Ruffled Camera Strap

Today I got my hair cut and colored (YAY!) and I am taking a road trip to KY.  If you live in Lex, don't be confused, we are going to Ashland for a wedding. I will then come to LEx only to leave again to go to another wedding (for my cousin) in Illinois.  Pretty exciting.  Before all the festivities I really wanted to make a camera strap after my friend Shara made me the coolest one last year (see photo above). It is so dirty, so I thought I could stand to have a new one.  I decided to attempt a ruffle on my new strap. Since I never, ever sew...and the most complicated thing I have ever sewn is a square burp cloth....or a square (rectangle) curtain....you can imagine that I had a lot of confidence.  PS...A better tutorial would be found by googling, I guarantee it!!!

SUPPLIES YOU NEED:
Sewing machine

Two types of fabric you like

A camera strap

thread in coordinating colors

1.  I began by taking my old camera strap off and measuring it. I added 1' inseam.  I traced this onto the fabric and cut it out. 

2.  I cut a longer piece for the ruffle, but I am not very precise.  Since this is the first time I did it, I didn't measure it. If I were to do it again, I would TRIPLE the original dimension and make it triple as long.   Mine ended up too short and I had to use a whole extra piece to complete it.  Hey....it was just an experiment :)

3.  During the process, I got a bit confused so I googled, "ruffled camera strap" and I found this awesome tutorial here. 
She suggests hemming (is there another name for that?) your ruffle first, so you don't have crazy edges. In some of the pictures you'll notice I was sewing with creme colored string until I remembered how to thread a bobbin and I changed to black. This was a big day for me....I'm telling you.  
In the picture above, you'll see me hemming the ruffled piece (or what would become the ruffled piece).

Go ahead and hem the edges and get ready to sew the actual strap. 


4.  This is not a good picture, but you turn the fabrics so the beautiful sides are facing each other, then you sew down the seam in the middle. This picture actually doesn't show this at all :)  This is in the middle in the photo, but I was looking at the bad side of the fabric when I sewed.

 5.  Normal, good sewers will tell you to make a ruffle you sew down the middle of the fabric and pull the bottom piece of string. (It has a fancy name, but I don't know it).  Well...I tried that...and I only got a couple inches of ruffles....then the string would break.  I might be too forceful to sew....

So..I decided to be resourceful. I began sewing what I had and then just pushed gathers up into the place where the needle was coming so it would naturally create a ruffle as it sewed through it. I'm not sure if you know what I mean.  ...but if not, you should follow the other tutorial and do it correctly.

 

6.  After that I sewed the sides together, inside out (like you would anything like a pillowcase or burp cloth, etc....see my expertise coming into play?)

7.  Then I turned it inside out.

 

 8.  VOILA :)  You probably don't know any better how to sew.....but at least you can see my finished camera strap :)  They will get cuter, I'm sure...

8.

  

 I hope to create another more nice looking one....but for the first one, it's not too bad. If you are a proficient seamstress, I'm sure you could correct me 10000 times.  But I had fun.

I am in Ashland, KY...in a world of rednecks. I love it here...there are lots of classy, great people here. But I will be honest that there are lots of interesting people here and right across the border in West Virginia.

We're talking beer bottle wind chimes. We are talking about mullets all over the place. Amazing.  Wish you were here.