Leather Fun Afternoon

New Wallet!!

 So. I hate my wallet. I used to hate my wallet and now I LOVE my wallet.
I have always felt some strange aversion to paying a lot of hard earned money for a wallet to hold all my hard earned money. I have a similar problem with buying purses & bags; however since they typically carry more than just my money I manage to find ways around it.

Aside from spending the money on one, wallets also never seem to have the right combination of what you are looking for. Example: they will be small enough, but not have zippered space for change; OR they will be have all the card and bill space you need but be gargantuanly huge as well. I need a wallet to fit in my pocket if it needs to, have zippered space for change (because lets be serious change sucks, but it sucks more if it's falling out everywhere every time you open up to get a bill), it needs to have quick access room for cards and a bill fold large enough for those other random bits of paper, etc than inevitably end up there.



So to fix all these problems in one I decided I would make my own and then I couldn't complain about hating my current wallet anymore.
It cost me about $7.00 to make.

• Genuine Leather (scraps in two tones!) - $5.00
• Sweet Zipper (just happened to match) $1.95
• Fun afternoon of time on the sewing machine - Free!

 7 step Tutorial to make your own:

This wallet is 5 x 8 inches opened wide with three double card slots, a zippered change pouch and bill fold.

Supplies needed:
5 x 13.5 darker leather
5 x 8 lighter leather
5 x 3 darker leather
5 x 2.5  lighter leather
5 " zipper
Dark thread
Heavy duty needle
Sewing machine

1. Cut all your pieces
2. Sew Zipper onto the "bad" side of your largest piece of dark leather.
3. Line up your 5 x 8 piece on top of your largest piece leaving the zippered edge with a 3.5" flap to fold over and create your change purse
4. Fold over outside piece and sew opposite side of zipper onto the good side of your lighter piece of leather
5. Line up your smaller pieces to create the overlapping pockets and fold over remaining edge.
6. Sew around the outside edge to hold everything together. *helpful hint Go slow when you hit the thickest parts. My sewing machine didn't love me for it, but we went slow and got through with a relatively straight stitch.
7. Cut off loose threads and Voila! You have the perfect leather wallet!

*** I've added a ivory ribbon tag into mine to personalize a bit, but you could play around however you like to have fun with it!

Finished Product!