DIY Camera Strap Tutorial

Confession time: I’m a bit of a hoarder… well, a lot of a hoarder actually and I have a hard time throwing things away if I think they might be useful later. Now I’m not talking old milk bottles and empty tins but I do keep alot of clothes that are long passed their sell by date. On the up side, this tutorial proves that hanging on to things isn’t always so bad when they can be turned into totally new (and useful!) things.

How to Make A Camera Strap

In this make I’ve used an old pair of Primark jeans to make a strap for my new camera. The button fell off the jeans and they had some pulls on the back of the legs so they weren’t wearable any more but I held onto them thinking one day I could recycle them.

Aside from the jeans, for this you’ll need:

2 swiver lobster clips
Scraps of pleather
A glue gun
Sticky tape
Scissors
A hair bobble or elastic band

1. Cut the jeans into 5 strips 2″ wide and 34″ long.

2. Tie the strips together at one end with the elastic band and then tape to the table so that you can braid them comfortably. You could also attach a safety pin and pin them onto something instead if you don’t want to damage your work surface.

3. Number your strips 1 to 5. To make the five strand braid put strand 1 over 2 and under 3. Then strand 5 over 4 and under 1. Weaving this way from the outside in continue the braid to end of the strips. Once completed I sewed a line of machine stitches over each end. These will be covered with the leatherette tabs.

4. Fold a piece of paper in half and cut so that one end is the width of the strap and the other is slightly narrower than the lobster clip buckle. Place the narrow end on the fold of the pleather and cut out – you’ll need two of these. Now thread one through the lobster clip and stitch closed above the clip with the sewing machine.

5. Using a glue gun squeeze a line of glue onto the strap and press into the pleather tab, repeat for the other side. Puta spot of glue in either side and press closed around the strap. Stitch over the pleather on the machine to secure the strap into place.

Done! Now you just need to clip the strap to the camera and you’re good to go! The denim of the jeans is stretchy so it’s not to harsh on your neck and the braid is quite cushioned so it’s easy to carry the camera round for long periods of time. It’s also an attractive alternative to the basic branded camera strap, after all, when has denim ever not been on trend?