DIY DSLR camera bag under $3

Ah, the last day of Christmas holiday. What better time to blog about my craft projects. This one was from a few months ago. Welp. So here’s the situation… You’ve just spent a substantial amount of your hard-earned money to buy some pricey camera gear, only to find out that you’re gonna need a camera bag to take your new camera around. Duh. Unfortunately, you’ve just spent all your hard-earned money on the camera gear, and as we know it, good camera bags are expensive!

While I’d love me some Billingham , Zkin, Ona or Domke bags (I only buy the fu*king best, not those mainstream black padded bags that look like err, camera bags), those are far above my budget, so therefore I had to resort to something temporary but sturdy enough to carry my gear around, maybe something that can also function as an insert to put inside my cavernous Timbuk2 messenger bag. (Like, a padded bag inside a bag, duh). Anyway, desperate situations calls for desperate measures….

Without further ado, here’s my Camera Bag under Rp.30000 project!

You will need:
2x 10-pack kitchen sponge or scourers. – Rp. 10.000
(This will be our padding. As an added bonus, it’s rainbow colored!) 
Small fleece-cloth hobo bag  – Rp. 5000 from some factory outlet.
Craft glue – I found some leftover UHU.
Velcro – I stole from my grandma
Jeans sewing thread – Any thick cotton thread will do.

I actually wanted something like this Roxy bag for the outer shell, alas, I’m too cheap:

Arrange the scourer pads like so. You can cut the pads to size so that it fits inside the bag proper. Make 2 layers of this.

Glue the 2 layers together with craft glue. For the 2 pads that are parallel to each other, I put an extra pad in between the 2 layers to strengthen the joint.

Now sew them together like so… don’t have to be really neat, the aim is to make a strong structure.

A few hours later, it looks like this with all the seams in place.

Oh. Some leftover scourers! I made little “dividers” with velcro tabs to make compartments inside the bag.

Welp, it’s time to put the bad boy inside the bag. Voila! You’ve got a secure padded bag for your camera. The tabbed “dividers” go vertically between the side walls to make room for spare lenses, etc.

From the outside it looks like this 🙂

This bag fits my 600D + 50mm f1.8 (or the kit lens) and my Lumix LX3 (or a charger/spare battery) just right. It also fits right inside my Timbuk2 messenger bag. After I made this bag, I made another one that’s bigger, so that I can carry more expensive L-grade lens without looking suspicious. Yeah right. Will take photo when not lazy.

Alright, I hope this tutorial thing is useful! Please keep in mind that this is not a designated camera bag, and I take no responsibility for the damage of your pricy gear. Okay! See you next tutorial!

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Update: My latest bag/bag insert. Bought this at Gramedia for Rp. 70.000 ($8), ripstop Cordura, removable straps. What a steal!
Fits (from left to right) 600D with Tamron 28-75, 50mm f1.8, lens back cover(s), lens hood, my choice of sheep doll (Alfie the merino).