Sweet Camera Bag

My cousin from Scotland recently moved back to Australia to live here permanently.

She celebrated her birthday not long ago, and received a camera as a gift (it's a very cool old style heavy film camera).  It just needed a lovely bag so it can be carried around with ease.

All it took was a visit to my fabric stash, where she chose this lovely blue floral.  I chose the green floral for the interior. I think it matches quite nicely (if I do say so myself)

Now she's all set for some gallivanting around town to take photographs!

At the Museum of Science & Industry in Manchester, UK

After thismornings blog post, Jennie just emailed me through this fabulous pic of her camera bag at the Museum of Science & Industry in Manchester, UK!

I love that it's an action shot of the bag actually in use (rather than just being draped over Frances).

Brilliant!

On the beach.... at Bribie Island

A little while ago I blogged about my new World Travel Gallery.

The idea is that I would love to have a gallery collection of photos, of things that I've lovingly created over the years, that have ended up in far flung places all over Australia and even the world.

So please, email me your photos and locations....

The photo above is the camera bag that I made for Car sitting on a beach at Bribie Island at sunrise.

I soooo wish I was there right now!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Outer fabric - Ruby Star Rising Viewfinders by Melody Miller for Kokka

You may have seen some sneaky peeks of this project over on Instagram.

It left on a jet plane with Jennie yesterday, and is probably touching down in the UK right about now.

The brief from Jennie was that she needed a camera bag that would fit her camera and her wallet, and could be slung over her shoulder.

Jennie provided the gorgeous fabrics for me to work with.

The other requirement was a pocket within the flap to hold things such as tourist maps.

There is a padded lengthways divider to separate her wallet and camera.

...and this is a pic that I stole from Jennie's FB page which shows the camera and wallet in place.

Now I'm just wishing that I was on that plane!

My Creative Space

I've been Instagramming up a storm this week while documenting the process of making a custom camera bag for Jennie (you can find me as @curlypops over there by the way)...

I'm on the finishing strait now. There's just that delicate job of cutting a hole through my perfectly constructed bag flap to attach the twist lock (hence why I'm referring back to Nikki's blog instructions in that final shot).

Nearly finished...

The home of My Creative Space

Still playing catch up... and a Camera Bag

Everything is still on a bit of a time-lag around these parts.

Even my daily consumption of coffee, red cordial, and chocolate (which sustains me with the delicate balance of caffeine, red food colouring and sugar)  hasn't been giving me my normal extra energy boost!

I've been working on a fun project behind the scenes that I can't show you just yet, but then I remembered that I still had a lovely camera bag from last year that I hadn't yet blogged.

Lauren contacted me in December to make a surprise Christmas pressie for her sister. She visited Ink and Spindle and picked out this lovely Gingko in Deep Red and Stone.

The bag was designed for a smallish compact type camera and a separate lens, so there is just one adjustable separator inside.

I love how it turned out... now I just need to make one for myself (how many times have I said that?).



PS - thanks for all the lovely bloggiversary wishes yesterday. I didn't get a chance to reply to all the messages!

Behind the Scenes

It may not seem like it at the moment, but there's been plenty of crafty things happening behind the scenes at Curlypops HQ.

Like this super gorgeous camera bag commissioned by Carissa.

Pssssst: Check out that schmick twist lock closure!

Every time I make one of these bags, I'm sad to say goodbye.... and I keep telling myself that I really should make one for my own camera!

 
I'm completely in love with the fuschia colourway of this Lara Cameron print.   I decided to preserve and make a feature of the selvedge on the rear zip pocket (I hope you like that bit Carissa).

I'm thinking that we might need to start an Ink and Spindle petition to bring back fuschia!

Inside the bag, there are two removable velcroed padded inserts, and a couple of extra padded inserts so that the bag can also be used for other purposes. There's nothing like a bit of multitasking.

Now it's all safely packed up in a nice big box and ready to head off into the wild blue yonder. I hope you like it Carissa.

My creative space

I don't have much to show in my creative space today...

I'm halfway through another custom camera bag, but the weather has been too dreary to even take any photos.  For this one, I'm going to use a brand new twist lock from Nikki's shop. I can't wait to try it out!

The bag is denim, with a Lara Cameron Birch Forest print in pink, that I bought before the days of Ink and Spindle.... it may be even classified as vintage by now.

In the meantime, I'm reworking my floral design, and waiting, waiting, waiting, on two more lots of fabric samples to arrive.... guess I'll just have to keep waiting.

The home of my creative space

I'm ready for my close-up

The front

The latest camera bag is finally finished...yippee!

Zippered pocket on the back

I had my carpets steam cleaned yesterday, which led to furniture re-arrangement, and of course, a complete and utter mess. After two solid hours of cleaning up aforementioned mess thismorning, I couldn't take it anymore and I retreated to the sewing machine......

Side view - with adjustable strap and antique brass hardware

.......where I put all of the jigsaw pieces together and sewed them into place.

Adjustable padded inserts

I just have to finish off a little bit of hand stitching on the couch tonight while I watch a DVD, and I can pop it in the post to Michelle.

Then tomorrow, it's back to the dreaded mess!

My Creative Space

 My creative space is still all about Michelle's camera bag (it was her birthday yesterday too).

It's on the home stretch now...

There was one final choice to make - antique brass or silver hardware. I've never had such a dilemma over the hardware colour. With most fabrics, it's quite easy to plainly see which one suits better. But, with the linen, the grey and white floral, and the gingham, both colours could have been used.

I'm going to keep you in suspense 'til the end to find out which one Michelle chose!

All of the pieces have been made now, and it's time to fit this jigsaw together.... but first, I'm off to do a little bit of voluntary community service.

I'll catch up on Kirsty's big list once I get back home thisafternoon.

One of those days...

I was expecting to have a nice quiet weekend at home.... no real plans, just a bit of sewing.

But the stars were not aligned somewhere along the line, and things started to mysteriously go haywire.
It all began on Saturday when Bec ran out of petrol in my driveway and had to wait two hours for the RACV.
I did at least take advantage of the situation by letting her sort out my big tub of tangled up ric-rac!

Then on Sunday, we decided to have a little crafternoon. For some reason, everything I did, or was trying to do just went horribly wrong. I made an error with my calculations for the camera bag flap and made it too large. So I unpicked it all, and made it smaller... problem fixed. Then it was time to sew the clip onto the flap, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I searched and searched and searched - then after half an hour, I remembered that I'd clipped it onto the body of the bag so I wouldn't lose it...deeeerrrrrrr!

The final straw came when I was using my lovely covered tape measure to find the centre point to attach the flap. One minute I was using the tape measure.... the next minute it had disappeared!

By this time, I thought Bec was playing tricks on me by hiding things on purpose..... only to finally find the tape measure inside the bag body.

I think somedays we all should just give up and go back to bed!

My Creative Space

Please excuse the photo quality - I only have my mobile phone on hand

In my creative space today (errr well yesterday anyway)....
I finally finished Susan's long delayed camera bag (sorry Susan)!

There were a few things that I forgot to pack and bring along with me, but I'd finished the machine stitching on this Monday morning, and I knew that I only had the finishing touches of hand stitching left to do. It's actually one of my favourite things to do right at the very end. It somehow makes it feel more handmade to me, when the last little bit is finished off by hand.

It's now on it's way to Susan, via Cathie (thanks so much Cathie)!
I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that the camera fits.

Also in my creative space - two very cute little munchkins came to visit yesterday and kept busy with lots of lovely oil pastel drawings. Just in case you haven't guessed it, on the left is a Hippo, and on the right is a very scary Lion!

A huge thankyou must go out to everyone who sent me get well wishes, and who took me up on my challenge to write extra blog posts to keep me entertained. I've hardly even had time to watch tv... I've been up to my ears in crafty reading on the internet instead!

Make sure to pop on over and visit Kirsty and check out all the other wonderful creative spaces on the list!

My Creative Space

In my creative space today.... all the bits and pieces for Susan's long awaited camera bag (just try to ignore all of the random clutter and mess in the background).

It was a bit of a tricky challenge. Susan requires a tall skinny bag for her camera, so that she can pop it straight inside with the very tall flash still attached.

This was the first opportunity where I've needed to use my vintage sleeve press. I would have been completely lost trying to iron it without that press.

The bag outer and front flap (which you can't see in the photo) were made using a very beautiful Ink and Spindle fabric that Susan supplied. I've used the same fabric on the underside of the adjustable strap, with a black denim on the top. The inner of the bag is black with white polkadots with an internal zip pocket. The strap will be finished off with some lovely silver hardware.

I'm going to have it all finished and ready to give to Susan next Thursday night at NCB.

There's one last piece of the puzzle still to be made. Do you see that little piece of pink cardboard at the bottom centre of the photo? That's a little template that I've made up, so that I can cut out the two side pieces that fit between the body of the bag, and the adjustable strap. Once they're finished, then it's just a matter of sewing all of the puzzle pieces together, and giving it very hot and steamy iron so that it's nice and smooth and crease free.

I think my poor little workhorse (sewing machine) will then be going on a little holiday for a bit of rest and relaxation with the nice sewing machine service man. Never fear, I have my little sisters machine as backup!

Make sure to pop in and visit Kirsty today and check out the hundreds of others creative spacers. I'm off to work, but I'll be checking the list when I get home.

Lights Camera Action

Another custom camera bag all finished!

This one is heading off to live with Cath in the wonderful land of Chunky Chooky.

Cath provided the lovely wood grain fabric for the flap and the inner bag - it's the same one that she uses on her very groovy log rattles.

I really do love challenging myself to make something to fit the brief.

There's a zippy pocket on the back....

....and adjustable padded inserts inside.

I've fallen back in love with with the denim / chocolate brown combo... which is a good thing considering the amount of brown fabric that I have in my stash.

Now I think I really should make one for myself. It might even encourage me to take my camera with me more often and that can only be a good thing for sure!

My Creative Space

In todays creative space: I have a little swap pressie* that I need to finish up for Amanda.... I just have to find the precisely perfect fabric in the stash to make the binding and straps.

Sometimes the perfect fabric can be a little elusive, but when I spot the one, I'll just know.

The other task for today is to sort through the scrap bin to take along to the Northern Craft Bonanaza tonight, because one persons scraps are another persons treasures.... hmmmm there seems to be a proliferation of pink here!

I've also finished the custom camera bag from last weeks space, so stay tuned for some photos tomorrow.


*I'm purposely only showing a snippet of the very cute tea towel that Amanda sent me to transform. I want to keep the rest of it a surprise until she receives it back


The home of My Creative Space

My Creative Space

My creative space is all about the works in progress at the moment....

I have a custom order currently in progress for another camera bag. I love being able to take the initial drawing, and sit down at my desk to work out the cutting dimensions (including seam allowances) and decide how to cut the fabric so that the construction goes smoothly (or sometimes not so smoothly).

Even though I've only had one semester of formal design training many many moons ago, I'm still really interested in construction, and the way that things fit together. Maybe that's where my interest in manufacturing came from all those years ago?

So far, this one is going right to plan..... it has nice sturdy interfacing all over, some extra in the base, and medium heavy fusible wadding over the top of that. I just need to work on sewing on half of the closure, so that I can then begin constructing the outer (the extra fun bit where I get to see if it works)!

For much more of this weeks creativity, pop on over and visit Kirsty!

Lights Camera Action!

Kylie from Chasing Purple Dreams put in a request a little while back for a custom made camera bag.
I've never tried to make anything like this before, but I'm always ready for a challenge.

She emailed through a sketch of the bag, and the dimensions that she needed to fit her camera accessories...

.....which I then used to sketch out my cutting / construction plan from.

The most important thing was to make sure that it had a really good structure, but also soft cushioning for the equipment.... and now I know why Nikki was gushing over the S320 interfacing!

The shot above is the work in progress bag outer - denim interfaced with S320 and then iron-on wadding over the top - the structure it gives is amazing.

The inner of the bag needed to have separate sections for each piece of equipment, so after a few days of thinking, and a chat with Nikki, I decided to make removable inserts.

The bag lining has two strips of velcro running along either side. The removable padded inserts just slot in and attach to the velcro.

Kylie requested an adjustable strap, so I used some nice antique brass hardware.

The front of the bag has a zippered pocket (I think I've finally lost my fear of sewing zips), and a side release buckle closure. I couldn't use a magnetic closure as I don't think it would be safe for camera equipment.

It's on the way to Kylie's house now, so I hope she likes it!