Pin 180

Original pin:

http://www.bluelacehouse.com/2011/05/make-your-own-camera-bag.html

A tutorial to make a camera bag insert to use in a purse and avoid the standard black boxy camera bag.

My birthday was earlier this week and I got myself a really fantastic birthday present! I have been saving my money a long time to get myself a fancy schmancy new camera! I am so excited. I have been wanting this camera for ever!!

I never even considered that I would need a place to store it. But as I waited in line at the camera shop to pay for it I was eyeing a bunch of really cute bags that were way, way out of my budget. I knew Pinterest could help me out here. It only took a few minutes to find this simple tutorial. Time to go shopping.

I hit up a discount clothing store and picked up this cute bag:

 

 

It has a large zipper-top opening and deep side pockets with a handy little zipper pocket on the side.

 

I swung by the craft store for some foam and some fabric--I needed something colorful to jazz this up. After I put the littles to bed, I started drawing out my plans.

I did this in the completely, absolutely wrong order. I should have first taken my bag home and measured both the camera and bag before buying the foam and fabric. But since the discount clothing store and the craft store are neighbors, I thought I could just estimate. I was a little short on foam. I had to compromise.

Foam core board to the rescue! This particular board has been in so many projects, but this was the last bit of it. I wrapped these in batting to substitute for some of the missing foam!

Then, I was short on fabric as well! So I dug out this t-shirt remnant that sort-of coordinated with my fabric.

I tried to follow her directions, I really did. They were simple and easy to understand, so its not her fault. I was just adjusting as I went. 

Halfway through, I decided to forgo as much Velcro as possible. Starting with the middle divider, I decided to sew it on. I just felt like it would be more stable that way. However, I could only easily sew the bottom part of the middle divider on.

So, then, I had to sew Velcro on to each side of the divider panel. (Note to self: sew the Velcro on first). Another step out of order.

I fully sewed each end on the insert. I couldn't sew the Velcro on for anymore dividers at this point. All Velcro should be sewed on before assembly! This is what happens when you sew as you go.

Here is the finished product. Its a little sloppier than I prefer. There are too many visible seams, the topstitching isn't tight enough to the edge so the edges look a little loose and sloppy to me.

The non-Velcro-ed divider slides in perfectly though--this is one of the ones with the foam core board.

All aside, this goes INSIDE a bag so really the only person to see these little details is me. So how does it look inside?

Not too bad. It adds a nice pop of color. It fits all my things perfectly. I'm not sure it could withstand just a whole lot of jostling, but I'm going to put some of that extra foam board & batting I covered underneath and on the ends for a little more stability.

Total time: Not the one hour she had!! I had a few trouble shooting moments to take care of. I spent about four hours all together on it.

Total cost: $24.99 for the bag and around $10 for not-enough fabric and foam. (That's not including the money I spent on other fun goodies at the discount clothing store while I was in there.)

Final cost: While it is not super pretty on the outside, it is doing its job nicely. It fits in the bag, it fits my things. I could do it a whole lot better next time. But I'm going to stick with this one for now. A great idea to save some cash!