I’m always thinking of new and creative ways to use my photos, and after spending the day out and about photographing things last week-end, and ending the day with my camera banging about with the rest of the junk at the bottom of my tote bag, I decided it was finally time to make a camera cozy.
Never one to reinvent the wheel if I can help it, I searched the internet for a cute camera case or camera cozy pattern or tutorial that I could use, and although I found quite a few I was also surprised to see that none of them incorporated photos into the pattern design. Printing photos onto fabric is so easy and seems to be an obvious and creative way for a photographer to show off his or her photos.
I finally ended up using this camera cozy tutorial and I modified the design to fit my own camera which is a Canon G12. Although the G12 is a big step up from a point and shoot camera, it’s not quite an SLR although it still has just enough controls to almost confound me. I chose this camera over an SLR camera because it’s compact and lighter than an SLR camera and doesn’t have as many adjustments, but it still takes excellent photos, particularly macro photos.
So after I decided on the pattern, I knew I wanted to use one of my photo art designs printed on fabric as the flap for the camera cozy. The first thing I did was to dig through my pile of injured prints to see if I already had a photo printed on fabric that I could us and amazingly I found this photo art design which was almost the right size, and as a bonus it was already embellished. I can’t remember exactly what it’s original purpose was, but I’m glad that I kept it!
I like this particular photo art design and I’ve used it previously as a design for a bag flap and also on a piece of canvas art.
So I modified the pattern for the camera cozy pattern and simply attached my photo art image printed on fabric to the flap end. I had to chop a few inches off one end but it still looks quite good.
It was a quick and easy project and after I’d finished sewing, this is how it ended up. Not too shabby and it looks pretty darn cute. The pattern suggests turning the bound seams to the inside, but I left them on the outside; I think the black binding is a nice contrast and the side gussets seem to fit better.
I made sure there was plenty of room for the strap.
So as you can see it was quite easy to personalize the pattern with one of my own photos printed on fabric by simply replacing the flap part with the photo printed on fabric. I think it’s also a clever way to showcase your favorite photos. I might even make another one.
If you’ve never printed on fabric before it’s not as difficult as you might think and you can find everything you need to know to get started here.
I hope you’re inspired – happy printing!
