…finch bucket…

To keep our daily school books, and whatever handwork I’m working on, and our library books, all in order, I have set up our IKEA trolley as our main homeschool organisation space. Along with the detritus of the day to day record keeping and lesson planning and creative fun, I also keep my good camera on hand on the trolley – most of the photos I snap for my homeschool records are on my phone, but I also love the excuse to get the DSLR out and take proper, nice photos that will also form part of my memory keeping projects as well as homeschool records.

The living area in our house isn’t the largest, and there isn’t a whole lot of storage, so leaving my main bag full of cameras and lenses and flashes in an easily accessible place isn’t really an option, but then on the flip side, if I leave it all packed away, then I won’t get it out nearly as much as I should – the moment is often passed by the time I go and fetch it and drag it out…if I even think to get it at all. So onto the craft shelf of the trolley it went, which in turn created another problem. Namely, dust ending up on the front element of the lens. Clearly, there was only one solution… I needed to get sewing.

I had been eyeing off the Finch bucket on instagram for a while, and then at the start of the pandemic, the pattern creator very generously offered it up for limited time download. I couldn’t resist the opportunity, and I knew exactly what I was going to do with it – a light-duty home for my camera when it lived on the trolley.

Surprising exactly nobody, I reached for my signature combo of Echino patchwork linen, paired with dark denim. I am an absolute sucker for this combo, even thought the linen is out of print and I am down to my last yard, so have to be very selective in the projects I use it for. I added a deep magenta homespun for the drawstring casing, and then lined the whole thing in a tone-on-tone white fabric I have had in my stash for years that never seems to work with any of my projects when I am plannning quilts and things, so it seemed like the perfect choice for a lining. Simple and clean and not a fabric I need to be precious about.

I used off cuts of wool batting to quilt to the the outer shell of the bag, following the grid of the linen to attach it. I went with batting in place of interfacing to create a soft padded bag to protect my camera from the small knocks and bumps it might receive on the trolley, mainly floss boxes and travel pouches and small art pads. I still have my good protective bags to use when out and about or travelling, this bag is strictly for trolley/in home use so the batting would offer protection enough for the purposes I plan to use it for. Eventually I won’t need it as a camera bag, and the batting leaves the bag soft and structured enough I can use it for other purposes like a project bag, without requiring any repurposing.

I am so thrilled with how it turned out. It fits my camera perfectly, even with my biggest daily use lens attached. It’s super cute, and I can see it getting lots of use in the future.