Weave a summer camera bag

Cameras have always been an important part of summer activities and this camera bag captures that sense of summer adventures while being an easy to weave accessory. Phones have taken over all the duties of picture taking, but this bag reclaims the spirit of the camera.

This pin loom woven camera bag is constructed from 4" x 4" squares. The brown side and bottom panels have been turned in to make a slimmer side profile. On the inside there is plastic needlework screen stitched to the side and bottom squares to give it a more rigid frame. I wanted a very easy and carefree finish for the inside, so the interior is finished with bright pink duct tape. Its waterproof, makes it easy to see into the bag and adds some stiffening to the sides.

The turquoise body of the camera bag was joined by using a single crochet around each square, then whip stitching them together. The brown sides were joined using a double overcast stitch (you can find more information on the joins in Pin Loom Essentials) turned in around the plastic screen and stitched to the turquoise front and back with a whip stitch. You can see that there is a crocheted tab in the back. The black button on the tab covers the top section of a purse magnet. The little red button on the top of the purse is just a little red button that appears to have been created specifically to look like an old camera shutter button.

I wanted the purse strap to look like an old-fashioned leather camera strap. It is a 32" crochet chain with one line of half double crochet. The ends have a long chained loop to allow them to loop easily over the brass buttons on each side.

This is the camera before final assembly. I was in the process of sewing on the purse magnet closure when I took the picture. The yellow stitching was to help me determine where the top should fold down the back.

I am hoping to someday put together a whole collection of funky, pin loom woven faux camera bags. These are other cameras that I would like to recreate as woven bags.  After all, can the world have too many fun handbags?  I think not.

Ellie's First Purse

Happy New Year! Its been a busy season here with the introduction of pin loom classes. After years of weaving on my own, it has been enormous fun to play with pin looms with other people. Pin looms have brought me a lot of joy and its twice the fun to see others enjoy it too.

I am learning a lot from my students. I have had the opportunity to work with a number of moms and daughters and have come to realize that kids can take to pin looms as quick or quicker than adults. Here's the proof.

Ellie T., age 11, was in my class a couple months ago. Here is her first purse.

The purse was made with 6) 4"x 4" pin loom squares (love the colors) with a braided string handle looped on each side of the purse. Of course the shining feature is the jean pocket-- which works beautifully to contrast with the woven fabric of the purse. 

I should mention that we did not cover purses in  the pin loom class. While I hope that my book, Pin Loom Weaving, was helpful to her, this is Ellie's own design.

I will leave it to each of us to reflect on our capacity as artist or craftsman at the age of 11. I know that I did not make anything half as well thought out or well done until I was considerably older than 11, maybe more like 40.

Ellie, thank you so much for sharing your work with us.

The Nanny-Fanny Pack

I had the opportunity to visit my daughter, Taylor, in Portland, OR. While I was there she taught me about simplicity in weaving design and that if you have your phone, you don't need much else.

Her goal was to devise a "Nanny Fanny Pack", so named because, "Nanny and fanny rhyme... and I am a nanny. I need something that will hold just the essentials. If you're on the job you've got to have your cell phone as well as a pocket for a key or money. And it has to be secure whether I'm riding my bike or running down the street to the park."

Get the pattern for the Nanny Pack below.

The yarn in this particular nanny pack is a Superwash Merino by Ella Rae, a chunky yarn. Despite the description as chunky, it worked very well on the 4"x 6" and 4"x 4" pin looms.  Taylor also used two large eyelets, a heart button, a 12" length of yellow elastic cord, 36" of yellow webbing for the alternate belt and a 7" zipper, cut to fit the 4" opening.

When I was working on my copy of the nanny pack, I couldn't find any elastic cord. I did find packages of Goody hairbands that worked very nicely.

Because my phone is a slightly smaller size, the grey nanny pack has just one row of single crochet on each side. The original pack has two rows on each side in order to accommodate a larger phone.

This pack could be made equally well with all 4" x 4" squares. I would suggest joining the squares for the bag using a mattress stitch. See the page, Pin loom essentials for information on joining the squares.  Turn the sides of the bag to the inside and stitch to obtain the correct size bag for your phone.

Taylor talked about her experience with pin looms, noting that when she was little they were always around the house and she wove some small squares, with some help from her mom. When she was seven or eight she put together her first real woven project. There is a box in my attic filled with dolls and bears as well as doll and bear clothes. One of the most precious items (to us both) is a little baby doll blanket, woven and sewn by a little girl with her mom.