Project: Perfect Camera Pouch

The camera case I use for my little point and shoot broke a while back, first one side of the zipper refused to work and then the other side went too.  It would "zip" but the teeth wouldn't link up. After rolling around in my purse for a few months with my keys my camera was starting to take a beating so I decided to make my own padded pouch for it.

I was inspired by the little boxy pouches I've been seeing around the net. So I made a pouch according to these instructions (but I added a lining just like this tute), but unfortunately this method didn't leave a whole lot of control to what the exact dimensions of the pouch would be and it turned out waaaaaayyyy too big.  I also didn't like having exposed seams on the inside.  (Though I added a little pocket inside and that turned out pretty awesomely!

So I did a little math to make up my own pattern.  I decided that with a little tiny bit of wiggle room for my camera, I wanted a pouch 3.75x2.5x1.25 inches.  I drew out my pattern on graph paper and added 1/4 inch for seam allowance as well as subtracted 1/4 inch on each side of the zipper (I measured my other pouch and determined that the zipper added about 1/2 in width, and since I wanted the bag to turn out square I needed to subtract this). I took out the "corners" that you would need to cut off anyway so my pattern looks more like half of a flattened box instead of the rectangles used in other patterns.  I also wanted a strap to hold the pouch and a tab to make using the zipper easier. I made my pattern into a .pdf.  You can download it and use it if you have a similarly sized camera/phone/whatever. [click the link below]

The Perfect Pouch Pattern

I fused interfacing to my lining and also added a layer of fleece to work as padding.  When sewing in the zipper, I sewed the padding with the lining (so that the top stitching near the zipper would look neat), but then I basted it to the shell fabric and treated them as "one" piece of fabric from that point. The construction was pretty easy until I needed to sew the corners.  The amount of space between the corner and zipper is really small so it made it difficult to get everything to lie flat.  The process I used is similar to this tutorial, but remember mine doesn't have the "corners" that need to be measured and then cut off, I just sewed the seams.

I was amazed when I turned it right side out! It came out just as I had imagined and my camera fit perfectly.  It's so easy to get discouraged when a project doesn't come out perfect, but I am so stoked about this one!