Super Easy Slouchy Rice Bag Camera Support

More and more I was finding I needed a good support for shooting out the car window. I have experimented with a couple of designs but for ease of sewing and flexibility to adjust size, it is a pretty decent design. Very minimal sewing skills required and there is no right or wrong. It is just whatever you need.

I began with sitting in the car and going through a range of motion to determine what size I needed. I folded an 11x17 piece of paper in half, drew out the basic design and cut while folded to ensure both sides were the same. After sewing however, I think a little additional in the arch would have been better. From testing several designs, curves no sharper than the outside radius of a CD will ensure easy sewing.

Pin the pattern on fabric and cut two. These are your sides. Next determine how wide of a support you need. Your call for your needs. Remember to figure in your seem allowance. If you sew with 1/2 inch seams, add an inch to what you want your final width to be. Cut a strip of fabric the width you want making sure you have enough to go all around. If you can find a wide rip-stop fabric, all the better. It is tough and will take abuse yet easy to sew. Denim would also be good but not really a heavy canvas.

Double and sew about 2 1/2 to 3 inches at the beginning of your strip. Sew a couple of reinforcing seems. This is where one piece of velcro will go. Don't run your velcro full length into what will be the seams. Pin to one side...right side's of fabric together. Straight stitch around, remove pins and sew a reinforcing zig-zag directly over the stitch line or another straight stitch just a little apart.

Once you have a general idea of where the strip will end, you can cut leaving enough to double at the end and reinforce for your second part of the velcro attachment. These two will overlap. Turn right side out, sew on your velcro.

Turn wrong side out, pin your second side. Sew, turn right side out through the velcro opening. As I don't like to put rice directly against the fabric, I like the very thin large plastic bags you find at the produce section. They are quiet, flexible and will protect the rice from moisture. Slip the bag in, fill with rice, tie a knot and you are done. From start to finish, less than an hour.

 Another advantage to this method is if the cover needs washing, empty the rice, remove the bag, wash and refill.

I am working on a little more well defined design but the "slouchy" design is super easy and works very well with minimal sewing skills.