So my wallet and purse, from Vera Bradley (the yellow bird print), are falling apart after a couple of years of use. So what better thing to do than make new ones! I found this awesome, super artsy print at a local fabric store and bought a fat quarter. It had been sitting in my stash for a while, and I love it so much, I used it. I made some sketches of how I wanted it to look (similar to my Vera, but with more storage, no pockets on the outside, but the coin pocket on the inside, so on and so on) and got to making a prototype of the card slots. It was also my first time using a zipper and snaps. This turned out being a pretty low cost wallet. I used the zipper from my friend, the snaps and thread from my Great Grandmother's collection of stuff, red fabric from my stash, and the vinyl was from a ferret bed bag I swiped from my parents (the vinyl I have is flimsy and wrinkled, and I can use the rest of the vinyl bag for cloth pads). The fabric cost me around $5, I had bought the fat quarter, and since I wanted to use more of it instead of my red fabric, went out and bought another quarter yard. I liked all the ideas I saw on here, but none of them had the clear vinyl slot for id's. So I looked at the one I had, more or less figured it out, and got to work.

sketches!

showing myself where to sew to get desired pockets

layout sketch, where I want things

directions for myself


closed


the back


opened (the id slot is on the bottom leftish)



on to the tute!!

not seen here is measuring to see how big I want my opening to be, and then measuring to see how much fabric needs to be folded over and sewn. my piece of vinyl is there, to the right, but it's hard to see 


so I pinned back the fabric flaps (the pencil line on the right is where I will later sew to get more card slots)


basically, cut out square, draw with pencil how big flaps will be, cut diagonals, fold back, pin


sew on vinyl


ta-daa!


Anyway, hope that makes sense, I didn't get before shots because I forgot. I tend to get pretty focused when I'm working. Well, thanks for looking!

I used the stacked coin pattern, and it was pretty easy and I think had a nice effect. I found 2-D Zoo by Alexander Henry at Joann's and I just had to have it and make it into something for my cousin. Her first baby passed away soon after he was born, from lethal dwarfism. A few months later, she was pregnant again and now has a healthy baby boy named Kyler. He's super cute, I got to see him when they brought him down for Christmas. It's crib sized, I used the iron fusible batting, and it worked pretty well. The edges aren't perfect and I had to rush it a bit, but all in all, I'm pretty happy with it. I used more Crate and Barrel remnant fabrics for the "coins", and the solid blue that is front and back is from Hancock's. I used some Sulky for decorative stitching. My cousin loved it, and the batting is super thick and soft, so she can use it as a playmat for Kyler until he learns to walk. On to pictures!

the hubby holding it up for me


obligatory animal shot

I made this for my sister's birthday. It took about 6 hours in all, including cutting, appliqueing, and maybe some ironing somewhere in there. It's backed with a piece of mottled light blue quilting cotton I had from when I worked at Hancock's. It's crib size, and blue is her favorite color, thus the inspiration for the background/front. The fabrics I used were from Crate and Barrel's remnant barrel, cost 99cents a pound. I modeled the guinea pigs after the one she currently has, Qpathyus. The q is silent because we seem to have some bad luck with our guineas whose names start with p. Anyway, she liked it a lot and still uses it. : )  So without further ado, here it is!



guinea pig applique, my first time!


and the other one


Thanks for looking! : D