I was tired of trying to hunt down all my camera accessories when I wanted to take my camera somewhere it somewhere so I thought I would make a padded bag to take it all around with me. My intention was to put the transfer cable, battery charger, Camera, spare battery, and spare memory card in one place. I wanted to make a little card that kept the battery and memory card in one place so A) they wouldn’t get lost and B) they could be easily transferred from the bag to my purse when needed. The final product ended up being way bigger then I needed, but it still works and I might make another one that is smaller another day. The pattern is still a work in progress so feel free to take it and adjust it as necessary for your needs.
Cut out pieces
- Make the Pull out accessory board
- For this you need two pieces of thin [non-corrugated] cardboard a little smaller then your fabric, which in step 1 we cut the fabric to 4x6 in.
- Also you will need two squares of clear fabric about a half and inch bigger then the object you want to put in them.
- Lastly you will need some Velcro to close the pockets and to attach the board to the bag as well as some glue to attach the fabric to the board.
- First place mark on the fabric where you want the Velcro and clear fabric to go, then first sew the Velcro on the fabric and then sew the Velcro to the clear fabric, then sew the clear fabric on the fabric with the Velcro already on it.
- Next glue the fabric to the board, to do this the fabric needs to be a little larger then the board, place the fabric pocket side down to the table then place the cardboard on top, run a small bead of glue around the edges of the cardboard and then carefully bring the fabric around the edges into the glue. To hold the fabric in place while the glue dries, you can use binder clips as clamps. Do the same thing to the other piece of fabric without the pockets on it. This will piece will serve as the back to hide all the gluing and where the Velcro to attach the board to the bag will be placed. Note the fabric may pucker when sewing on the pockets so you may want to use a slightly larger piece to begin with so you have enough fabric to cover the board.
- Then while that is drying you can make the pull loop for the board. I used a scrap of fabric about 4 inches long or so and at 1inch mark on each end I cut in a 1/3 of the way, note do not cut all they way across! Then you can fold the middle sections onto each other to create the pull loop leaving a broader gluing surface at each end. The middle section can then be stitched in place; I used a zigzag stitch.
- Once the glue on the two boards is dry then you can glue in the loop you just made, onto one of the board making sure it will eventually be at the top.
- Once the loop has dried part way you can glue to two boards together. To do this run a small bead of glue around all the edges and in the middle of once of the pieces and then sandwich them together and hold in place again with the binder clips until it dries.
- After it dries and the rest if the bag is made you can attach Velcro to the back of the board. I used 3 stripes of Velcro probably about 3 inches long horizontally across the back of the board. I used heat activated glue Velcro, so they needed to be ironed in place, if you don’t have this kind of Velcro you might want to sew the Velcro on before you glue it to the board. Once you have the Velcro bonded to the board then place the Velcro on the inside of the finished bag and use the iron to bond in place, but having a finished bag is a little ahead of things now…lets get to that.
- Making the bag.
- To make the strap, sew a straight stitch along the long side and then turn inside out.
- Then I cut the batting to the right size for the front, bottom, back and sides. I used 100% polyester 1/8 inch quilting light loft batting, for no particular reason other then that’s the first one I saw, seemed to work fine, but other things might work just as well.
- Then I pinned the batting to the fabric and sewed each piece on three sides before piecing it together, it was at this point I realized I probably could have skipped that step and used a bias tape or something to hide the raw edges on the inside except the inside pocket needs to have one finished edge, this will depend on how you cut the fabric.
- When cutting out the pieces I left the front back and bottom as one piece and while sewing the mega piece on three sides on this I also sewed the 12 in zipper in. Note again when working with zippers make sure the fabric about 2 inches longer then you fabric so you can disguise the edges properly, I forgot this when cutting my fabric. Also note to pin the zipper in place and see how it will work to make sure it is on the correct edge and correct side. I had to redo my zipper the first time because the way it was placed the inside fabric would have to have been on the outside.
- When piecing them together I measured down from the zippered edge 10 inches and pinned the side pieces on, then placed the inside pocket on one side and pinned it in place, then pinned the sides up to form the bag shape.
- Then we were ready to sew. This is really straight forward the bottom corners of the bag are a little tricky to get around because they have the most fabric, so take it slow, sew it while it is inside out one way I found to get around this is kinda fold the corner back and then forward almost like making a corner of a bed to do the corners decently, but I am sure there are other better ways to do this. Note don’t forget to sew across the bottom of the inside pocket after you have done one side, it should be a little easier to get at the pocket this way.
- Once this is done you can add the Velcro, I used about an 8 or 9 in piece of Velcro across the inside pocket again with the heat activated glue so I just ironed it in place and this is when I also ironed in the three stripes of Velcro for the board. Check to make sure the Velcro is fully adhered this may take a few times.
finishing the bag
- At this point all that is left to do is sew in the other side of the zipper and attach the handle.
For the zipper I just tucked in the raw edge and put the zipper in the middle and hand sewed it on. - Then the side pieces extended above the zipper so I attached the strap to the middle of these sections and folded the rest of the fabric in at an angle around it. I hand sewed this but it could have been done on a machine.
