Mother's Day Gift to ME - DIY Camera Bag!

I recently purchased a new camera, which has quickly become one of the many loves of my life! 

It is my first DSLR camera - Canon Rebel T2i.

It came with a 2nd lens and a camera bag but I quickly realized there was no way I was lugging that case around with me day to day let alone to a party, BBQ or the Zoo.

This prompted me to look online and see if there were any trendy yet practical options that would look cute, hold all my gear and most importantly protect my camera.

I came across many amazing designers and found a few bags I actually loved; such as this one, I even checked eBay... but it didn't seem like there was anything that met all my requirements (looked cute) and cost me much less then $200.00! Which is certainly not in the budget right now so I was thrilled when I came across this blog post. The perfect solution!

So the hunt began for a cute inexpensive bag that would have everything I needed and cost less then $40.

Voila!

This bag cost me $35 from Marshalls!

Next up was getting the supplies I needed:

• 1" Foam - $10
• Self adhesive velcro - $5
• Fabric - $8

Here are the steps for the easiest DIY camera bag EVER:

Steps

Cut the foam to the desired size to fit the bag, I was lucky that the pack of foam I got had two square pieces and one of them fit perfectly when folded in half in the bag so I didn't have to cut this one at all.

For the dividers I didn't measure I just held the foam to the bag with my camera inside and figured out how big I wanted them.

Next, I cut the fabric to cover the foam, placed the foam on top of the fabric (with the fabric inside out) and pinned around all the edges (leaving one end open)

Now it was time to get sewing!

I was so happy to have my mother's old sewing machine for this part, it is quite possibly older than me but it definitely does the trick and saved me a ton of time.

I started with the larger base piece of fabric, then the smaller divider pieces and sewed all pinned sides; I then turned the fabric right side out, stuffed it with foam and sewed the open edges.

Assembly

First I placed the larger foam in the bag.

Next I cut the Velcro to fit on the sides of the dividers.

I then stuck the rough sided strips of Velcro on the dividers and the soft sided strips of Velcro on the bag, making sure everything lined up as I wanted it.

That is it!

Happy Mothers Day to all those Mama's & Mama's to be out there - I am going to get myself  together for some yummy breakfast and then if the weather holds up we are hitting up the Zoo!

xoxo