Hi everyone! Welcome to day eleven of my 12 Days of Handmade Gifts! Today I am going to show you how to make a fun patched camera strap. I love vintage feed sack fabric and have dozens of little scraps. I had so much fun picking out my little scraps to embellish my strap with. This project is really fun to put together, and it is fast to whip up as well! Here’s the How-To:
Supplies:
*Vintage Feed Sack Scraps
*Rotary Cutter and Self Healing Mat
*2″ Webbing or an Old Belt
*Camera Strap Hardware Kit (Here)
*Leather Scraps
*Sewing Machine and Thread
*Leather Needle for your machine
Instructions:
Start off by gathering your scraps of fabric. You need to cut them into two inch squares with your rotary cutter. You will need about 15-18 of them depending on how long you want your strap. Once you have cut your squares, you are ready to patch them together. Take two squares and lay them face to face, then stitch up one side with a 1/4″ seam allowance. Take another square and lay it right sides together with the second square from the piece you just stitched. Repeat with your other squares, stitching the side to the previous square until you have one long piece and all the pieces are stitched together in a line. Press open all the seams. Now, fold the edges under towards the backside of the fabric by a 1/4″ and press down. Next, cut your webbing or belt to be the same length of the patched strip of scraps. Lay the hemmed strip of scraps face up onto the webbing and pin down. Top stitch the fabric strip to the webbing, stitching about an eighth of an inch from the edge all the way around. Next, cut four leather scraps to be 2.5×3″. Cut a notch on each side of the bottom. Now, with wrong sides together, stitch down the side of the leather ends, rotate your needle and stitch down the next side. Cut two pieces of skinny webbing to be about 10-12 inches. Sandwich the end of the webbing into the bottom of the leather end, and stitch across the bottom, then stitch back up the other side. Repeat with the second leather end pieces. Now, insert the webbing into the top of the leather ends on each side, sandwiching the webbing in between the leather pieces. Stitch across the top. You can choose to keep your ends the size they are, or you can trim the sides down to the width of the webbing. Next, load your hardware onto each side of your webbing. Now you are ready to add it to your camera.
I love this strap! It’s so cute! This would be a fantastic gift for your photography enthusiast! It’s easy and inexpensive to make too. I think I may have to make another one for my camera so I can enjoy one too! I love how easy it is to customize this strap too, just by the colors and fabrics you choose. You guys should definitely give this one a try for an easy to please holiday gift or yourself. I’ll be back tomorrow with my last diy gift project. Until then…
Happy Crafting!
