Light Stand Bag

My husband’s hobby is photography and since I have this blog and am trying to get better pictures, we have a lot of photography equipment.  This includes, photo lights, which also have stands and umbrellas, a tripod, seamless paper stands, and there is probably more that I am forgetting.  When he needed to take the photo lights to work to get pictures of his coworkers he came up with the idea of having me make a bag that would hold all of the stuff.

So we worked together to come up with the design for this light stand bag.  Essentially, it’s a gigantic crayon roll but with a flap and handles.  We decided on five pockets and since they are pretty large, a few smaller items could actually fit into one pocket if needed.

We added a flap to cover the equipment so it doesn’t scratch from rubbing against something else when it’s rolled up.  It’s actually multifunctional, because when it’s rolled up, the flap also helps to keep the equipment from sliding out the end.

We used duck canvas from Joann’s and he decided on black for the outside, blue for the flap and inside, and grey for the pockets.  The buckles and 1 1/2” webbing straps are from Sewing Supplies on Etsy.  I think I have talked about this shop before, but I highly recommend them.  The quality of everything that I have purchased from there is great.

We made it so that the side straps are adjustable depending on what is inside.  So if it’s completely full, the bag can still be closed the same as when there isn’t much in it.  The handles are separate from the straps so that the adjustment doesn’t affect the way the bag is carried.  We also made the handles wrap around the bag for extra support.

We both liked the idea of the pop of blue peeking out when the bag is rolled up.  I’m not going to lie, this bag probably cost more to make than it would have to buy one, but it was a great experience for my husband and me.  We worked on it together and it was definitely a challenge!

Not only were we sewing large pieces of fabric together, but they were also fairly heavy pieces of fabric.  The weight of the fabric when it wasn’t on the machine, pulled it off to the side.  So one of us sewed and the other tried to keep the fabric from pulling.  (Notice the snow out the patio door?  We started and stopped this project out of frustration many times, so it took a lot longer than necessary to make)

My machine also wouldn’t sew in a straight line (actually looks pretty good in this picture).  I’m not sure if that is because of the fabric pulling or if we needed to adjust the tension more.  We used a jean needle and upholstery thread so I would think that it wasn’t an issue with those.  So who knows what was going on.  It’s a good thing we weren’t making this to sell!

Even with not so straight stitching the bag still turned out awesome and exactly how we planned.  It fits everything that we wanted it to fit and is easy to carry.  Of course it’s a little heavy, but that is to be expected considering the items that we are putting in it.

We haven’t officially used it to transport any of the items to and from a photo shoot, but it’s great for storage and my husband is really happy with it.  So I would say that is a win!