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Saturday, February 19, 2011

Tutorial: Making Any Bag a Camera Bag

So I've recently bought a fancy shmancy camera but have no bag for it ( I love the JoTotes but I'm not made of money). So I thought I would make myself one whith some stuff I had laying around. First I took a medium sized bag that I already had. I love it but find it too big to be my purse but too small to be an overnight bag. Then I grabbed some fabric we had waiting to be used. Last I got a small piece of flooring underlay. Since I work at a building supply store this was readily available for me and cheap! 
Once you've got your stuff together you need to measure out the sizes of foam you need to surround your bag. I choose to have one long piece for all the sides, one piece for the bottom, and one piece for a divider.
Next I cut out my fabric by placing my foam right on it, folding the fabric over to cover both sides of the foam, and then just cutting around the foam with an extra inch for my seam. 
Everything is ready to start sewing!

Sew two of the sides with the fabric folded so good sides are in. Leave one side unstitched.

Once your done sewing turn the covers inside out and place your foam inside.

Fold the open sides inward.
Slip stitch the open side. (I clearly am not the best slip stitcher.)
Place your bottom piece of foam inside your bag. Wrap the long piece around the sides of the bag and add the divider. You could add velcro or slip stitch the divider to the outer wrapping but I wanted to be able to move it around or take it out if I needed to. 
Now you have a lovely new camera bag. I can also just take out my foam and stick it in another similarly sized bag to protect my camera and match my outfit!

18 comments:

  1. This is so great, what an awesome idea!! I love that you used flooring underlay haha. This makes me miss Rona! I should try this because I definatly can't afford a fancy schmancy camera bag either.
    That comment you left me on my blog made me laugh so hard. I knew only you would know where barrhead was, we have a campsite close to there so we always go to barrhead in the summer. And I got my dress at a thrift shop in st.albert, everything was a buck! Riiidiculous!
    xJennaD

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  2. Thanks for this girl! I definitely need to do this soon. I got some camera bag inserts from B&H but I need just a few more.

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  3. Brilliant! I'm SO making this!!

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  4. Wow, that is so cool. I doubt mine would come out nearly as good as yours. But still that is way cool. I'm impressed!
    -Madeleine

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  5. this is fantastic. i too want to carry around my nikon dslr with me regularly, but hate that it is unprotected in my large purses. this foam divider is perfect!

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  6. ahh. this sooo amazing.
    if i knew how to sew i would do this in a heartbeat.
    xoox

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  7. WHAT CAN'T YOU DO. Seriously Shy you're kind of my hero. I've been coveting some kind of cute camera bag but they are SO PRICEY. This is genius.

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  8. Thanks for this tutorial! This is awesome, especially since I don't like the ugly standard camera bags. Unfortunately most of my bags are of a behemoth sizing, so I'll have to wait until I accrue smaller bags.

    ♥ Julia
    Just Like Judas

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  9. Jeesh! You are so creative! Seriously, I would never have thought of this and now it's like DUH! I hate my camera case, it's so ugly... but I didn't want to hurt my camera. I can't wait to get to work on this! xx

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  10. This is such a good post <3
    Brilliant idea!xx

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  11. oh that is such a brilliant idea!!!! it is so so so cute i bought some cheap bulky one to carry around but yours is so stylish :)

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  12. I just came across your blog and it's SO CUTE (and so are you)!

    I've been wanting to do this for my camera for a loooong time. I carry purses big enough to just chuck my DSLR in with the rest of my purse-junk, but I'm sure that isn't how to keep a nice camera staying nice. So thank you for this tutorial! I will soon get my lazy butt to make some cushion for my camera's fragile butt :)

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  13. great idea incorperating a camera bag into another bag, i don't think my skills will stretch to this though :( x

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  14. Great tutorial. My camera bag is so ugly!

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Thank You :D