Camera Strap Cover

I am happy to report that I had a super productive sewing/embroidery weekend!  I finished Mr. Fox on the train ride home on Friday, finished my Ginger skirt and cut out all of the fabric and lining pieces for my Passport dress on Saturday, and had some time left on Sunday to make a camera strap cover so Nick and I can tell our cameras apart.  Success!  You’ll have to wait to see Mr. Fox and Mr. Bird (who has remained under wraps) until we give them to our friends, and you’ll have to wait until Wednesday to see my Ginger skirt since I won’t be able to take pictures of it until tomorrow afternoon because we have a Frisbee game tonight after work.  You’ll just have to keep checking back!

A camera strap with a pocket for the lens cap has been on my to-do list since we got our cameras last month.  I really needed a good place to put my lens cap while taking pictures.  When I was wearing a skirt or shorts with pockets this wasn’t a problem, but other times I was wearing a pocket-less outfit, forcing me to tuck the lens cap into my bra strap.  This brought me back to middle school field hockey days when we used to tuck our mouthguards into our bra straps when we weren’t playing.  Looking back, this is a lot less gross than our other method: tucking the mouthguards into our socks.  I’m sad to tell you that I usually used the sock method.  Gross, yes, but I never lost my mouthguard.  On the other hand, I was always losing my lens cap when I used the bra strap method, so I needed to get moving on this camera strap project.

Last night after Father’s Day activities, which ended in a rousing game of duck duck goose with 7 adults and only 3 children, I had just enough time and energy to whip up the camera strap.  I used Simply Modern Mom’s tutorial, which was really well explained and included lots of pictures.  My camera strap’s dimensions were the same as hers, so I didn’t have to do any extra math to draw out the template (whew!).

Then it came time to decide what fabric to use for the strap and pocket.  ::Nerd alert::  Remember back in February when I stumbled across that Girl Scout fabric?  I have been saving it for the perfect project and I thought now was the time to finally cut into the green and brown badge prints.  Since I was never “officially” a Girl Scout, I decided that the green badges would be used for the inside/pocket and the brown Brownie badges would be used for the outside.

A short while later, I had my camera strap cover!  It really was simple to put together.  The cover is basically a slip cover for your camera strap, which means that the cushioning and durability of the original strap is still intact.  The bonus is that you can take the cover off and wash it.  I’m sure my strap cover is going to need a good washing by the end of our three-week Great Western Adventure.

Here is a close up of the pocket.  The lens cap fits in so snuggly that I won’t have to worry about losing it.  In case I ever find myself upside down while taking pictures, I checked to see what would happen if I turned the pocket upside down with the lens cap inside.  It didn’t budge!  Hurrah!

The green badge fabric even has the photography badge on it.  How perfect is that?

From start to finish, this project would have taken me a little over an hour if I hadn’t had to keep getting up to change the laundry.  It’s so easy that I’m thinking about making another cover just in case this one gets extra gross during our trip. 

If you happen to be in Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon in August, you’ll be able to pick me out of the crowd.  I’ll be the one with the nerdiest camera strap.

Speaking of my camera, Grosgrain featured a review of our awesome Tamron 18-270mm lens today.  Check it out!