Camera Case

So, since I've been blabbing about my new camera, I thought I'd continue on that vein with something a little crafty. For all of the women out there who carry cameras, I am convinced that the entire camera case market is designed by and for men. Here are my reasons:

1. They are ugly
2. They are large and bulky
3. They are designed to be carried on their own, not to fit in a purse, or in my case, diaper bag
4. They start around $30.00 (way to much money for something big, bulky, and ugly)

My main issue with the commercial camera case is that I am WAY more likely to drop said camera if I cannot carry/fit it in my bag or purse. And they definitely have not made a camera case cute or versatile enough to double as a purse for any girl I know. So my response to this was to make my own case. While this did take me two iterations to get perfect, I was pretty happy with the end result.

I used fusible interfacing on the cotton for the exterior, and a polar fleece for the lining. This gave the bag a bit of rigidity so it would hold its shape, and a nice fleecy inside so the camera would not get scratched.

Here is the fabric I used:

And my naked camera:

First attempt pieces cut out:

First attempt sewn together:

Note the pockets on the inside of the lining:

I liked the fabric because it had a print of old post cards on it, making me thing "travel" and it didn't really match anything in my stash. Cute enough for a quirky case, not so cute I'd be kicking my self for wasting it on a camera case.

Unfortunately, it was after I had already cut out the fabric that my hubby informed me that camera bags usually open from the back, not the top. DOH! This bag ended up being to small for the camera anyway (I forgot to compensate for the height of the flash), but it fit my sisters Fujifilm camera, so all was not lost.

Version 2.0 went way faster. It only took about 40 min to complete, where as the failed 1.0 version took about 2 hours. Turns out opening from the back, WAY easier than opening from the top, go figure.

Here is the finished product:

I managed to get one pocked on the side for the charger.

With my camera snug as a bug!

While definitely not the cutest thing I've ever made, I think its leaps and bounds cuter than any case I saw at the camera store. And if nothing else, it serves my purpose very well. Protect the camera from bumps and scratches, while still allowing it to fit in my diaper bag, yay!

Anyone else feel the necessity to take it upon themselves to custom make something you can't find?

Happy sewing!

Janice