I made a Camera Bag-Purse

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This is not a typical preschool activity. But if you are a parent, grandparent, aunt/uncle, teacher…etc…you probably take pictures of the children in your life and have a camera. I thought you might appreciate this information and find it to be helpful. I made a camera bag-purse:

Last year I was given a Nikon D3100, that’s been awesome for me. I have been hunting for a bag for quite sometime, but when we traveled to Galveston I quickly became tired of hauling two bags or a purse with camera in hand. My search intensified and I found the perfect bag! The Kelly Moore Camera Bag-The Libby. It can carry it all: the camera, laptop, phone, wallet, and lipstick. But it costs $250, which is beyond my budget; and I’m just too tight to pay that for a part time bag anyway.

I found some inspiration and ideas for a DIY camera/purse bag at Jen and Steve and Live Laugh Eat and decided to make my own.

For about $34.00 I purchased the needed materials and still have fabric, foam, and velcro left over to make more dividers, adjustments, or add more padding. Here they are:

  1. Large purse for $21.99 at Gordman’s (it’s kind of like a Marshalls or TJMaxx).
  2. Cute fabric from Hobby Lobby
  3. Velcro – Walmart and I should have looked for it at Hobby Lobby, since WM selection was poor.
  4. Fabric Glue – I had on hand
  5. Cardboard – Cut from a box in the garage
  6. 1 inch foam from Hobby Lobby

I hate to sew, but I really wanted this so I fired up my mother’s 1978 Brother sewing machine. I strongly recommended you follow the directions from the links above. Without a doubt, their examples and directions will be better than mine.

I will say this.

  1. I didn’t follow the design suggested on Jen and Steve because my bag was too shallow
  2. I cut the foam and sewed “bags” from the fabric, then inserted the foam like a pillow.
  3. I hand sewed the opening closed, but you could use fabric glue.
  4. The bottom cushion has cardboard inserted for extra stability.
  5. Fabric glue was used to attach the velcro and I hope that it holds.
  6. Two strips of velcro were added to the Main Cushion so the size of the ‘nest’ can be adjusted. This also gives the option to use the divider out of my old camera bag.

It isn’t professional or perfect, but I can carry one bag and my camera is safe and in my reach. (For this shot I didn’t attach the velcro pieces because they were still drying.)

Definitely not the beautiful Kelly Moore bag but it will work just fine. 🙂

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