So after my post yesterday on everyone else’s camera bag I felt the need to get busy on my own. And just because I felt like it, I am giving you a tutorial too. Mine may differ a bit from some of the ones yesterday, but I just kind of made it up as I went and it turned out pretty good I think. So find a tutorial that works for you, or use mine, or make yours up as you go too!
What you need:
* Fabric
(I’m not going to lie I didn’t measure, but if I had to guess you’ll need at least a half of a yard or a little more…in case you want a matching camera strap!)
* Scissors
* Glue Gun
* Sewing Machine & Thread
* Pins
* High Density Foam
(Mine was about 1″ thick, I bought it at Walmart 2 big squares for $6. But I’d go to your local fabric store and get it, probably cheaper and you could even get something a little thinner if you wanted.)
Let’s Start!
First I measured the inside of my bag. Bottom first. I cut a piece of foam to fit. Then I just figured out how tall the side pieces needed to be and cut them too. They were a little bigger than the bottom piece (seen in middle here). I used scissors to cut this foam.
Next I placed them out on my fabric, my fabric is folded here. I spaced them out evenly, taking into account that I’m going to sew three pockets for the foam to slide into. And that once the foam is in I will be folding it up almost in a box shape. So I left about a 1 1/2″ gap between the foam pieces. I just marked with a marker the center of all these gaps so I knew where to sew my pocket lines.
Now I turned the fabric inside out and sew all three edges. The top and sides. Leaving the bottom open.
Turn in right side out and lay it flat.
No need to iron, but if you want be my guest.
Now I sewed the seams where I marked with my marker earlier, creating 3 pockets for the foam to fit into. My pockets definitely had some extra room so I went back and tightened it up a bit so it fit more snugly.
So shove your foam in now.
Now I wrap the open seem like a present.
Plug your glue gun in now, you’ll need it in a minute.
Start by tucking in your corners.
Now fold your seam over and pin it. I stitched this part all the way across to make it easier. There was still about an extra 1″ of fabric in excess that we will be folding over to create a clean seam that we will glue next. Make sense?
Get your glue gun and glue your seem creating a clean no fringe seam. You could sew this by hand to if you wanted. I just wanted it to be a snug fit and clean so I chose the glue gun…the easy way.
Here you can see my gaps between foam pieces where I sewed extra seams to make it fit snug.
When your done with this part go cut smaller pieces of foam to create your dividers depending on your camera needs and parts and repeat the above process and cover them. This is what it will look like when your done!
I added Velcro to the top corners of mine since my bag made it come to a v shape anyway, just to hold it together and make it look clean.
This is it opened flat, I ran out of Velcro for my second foam divider so it’s missing some here.
Here are the dividers. You just hot glue Velcro down the sides that will sit against the walls of the foam insert. Glue to coordinating piece of Velcro to the inside of the insert as well where you want your dividers to sit. You could do multiple spots of Velcro on the insert if you want to be able to move your dividers in different ways to fit different things.
Inside the insert.
I may add another divider later for smaller things. My this bag has enough little pockets for all my memory cards, and charger, etc…
I hope this works for you. I’m pretty proud of myself for doing this so project and not having to use a ruler once. It came out pretty awesome I think. And it’s a cute bag for my camera now! Eeeek! So excited. Can’t wait to try this again on another bag.
If you make your own camera bag send me in a picture, if I get enough I will do a follow up post featuring them all!
This is linked up at and many other parties:
Wow! You got talent girl! It turned out fantastic!! 🙂
Thank you for sharing this great idea!
This is the coolest. Tell me if you’ve seen these (let me try to explain). It’s these fancy, fabric straps that go on your camera’s strap. It makes it more comfortable and soo cute, too! I bet you could rock something like that.
Thanks. Yes I am loved – stay tuned Monday. I will have a camera strap tutorial. 🙂
This is incredibly brilliant!!! I so want to do this, as I hate my current camera bag.
I will be pinning this under Art Tutorials and I’m sure you will be getting traffic from that pin.
Love this and thank you so much for sharing… It’s so wonderful.
Gretchen
Yikes! I’ve been wanting a strap tutorial and see you are doing that too. You rock!
Yes I agree- brilliant! I want a camera bag but they’re so darn pricey. GREAT alternative and I can use just about any bag I want— so clever! Great tute! Thanks for sharing 🙂
xoxo
ABSOLUTELY STUNNING!!!!! You did a GREAT job! The tutorial is amazing!
Thanks so much for linking this up at The DIY Dreamer 🙂
What a great tutorial! I am featuring it tonight on my blog!! : )
http://www.cherishedbliss.com
This is such an amazing tutorial and idea! I saw this the other night and kept looking at purses while I was out today that might work! Bonnie and I would be thrilled for you to share this at our link party. I know our readers would LOVE it!
Take care! Trish @ Uncommon
http://www.uncommondesignsonline.com
Thanks for the tutorial, I just got a new camera and I’m loving these instructions!
Susan
Homeroad
I was this close |–| to buying an $80+ camera bag but went out and bought a great big purse for $24 after seeing this tutorial….can’t wait to make my own bag. I will for sure take pics and send them your way!!! Thanks so much!!!
Great project! I plan on making on for my new camera. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I love it! I am not a fan of carrying around a camera bag that looks like a camera bag. I prefer something a bit more incognito AND something that looks like me! I like how this one looks like you could easily pull the insert out and use the purse as a purse again. Really great job, Rebecca! I’m pinning this!