“After 38 years, I’m closing my sewing room for good.” — Sandy (72) is letting her last Hippie Bus Backpacks go at a special price. Her handquilted VW bus backpacks are heading into retirement.

Sandra “Sandy” Merrick (72) in her workshop on the Northern California coast. After 38 years, she is closing her life’s work.

6-min read by Emily Hartman

July 29th, 2026

In a small sewing room by the water, Sandra “Sandy” Merrick spent almost four decades cutting and quilting extraordinary things by hand — backpacks and accessories, each one with a whisper of ’70s soul and an obsession for the smallest detail. Now the 72-year-old designer is winding down her work — and saying goodbye with one of her greatest hits: the Hippie Bus Backpack, with its unmistakable VW bus motif.

Why are these particular backpacks suddenly becoming the go-to companion for the campus, the weekend trip, and the long way home? Because this is the last collection Sandy will ever make.

The last summer in the sewing room

The little workshop smells of cotton, spray starch, and a faint trace of patchouli. On the wall hangs a faded Polaroid from 1972: a blue-and-white VW bus on a dusty road somewhere in the desert Southwest. Spread across the big worktable are bolts of fabric in sun-yellow, turquoise, and lavender — cut-out peace signs, small sunflower appliqués, and skeins of thick quilting thread.

Sandra Merrick — everyone just calls her “Sandy” — leans over one of her last Hippie Bus Backpacks and sets one stitch after another with a steady hand. The way she has since 1987. But this year is different. It’s her last summer.

Stitch by stitch, by hand — after 38 years, Sandy knows every move at the machine in her sleep.

“I’m 72,” she says, setting the needle aside. “My eyes aren’t what they used to be. And my fingers — arthritis. I can’t quilt for hours at a stretch anymore.” She runs a thumb over a half-finished motif in fabric. “But that’s not the only reason. Almost nobody buys real handwork anymore. Cheap backpacks from China everywhere, all the same. What I do here… that world is slowly disappearing.”

38 years, more than 18,000 backpacks — a life for a piece of ’70s soul

The Polaroid pinned above her worktable — the desert Southwest, 1972.

Sandy did the math: in 38 years she has designed, quilted, and hand-sewn more than 18,000 backpacks. Every single one passed through her hands.

“It all started in 1972,” she says, smiling. “I was 19, I’d just finished school, and my boyfriend and I scraped together enough for an old VW bus. For 14 months we drove it down the coast, across the Southwest, and deep into Mexico. Sleeping in the bus, campfires on the beach, fabric markets in Oaxaca — that was my university.”

Back home she started sewing the bright fabrics she’d gathered along the way. First for herself, then for friends. In 1987 she opened her own little sewing room by the water. Soon came the idea that would shape her life: a backpack with the very VW bus that had carried her across the West stitched onto the front.

“I wanted every woman who packs one of these to take a little of that feeling with her. Setting off. Sun. Freedom. The idea that life still has a few adventures left in it for you.”

Until a few years ago, she sold her backpacks almost entirely at craft fairs — small booths at weekend markets up and down the coast, a folding table, a hand-painted sign. “It was never planned as a big business,” she laughs. “But when women started sending me photos — with the backpack out on the town, at every kind of college, or off on a trip somewhere — I knew: this is exactly why I do it.”

What makes Sandy’s Hippie Bus Backpacks so special

The signature: a VW bus in stitched fabric — peace sign, headlights, windows, and a row of sunflowers, some sewn on in three dimensions.

What makes these backpacks so special isn’t just the playful bus motif. It’s the way each one is built: sturdy, made from good material — finished like a small piece of ’70s patchwork art.

The backpacks are made from a premium quilted cotton with polyester batting that gives them structure, shape, and a soft, comfortable feel against your back. The entire outer shell is quilted by hand — stitch by stitch. On the front, the signature VW bus is appliquéd on with its peace sign, headlights, windows, and flowers — every detail cut, pinned, and sewn on individually, some pieces raised in three dimensions.

The padded carry handle is built so it never digs into your hand, even with a full load. For all-day comfort, the shoulder straps are padded and fully adjustable, and the back panel is wadded and soft, with a handy trolley loop on the back so it slides right over a suitcase handle. Inside, a roomy main compartment, a separate zip front pocket, and two open side pockets give you room for a tablet, a thick book, a rain jacket, a water bottle, and your reading glasses.

Plenty of customers say the Hippie Bus Backpack quickly became their favorite for everyday life, city trips, and travel — because it doesn’t just carry everything safely, it simply feels wonderful to wear.

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“I have customers who’ve been carrying the same backpack for 15 years”

Sandy pulls an old shoebox off the shelf. Inside: hundreds of postcards and photos. “These are notes from my customers all over the world. Some have been writing to me for decades.” She slides out a card from Lisbon, dated 2011:

That kind of longevity has a simple reason: quality over quantity. Where mass production is built for speed and saving on material, Sandy works one piece at a time. A single Hippie Bus Backpack takes several days — from the first cut of the fabric, through the quilting of the shell and the appliqué of the bus and flowers, all the way to the last stitch on the padded straps.

“That’s why no two backpacks are exactly alike,” she says. “Sometimes the peace sign is a millimeter to the left, sometimes the flowers are a little bigger. That’s not a defect — that’s the proof it’s handmade.”

The end of an era — and one last chance

The last collection — what’s still on Sandy’s shelves, and all there will ever be.

In a few weeks, Sandy will close her sewing room for good. “I don’t have anyone to take it over. Nobody wants to sit down for days on end and quilt a backpack anymore.” On the shelves there are still around 1,200 Hippie Bus Backpacks — her life’s work. The last collection that will ever pass through her hands.

To make sure they end up in good hands, she’s made an unusual decision: a steep special price on every remaining backpack.

“This isn’t about the money for me. I want these backpacks to help people carry everything that matters — on campus, on a quick getaway, or just out for the weekend. People who understand what goes into a piece of work like this,” she says. “My grandson Sam — he’s 26 — helps me sell them through the shop online. At my age I really don’t keep up with all the internet business anymore,” she adds, laughing.

The name “Hippie Bus,” by the way, came from one of her very first customers. “A young woman held the backpack up and said, ‘Now that’s a real hippie bus you can take with you!’ — and the name stuck.” A simple backpack became, for a lot of women, a piece of wearable spirit: bright, free, optimistic — and a quiet hello from another time.

What sets Sandy’s Hippie Bus Backpacks apart

From a craft-fair booth to markets, porches, and morning trains across the country — the backpack people keep getting stopped and asked about.

What real customers say about the Hippie Bus Backpack

Where can you buy Sandy’s Hippie Bus Backpack?

Sam — Sandy’s grandson — handles every order that goes out the door.

You can only get the Hippie Bus Backpacks through Cedar & Tin, a small online shop that specializes in real, handmade work from a handful of chosen makers. That’s where her grandson Sam runs Sandy’s own little corner of the shop.

A word of warning: with the backpack’s growing popularity, copycat versions have started appearing on Amazon and other big marketplaces. They look similar in the listing photo, but they have nothing to do with Sandy’s real handwork. The originals from her sewing room are only available at Cedar & Tin.

Only this summer — then it’s over

Sandy plans to close her sewing room for good in the coming weeks. “Until then, I want every Hippie Bus Backpack to find good hands. After that, it’s truly the end,” she says quietly, with a wistful smile. “38 years. It’s been a beautiful trip.”

Anyone who still wants one of the original Hippie Bus Backpacks from Sandy’s final collection should hurry. Between the special price and the rush of the last few days, the inventory is expected to last only a few more days.

It’s the last chance to bring home a piece of real handwork — and a piece of wearable ’70s soul — before Sandy’s most beloved backpacks become history forever.

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The bottom line

This is the backpack you won’t want to put down.

Every single one is the work of real hands — and feels like a little piece of packed-up spirit. Like every time you head out the door, you’re taking a bit of ’70s sun and a bit of “let’s go somewhere” along for the ride.

A modern feel-good piece with heart — lovingly designed, beautifully made, thoughtful through and through — and every time you pick it up, there’s that tiny moment of “Where to next?”

Thank you, Sandy. 🚐🌻

Get a Hippie Bus Backpack now — with Sandy’s personal 100% money-back guarantee

Every backpack carries a small hand-stitched label inside — and its own number.

Sandy’s parting gift to her readers: a 90-day, no-questions-asked money-back guarantee. As she puts it herself:

“My backpacks should only end up with people who’ll really love carrying them.”

So you can take the Hippie Bus Backpack home and look it over in your own time — pack it, enjoy a weekend with it, sling it into the overhead on the train. If it’s not right for you, or it just doesn’t make you as happy as you’d hoped, you send it back and get your money returned. No discussion.

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