Making a home made camera bag

Being into Photography I often have a dilemma with what camera to take out with me. I have a nice Digital SLR with a rather weighty lens on the front and I have this awesome camera back pack with loads of compartments with extra kit and it has rain covers and chest straps and a clip for my tripod so If I'm doing a job or just a day out with my camera I'm pretty sorted.

However, there are days when I am out and about just doing regular day to day things where I wish I had my camera with me. Driving to work for example, I don't take all my camera gear with me everyday but then some days there will be an epic sunrise or sunset and I just wish I had my big camera with me as taking a picture on my mobile phone just doesn't cut it.

Move forwards several years and suddenly my digital SLR is getting taken out less and less. The technology within mobile phones is becoming incredible and now the results you can get from mobile phones are really impressive.
OK so the control that you have is no where near that of a digital SLR but it's often easier to capture events on a mobile phone that's always with you than planning to take your large camera on the off chance that you might want it.

So what happens when you go on holiday? Do you take the big camera knowing you will want to use it? Or do you just stick with the mobile phone to save on luggage space especially when flying on hand luggage only?

I've decided to make a padded camera cover so that I can put my digital SLR into a normal backpack so that I can have it with me without looking like I'm going on a photography exhibition with all my gear.

I've not made a camera bag before, and if I'm completely honest have only ever made items by following patterns so this is all a bit new to me.
With the help of my partner and lots of cutting and sticking paper templates I finally had a rough idea of what I was doing. With a lot of trial and error.. OK with a lot of error, frustration and whinging that this is impossible and why didn't I just buy a camera case online I finally have a beautiful padded camera case so that I can put my camera in my regular bag without all the extra bulk from my proper camera bag and hopefully this means that I can fit everything within my hand luggage when I go on holiday.

 

What do you think? Do you like it?
I'd love to see your homemade bags?

What do you do when you go on holiday when your a photographer and have to make the choice between camera gear and clothes??

Being a little sewing bee, making a summer dress

Every year it happens a television series appears on the box and suddenly that hobby becomes oh so cool and ever so popular. We've seen it with the Great British Bake Off where baking is the latest craze and everyone is talking cupcakes. Although I do still wonder what ever happened to fairy cakes and when they grew up and got larger and became the cool big brother cupcake?

Since the sewing bee came back onto our screens my enthusiasm for dress making has been ignited once again. Although If I'm completely and brutally honest the latest series of the Sewing Bee does seem to be a bit too clever for my level of sewing and as I watch, even myself a keen amateur sewer i'm losing interest.

I don't see myself making a lace bra or a Chinese blouse anytime soon. However I still have the book from the first series of the sewing bee that includes basic garments and easier patterns and in particular some lovely summer dresses. As I have some gorgeous materials currently at home in my sewing box I decided to make a summer dress out of this AMAZING rubber duck material.

Rubber duck material

Sewing supplies in my collection

As the summer is now in full swing I decided to make the summer dress and started by printing out the pattern rather than try to draw it out myself. This was a time consuming job all on its own and consisted of printing out 32 A4 pieces of paper, cutting them all down to size and sticking them together took ages and then once fixed into a pattern it was time to cut all the pattern pieces out.

Cutting out a dress pattern from A4 pages

With all my pattern pieces cut out of paper it was time to pin these to the material and start cutting the dress pieces. I decided to go for the next size up to what I normally wear to give myself a bit of wiggle room and material to take in rather than cut it too small and be stuck. However now that it is placed on the mannequin it looks worryingly small for me, but I will persevere.

With all the pattern pieces cut out it's time to start sewing my new dress together.

Laying the pattern pieces on the mannequin

Test fitting on the mannequin

The front and back bodice has been pinned, tacked and sewn and the centre panel and skirt are pinned in place on the mannequin ready for sewing.

Check in with my blog in the next few days to see how my new rubber duck pattern dress comes out. For now it's off to bed. x