Camera strap slipcover tutorial

A few weeks ago I posted on Facebook about wanting a funky camera strap made by a local artist. No luck. I found lots of handmade camera straps, but none of the makers were local. Instead of spending more time searching, I decided to make one myself.

At first I figured I could head out to a fabric store and find a cool fabric to use. Then I realized I have all these patterns that I've created that would look fabulous on fabric. And, being the collector that I am, I just happened to have this photo fabric lying around. (It's fabric that you can put through your printer.) I don't even remember when I bought it or if I ever used it. See - there's a reason why I save everything!

I chose some of my favorite patterns and reworked them with different colors. After I measured the strap, I created a 26.25" x 4" Photoshop file and played around with how I wanted the patterns to look on the strap. When I had something I liked, I printed it out on paper, pieced it together and used it as a test on the strap. I wrapped the paper around the strap to make sure it would fit.

After tweaking the Photoshop file a bit, I printed it on the photo fabric. Since I couldn't fit the whole thing on one piece of fabric (they're 8.5 x 11" sheets), I had to stitch some of them together, which is one of the reasons I designed it in blocks - like patchwork. I hand-stitched instead of using the machine simply because I would be able to do it anywhere.

Some of the block were printed together and didn't need to be stitched, but I stitched anyway to keep the look consistent. The whole piece was then stitched into a tube shape.

The hardest part of the whole project was fitting the strap into the slipcover. I had made it to fit pretty snugly, so lots of wiggling had to be done to put the cover on.

I love it! Since it's my first one, I'm not sure how long it will last. Not a problem, though - that just means I'll have to make another one!