Accessories DIY: Stylish Camera Bag

My camera goes everywhere with me — especially on our Airstream trips.  Sometimes I feel uncomfortable carrying around a camera bag that just screams, “There is an expensive camera in this bag.”  I wanted something more discreet and not so obvious yet stylish at the same time.  I scoured the Internet trying to find an alternative.  I wanted something that could carry all of my equipment as well as my personal belongings so I didn’t have to haul my purse along too.  No luck, at least, nothing I liked was out there.

Then I started thinking about diaper bags.  Most of them come with pockets galore (perfect for lenses, etc.) and some of them can be rather stylish as well.   I found this diaper bag and just fell in love.  Doesn’t look like a diaper bag, does it?  Or even a camera bag for that matter.  The only problem was that the bag was not padded — but it did come with a diaper changing pad.

I started thinking I could easily eyeball the sizes of the inside pockets and “cut out” from the diaper pad pieces that could snugly encase my lenses.

So that’s what I did.  There were four pockets inside of my “camera” bag so I eye balled the size of those pockets and ran the diaper pad through my serger (this is what a serger is if you don’t know).  Here is a picture of my serger.  It is a Brother 1034D 3/4 Lay-In Thread Serger and I LOVE IT (threading it is a breeze).  If you don’t have a serger, you could easily simply cut your pocket pattern out of the diaper pad and hand sew the edges or run through a sewing machine.

Here is a picture of the inside of my new camera bag complete with the modified padding inserts…

Another cool thing about using a diaper bag for a camera bag is that it comes with these awesome bottle holders, which are perfect for lenses and they are padded!

Since this bag is so stylish I thought I would upgrade my camera strap to a beautiful orange rose strap that I purchased from here.

 

 

All in all I am very pleased with my decision to use this diaper bag as my new camera bag.  It has all the pockets I need to keep me organized and keeps my camera equipment easily accessible.