$10 Camera Strap

I don’t know about you, but I am a very strange mix of girly girl and tomboy.  I love sports, lifting weights and can curse like a sailor, but I almost always do those things while wearing pink clothing, with big statement jewelry and some lip gloss.  What can I say, I like pretty accessories!

And since my camera is basically always at my side, I decided that it needed some sparkles and a touch of girliness added to it.  I made this cute (and super simple) camera strap for less than $10.  Wanna make your own?  Here’s what you’ll need:

10-12 feet of 5 1/2″ tulle in color of your choice (I just bought a roll from Hobby Lobby)

2 feet of sparkle elastic ribbon (you can purchase this by the yard at fabric stores)

needle and thread

fabric or hot glue

old camera strap

I used my Canon camera strap for measurements, so verify before you purchase and/or cut your pieces that your strap is the same length.  I started by wrapping my tulle around a yardstick, not being overly cautious about keeping all of the layers perfectly aligned.  I wrapped mine 8 times around, which gives it a nice, fluffy look.  Cut the tulle and pin both ends.

Now it’s time to make a ruffle, or gather the fabric.  In order to do this, you really only need to possess the most very basic of sewing skills.  I know that it sounds complicated, but that could not be further from the truth.  Thread your needle and start by just sewing a straight line.  There is no need to pull the needle all the way through, just add as many passes as you can before pulling it.  Continue all the way across the length of the tulle and then pull one end of the thread while holding the other end.  This is where it begins to ruffle.  Once you have gathered it to your liking, make sure that it fits well onto your camera strap and tie off both ends.  Trim the sides as necessary to give you a clean look.

Now I will tell you that I am fickle and I change my mind about just about everything on a near constant basis, so I chose to hot glue all of my pieces together so that I could change it out when ever it struck my fancy.  If you want more of a commitment, by all means use fabric glue for the nest two steps.  If you are like me and can’t trust yourself more than a day in advance, use hot glue.

Lay the camera strap out flat and glue the ruffled tulle on top.  Make sure that it is taut, but not tight as that will cause it to contort into funky shapes.  Once that is dry, glue your sparkle ribbon right on top in the center, again, taut but not tight.  I would also suggest gluing the ends underneath as the sparkles can sometimes fall off.

Now all that is left to do is put the strap onto your camera and ooh and aah over the pretty girly ruffles and sparkles.  I’m in love with mine and it cost me well under $10 after using coupons.  Can’t beat that for the wow factor this strap adds!