DIY vintage/retro leather strap

Just thought i should post my first (ever) DIY thread.. nothing special really, but read if you like. Leatherstraps for your camera can be quite expensive but a regular leatherbelt in a store is around $12 (atleast in Sweden). Walmart and places like that should have them.. i guess.

Many of us might have old leatherbelts laying around, broken or worn out, get one of those and a few bolts&screws or buttons, a scissor, two strapholders and either a holemachine or a drill.


An old leatherbelt.

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Cut off the part with the holes.

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My leatherbelt was 4 centimeters wide, i cut it in half with a scissor.

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Use those smudgy waterresistant products (no idea what you call it) to grease the belt so it gets soft and durable.

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At first i tried and do a button prototype, but it failed miserably when it comes to leather, you might get it to work.. i dident.

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Use the holemachine (again.. no idea what it's called in English) or if you dont have one, use a drill. I measured 1 cm from the edge of the hole, then folded it so that the strapholder had some room and made the other hole.

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*continued*

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Screw in the bolts and voila..

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This strap is for a tiny compact, but i think if you're good with working with leather, and got some time on your hand, you could cut out a leatherbelt so that the middle of it is much wider (keep the original width) roughly 10-14 centimeters where your neck is, this could then look very sturdy and nice on a DSLR aswell.
I don't got another spare leatherbelt laying around, so i can't try if it would be nice..

Some of you might think that the bolt/screw is going to scratch the camerabody, they are too far away from the camera when you put it down, it never gets close to the body, only way i see they could do damage is in a bag, moving around. You could just put some tape over the bolt or maybe some transparent glue/nail polish to make a nice plastic surface.

Anyway, here is simple and fun DIY to add some retro to your camera.

Reference from the web:


Thanks for reading.