Purse -> Camera Bag

The insert can be taken out, in case you want your regular old purse back. But mine is staying put.

Now I don’t have to worry about my poor camera/lenses getting thrown around.

And what’s cool, is that there are little velcro inserts that divide your camera and supplies. And are adjustable so that you can create the right sized compartments for all of your stuff. (This concept is not my own. Many camera bags are made this way.)

And I can move the insert out of the way and still have access to all of the regular pockets for my keys/phone/etc.

Oh, and maybe you’d like to have a camera bag/diaper bag/purse combo?? This bag works for that too. You can change up your dividers and put all of your regular purse items in one section……but then leave enough room for a padded camera section. Just change it up how you need it.

Yeah, sometimes I can’t stomach a hefty price-tag.

So I love when it’s something that I can figure out and make work for me.

Do you have a purse you’d like to turn into a camera bag?

SUPPLIES:
**The quantity of your supplies will vary, depending on the size of purse you’re converting.

• A purse
• 1/2 inch wide foam (I bought mine at Hancock Fabric. It cost me $8 for a huge piece. Probably enough for 3 purses.)
• Fabric of choice (I used about 1 yard…..and I think I found it at Joann’s)
• 1 1/2 inch wide industrial velcro (or any width……just make it work)
• hand sewing needle and thread
• sewing machine/scissors/thread/etc……..of course.

First, you’ll need a purse. Use one of your old ones or buy a new one. You’ll need one that has one large compartment and is a larger in size, if you want to be able to section it off with the dividers. Or you could use a smaller purse if you just want to add padding to it and forget the dividers. It’s up to you.
To begin, you need a piece of foam for the bottom of your purse. Turn your purse over and check out the shape of the bottom of the purse. Then cut out a piece of 1/4 inch foam (I found mine at Hancock Fabric for about $8 for enough for about 3 purses) that is the same size as the very bottom of your purse.

Then place your foam down inside to make sure it fits. Adjust if necessary. Then measure from where the foam is at the bottom of the purse, up to how high you’d like the foam sides to be. If your purse is nice and tall (like mine is), you may not need the whole height of the purse. You may just be wasting foam. All you need is for it to be high enough to protect your camera and lenses.
I decided I wanted my foam to be about 8 inches tall.

So I cut a strip of foam that was 8 inches tall and was long enough to go around the piece that fits in the bottom of the purse. Measure around the top of the piece of foam…….not around the sides of it.

Then you’ll have a nice strip of foam that will make the walls of the foam insert. However, cut about an inch off of one end because after you add the fabric, you’ll be sewing those two ends together with their extra fabric ends. And you don’t want to have to sew through foam. (This will make more sense in later steps.)

Next, time to cut the fabric.
**You will need to add extra fabric along all the edges to account for the thickness of the foam……so be sure to add a little extra to your seam allowances.
For the bottom piece of foam, you will need 2 layers of fabric that are a 1/2 inch wider than the foam piece, around all edges. (A 1/4 inch is for the seam allowance and another 1/4 inch is for the foam thickness.) Just lay the foam down and cut around it. For the long strip of foam, you can either cut 2 pieces of fabric and sew them together into a strip (but then you’ll have 2 seams) or you can cut one strip of fabric and fold it over into a tube of fabric and sew it, resulting in only one seam. I only wanted one seam, so since my foam is 8 inches tall and is 1/2 inch thick, I needed my fabric to be 18 inches tall to wrap around the foam. (8 inches tall on the front + 8 inches tall on the back + 1/2 inch foam thickness at the top + 1/2 inch foam thickness at the bottom + 1/2 inch seam allowance + 1/2 inch seam allowance). My foam strip was about 37 inches long but I added another 2 inches at each end, so that I could later tuck the ends in and sew the foa