approximately 1" apart (this is to hold the straps in place until they are sewn to the pack permanently). It is important to sew accurately, so I tape the shoulder straps to a piece of cardboard to maintain the correct position. Sew a grab loop made of 3/4" webbing as shown. |  |
| Here is a way to install a sternum strap that doesn't require any special hardware. |  |
| The shoulder straps are now ready to be sewn to the backpack. |  |