How To Make a Cute Camera Case

Can't bear the thought of putting yet another boring black case into your bag? Me either. Here's a simple way to make your own cute camera case in whatever colors you want.

Since cameras vary so widely in size, you'll notice there are NO MEASUREMENTS whatsoever in this post. You'll have to figure that out on your own. Fear not! It's really not that hard. Personally, I'm a huge fan of eyeballing it. That usually works. ^_^
This is the most complicated tutorial I've written so far. I'm really more of an "attach the thing to the other thing" sort of person, so do bear with me! The photos do a pretty good job of explaining when I fail. Click on any of them to see them larger.

Here's what you'll need:
* Fabric for the outside of the case (I used a nice cotton)
* Fabric for the inside of the case (I used a slightly thicker vintage cotton)
* Batting
* Velcro
* Thread
* A sewing machine, or a needle and lots of patience

Step 1:
Lay your camera on top of the fabric you wish to use. Measure out the length: you want to have the fabric be about two and a half measures of your camera. Make sure that you leave an extra inch or more for seam allowances on all sides. Once you're certain, go ahead and cut the fabric.
It should look something like this:

Using the piece you just cut as a template, cut out a piece of the top fabric and the batting. To make the sides of your camera bag, lay your camera out on the fabric again. Measure an extra inch on all sides, and cut. Repeat with batting and top layer. Remember to cut two of all the side pieces.

Step 2: Lay the cut pieces together in a quilt sandwich: Batting on the bottom, then the top fabric facing up, then the lining fabric facing down.

Step 3: Sew the lined up layers together around the side. Be sure to leave about an inch so you can turn it all inside out.

The pieces will look like this, once they're turned inside out. Repeat this step with the other two fabric stacks. (You may want to leave more than an inch on the big strip.)

Step 4: Once they're all turned inside out, sew over the the hole where you turned them inside out.

Step 5: Stitch over the fabric to keep all three layers from shifting. Also, it looks neat. Use whatever sort of design you like. Repeat this step with all three pieces.

Step 6: Line the two side pieces up in the middle of the long piece, and sew them on. It's helpful to have your camera handy for eyeball measurements at this point. The rule of thumb is that you want to be able to fold one end of the fabric up and over those side pieces.

Step 7: Fold the bottom of the fabric up, and sew the bottoms and the other sides of the two smaller pieces to it, like so:

See those little wings sticking out of the bottom? Those are called mistakes "Design Features". Yeah. It's um...extra padding. Okay, so that's what happens sometimes when you eyeball stuff. I made the little side pieces a bit too long. Fortunately, I kept my camera on hand, and it was a simple matter to just stitch them to fit. So let that be a lesson to me you. When eyeballing, keep checking the fit.

Step 8: Cut all the loose thread ends to neaten it up. Turn the case inside out. Now attach velcro to the inside of the lip, and the outside of the pouch like so:

I used the self adhesive kind because for some reason, I have tons of it. Also, I wanted to see if it would hold up. So far, so good!
That's it. You now have an adorable camera case you made yourself!



*Note: I don't mind if you decide you loooove making these so much that you want to start selling them. Please just make sure you credit the design to me, and link back to the blog. I work so hard on these stinkin' things. Thanks!