Still Sewing

I once thought of sewing as either garment construction or quilting, but lots of other useful things can be sewn, such as the pillow cover I made earlier this week. Today I made another useful object, a camera bag to wear hanging around my neck.

Actually I started a camera bag made from the leg of an old pair of jeans, but the fabric proved to be too bulky so I decided to start again with different fabric.

Several years ago I bought green canvas, intending to make new seats for director’s chairs, but Dennis had put the chairs in the trash because their wood was broken. I have enough green canvas to make about sixty camera bags, but today I used only eight inches of it.

First I made the strap, a 1¾ -inch strip, 39 inches long. I folded the edges in, folded the strip in half again, and sewed along the edge.

After measuring the camera’s girth and determining the necessary dimensions, I cut two rectangles 8"x4¾" and sewed them together on three sides. Then I double stitched the bottom and corners and trimmed the seams back nearly to the seam.

Next, I pressed the top seams apart and used a little fabric glue to hold them in place.

This made it easier to fold down the top of the bag after I had turned it right side out and to pin the strap ends in place.

Before sewing the top and straps down, I found a sock that had lost its mate to use as lining. I cut the sock off at the length of the bag and sewed a zigzag stitch along the cut edge.

I sewed around the top of the bag, securing the strap ends in place, and stuffed the sock lining inside the bag. A ruler was helpful in getting the lining in place.

Finally I sewed around the top of the bag again, catching the top edge of the sock. This step also made the strap more secure because it is now held in place by two rows of stitching.

Thinking I would take a photo of the camera inside the bag, I inserted the camera, and looked around for the camera to take the photo. What a dodo! Take my word for it, the camera fits perfectly with its wrist strap hanging outside for easy access.

Copyright 2014 by Shirley Domer