The “Manly Poppins” – a DIY Camera Bag

Do you sew for your man? I must admit that I don’t very often. We planned this project so long ago, that I can’t remember if he asked for a camera bag, or if I offered to make one. But at some point I did promised and then it took an embarrassingly long time to follow through. (Sorry, honey!)

The goal was to start with my Mommy Poppins Bag pattern (available here!), but “man it up” and outfit it for a camera bag.

This “Manly Poppins” bag is made of waxed canvas (my DIY waxed canvas experience is detailed here) with genuine sheepskin leather accents. The interior is lined with foam padding with foam inserts for customizing the camera gear arrangement.

Materials: waxed duck cloth (heavyweight canvas), sheepskin leather (from Brettuns Village)
Pattern: The Mommy Poppins Bag Pattern
Modifications To Pattern:
* stabilized with fleece instead of Peltex
* leather straps
* exterior pockets removed
* side seams moved (see below)
* facing added to interior top edge
* foam padding (see below)
* Velcro attached dividers (see below)
* widened (2 inches) cross-body strap

What say you? Has it been man-ified enough?

At this point, I kinda wish Andy didn’t like it, because I am all sorts of in love with it.

I’m sure he won’t mind it if I borrow it every so often…..

Adding Leather Accents to a Mommy Poppins Bag

(I’ve already covered how to make the leather/belting handles in a previous blog post. )

Adding leather accents to the Mommy Poppins Bag did necessitate a change in the bag side seams. The original pattern has seams running up the four corners of the bag sides. For regular med- to heavy-weight fabrics, this doesn’t pose a problem, but the leather would be too bulky for a crisp corner, and stress might cause tearing of the leather with use. So I removed the side seams.

To remove the side seams, I eliminated the Side Panels and added their width (minus the seam allowances) onto the Front/Back pieces. Clear as mud? Let me try to explain how it works.

In the totally crappy sketch below, I’ve laid out how the exterior bag sections are attached.  To eliminate the Side Panel (and thus the corner seams), first remove the seam allowances on the widths of the Side and Front/Back Panels. The seam allowances are crossed off in blue in Step 1 below. Then split the Side Panels in half vertically (step 2), and add them to the sides of the Front/Back Panels. Finally, add back the seam allowances to the Front/Back Panels (step 3). The same process is followed for combining the Side and Corner patches.

In short, the width of your Front/Back Panels changes to {[Original F/B Width]+[Side Panel Width – 1″ seam allowance]}, and the Corner Patches are extended another { [Side Patches Width – 1″ seam allowance] / 2 } inches. Note: Because the seams were removed, there is no longer any exterior pockets.

Padding the Mommy Poppins Bag To Make A Camera Bag

If you want the functionality of a camera bag, without the commitment, you could always make the standard bag lining and use a camera bag insert for your bag. Some fun DIY options here, here, and here.

The bag lining starts off with the same pieces as in the pattern. I sewed horizontal strips of the soft “loop” side of Velcro to these.

I created pockets for 1/2 inch thick foam inserts, by backing the lining pieces with pieces of muslin. The foam came up the sides of the bag 5 inch and was cut 1/2 inch shorter than the bag in all other dimensions.

The “pockets” were sewn closed after the foam was inserted.

For the bag dividers, I cut three more rectangles of  foam – 5 inches by 7 inches, tucked them into fabric pouches and sewed strips of Velcro “hooks”.

Have you ever sewn a “Man Bag”? What pattern did you use?