One of my very favorite places to look for inspiration is West Elm. Lately I have been stalking their website, checking out bedrooms, searching for a duvet cover to replace my seriously-frayed-around-the-edges bedspread. When it comes to decor, I am definitely a solids kind of girl, but I love texture, so I was immediately drawn to two options – the seersucker and the parachute. I love the random ruffles / pleats! Since my anniversary (and therefore the purchase of a new duvet) is still a month away, I decided to satisfy said need for random pleats with a project I’ve been looking for the time to do – A camera strap cover! I’ve had plans to make one of these for myself for a while, but like most (all) mamas of little bumblebees, haven’t found a spare hour. But today, with the Baby Bee tucked in her bed and the Little Bee happily arranging a zoo in the spare bedroom, I got to it! The whole project took about an hour and a half.

By the way, have you heard about West Elm’s collaboration with Junk in the Trunk Vintage Market? If you haven’t, read all about it here. How cool is that!?!

You need
fabric of your choice for the front of the strap
light to medium weight fusible interfacing
fleece or another soft fabric for the back of the strap (flannel, minky etc)
lots and lots of pins
rotary cutter or scissors
measuring tape

First, measure your strap. Cut a strip of your front fabric and a strip of interfacing that is 1 inch wider and twice as long as your camera strap. For example, my camera strap is 24 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide, so my fabric and interfacing were each 48″ by 2 1/2″. Fuse the interfacing and the fabric together according to the directions on the interfacing.

Then, get folding! Fold the fabric and pin it into random pleats, measuring frequently to make sure you don’t fold it too short. Try not to make it too uniform.


Stitch down the middle, removing the pins along the way. Backstitch at the beginning and the end. Then stitch along each side, also backstitching at each end. Stitch a narrow hem on each end.

Cut a piece of fleece that is one inch wider and one inch longer than your strap (So mine was 25 x 2 1/2) and hem 1/2 inch on each end. You probably could skip this step with fleece, because it does not fray, but I did it anyway. Sew the front and the back right sides together with a 1/2 inch seam allowance. Turn, press (if you want), insert old boring camera strap and enjoy!

So, it’s really hard to take a picture of your camera strap when it is attached to your camera, but I tried….

Happy folding!