purse to camera bag tutorial

Last week, I spent part of one of my days off making some custom-fit padding to turn a purse into a camera bag.  

And now I finally have a moment to share the how-to with you!

It all started with this bag I picked up on sale at Target

Originally,  I thought the front pockets would be perfect for holding lenses.  The problem: this purse lacked any type of padding to protect my little camera from bumps and bruises.

A quick search on Pinterest turned up a few tutorials that seemed easy enough.  Mostly I followed this one from Make It & Love It.

I started off with a trip to my local fabric and craft store to pick up some coordinating fabric, padding, and Velcro.

 The padding I chose is Fairfield's Soft n Crafty NU-Foam premium densified batting.  

Start by cutting a piece of pad to fit the bottom of your bag.  I just lined the pad with the bottom outside of the bag and snipped for the length and width then continued cutting at the snips to cut the entire rectangle.

Then cut a length of pad to fit the entire perimeter of the inside of your bag--I had to cut mine in two sections due to the size of the padding.

Dry fit the pad into your bag and make adjustments if needed.

Next, cut the fabric large enough to cover your pad pieces.  I left a good inch around the edges and cut along a fold to give a nice finished edge (and to have less to sew).

Before you sew the cover of the perimeter pad, you'll want to stitch on your Velcro strips.  I placed the strips (soft side) so they would be on the long sides of my bag and sewed around the entire edges of all four strips.

Fold fabric pieces right sides together and stitch, leaving an opening to turn your fabric and insert the padding.  Do this for both the bottom and side pieces.

To make the dividers, I followed Make It & Love It's directions (and forgot to snap pics!).  I didn't even bother stitching the base to the sides because I'm a lazy hand-stitcher it all stays together snuggly once inside the bag.

This project took under 2 hours (it would have been a lot faster, but my sewing machine and I had a couple of battles and I had to show it who was boss).  I'm thrilled with the result of a cute and trendy camera bag without the boutique price tag {materials: $15 + bag: $20 = total cost: $35}.

Happy Sewing!