Before you go any further- I am purely talking in a crafting sense!
I ordered some leather off cuts off eBay (what would I do without eBay?) primarily for making some jewellery inspired by my latest book purchase Steampunk Accessories, and ended up with such a huge quantity that I had to find something else to do with it. Not really that difficult actually, not when you discover that the machine will deal with it quite adequately!
Notebooks firstly. An old sketch book was rebound with a leather cover and a book plate for a classy look..
Then I tried one with a soft wrap around cover where the paper folios are hand stitched in place, then I added what was going to be a pendant, but now features as a large button:
Then I moved on to wallets.
The first one was out of the aforementioned book, well the interior anyway, I couldn't resist the chesterfield effect print!
But this one only has space for two cards and I'm sure I'm not alone in that I have a few more than that! So I put my thinking cap on. This wallet pattern is mega simple and can be made up in less than thirty minutes. I'm sure that it wouldn't be that difficult to adapt it so that you had a cloth cover if you can't get hold of leather, as long as you stiffen it properly. So here we go..
Leather Bi fold Wallet
You will need:
About fat 1/8th fabric.
A rectangular piece of leather about 9cm x 20cm
Some medium weight interfacing
Some fabric glue
- Measure and cut four rectangles of interfacing. 1 @ 20cm x 9cm, 1 @ 20cm x 8cm, 1 @ 20cm x 6.5cm, 1 @ 20cm x 5.3cm. Iron onto your fabric and cut out with an extra 1cm all around for seam allowance.
2. Put the largest rectangle to one side. Iron down the top edge of each piece, using the interfacing as your guide;
and top stitch.
3. Make your card slots. Do this by lying the 6.5cm piece on top of the 8cm piece, 1.3cm down from the top edge. Pin it to hold in place, then mark a horizontal line 6cm down from the top and stitch along this line.
Trim off the excess below the sewn line to minimise bulk, then lay the smallest rectangle on top another 1.3cm down. This time you want to sew a vertical line down the centre of the card slots to divide then Fold your fabric in half, press down to crease then sew down the line.
4.Grab the 9cm x 20cm piece you put aside and lay it face down. Then place your card slot piece onto it, also facing downwards, aligning the bottom edges.
Sew around the three edges of the card slot piece, once again using the interfacing as your guide. Trim down the seam allowance of the card slot piece and clip the corners for turning. You also need to make a small snip on the backing fabric where the top of the card slot piece is on either side, otherwise the fabric will want to turn inwards rather than around to the back. (wish I'd taken a photo of that!) Turn the card slot piece round, push out the corners and iron flat.
5. Press over the top edge of the main piece and the little remaining side bits so you have a neat square. You can use a few dabs of fabric glue just to hold it in place. I did one wallet with glue, one without and take it from me, its easier with. Home straights now. You can decorate the outside of the wallet how you wish. I glued a clock face on to one of them which is best left until after assembling, but if you wanted to sew anything on or add studs, now is the time.
6. Apply a squiggle of fabric glue to your leather rectangle and press your fabric interior down onto it. Two things, don't get too close to the edge, you'll gunk up your machine needle, and make sure it doesn't soak through to the money slot and glue the whole thing together! All that's left to do is sew around the edge. Leave a couple of inch gap at the centre of the bottom edge, just makes it fold and lay flat a little easier.
Stick your cards in it to help to fabric smooth out and there you go!
Its not all been about leather, Mr Pinhead has a spiky cactus pincushion to keep him company now.
And there I was thinking I hadn't done much making recently!
Take care. xx
