A new camera case for a new camera

A while back we were at the zoo and the kids were at the shark petting tank. My daughter had my small purse camera in a case around her neck and when she bent down to pet a shark, the camera dunked into the tank. Oops! We let it dry out for a while but it never was right after that. The screen would be like a pink smear a lot of the time and while the pics didn't look like a pink smear, they didn't look as good as they used to. Since I had the camera on my personal articles policy, I filed a claim and they sent me a check to replace it. Rather than going with the same brand I decided to shake things up a little. I'm a dedicated Canon gal since high school. I have had a couple of non-Canon cameras but for the most part, I stick with Canon. Even my printers are Canons. But I'd read so many good things about Panasonic point and shoot cameras I decided to go with one of them instead.

The camera arrived on Friday but I couldn't find my old camera's case. I admit I didn't look super hard-it's just an ugly black case and it may not have fit this new camera anyway. Instead, I decided to make a case. I found a tutorial on the Moda Bake Shop site (shift click to open in a new window) that wasn't exactly what I wanted, but pretty close. I made a few changes. I didn't make the strap since the camera has one, and instead I put a buttonhole in the flap to thread the strap through (which was a questionable idea-it takes some effort to get the camera out when the strap is threaded through it so I'll probably just not use it when I'm out using the camera a lot and thread it through when it's being stored-I may also find a different strap that is easier to get in and out). I also squared the corners at the bottom so it would be more form-fitting and I changed the size to match my camera (sort of-it came out a tad bit short). I also used just one fabric for the outside instead of 2 like in the tutorial.

I used a couple of fat quarters from Moda's Frolic line (I thought I should use fabric that the men in my family won't mind carrying if they have to.) and fusible fleece for the padding. I used 2 layers of fleece for the body and one for the flap, which I made longer. The button is from Oriental Trading-it's pretty much just there for decoration. I thought it came out pretty cute-way cuter than the ugly black one I had before. I decided not to put any extra pockets or spaces for memory cards or batteries. If I need to take extras of those, I can either keep them in my purse or my pocket-they don't take up much room-I wanted this case to be as compact as possible. So here are the pics:

the case is empty here (obviously)


standing...


lying down...


You can see here that the camera peeks ever so slightly out the top. That's ok though-I think the main parts will be well protected. I wasn't thrilled with the color of velcro, but my other option was black (I don't have any white on hand and didn't want to wait to finish it). It doesn't show anyway, most of the time.