Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Mini Wallet Snap Pouch Tutorial!!

Okay, here we go, my very first tutorial. I think I'm ready. This little wallet pouch is the perfect size for carrying around your business cards, or it's also perfect for your ID, credit cards and some cash. This project is great for a beginner or occasional sewer. If you've never installed a snap I suggest you practice on some scraps first, using the same materials you will use for your project. If you don't have heavy fusible interfacing, you can use non fusible, or even quilt batting works just fine. Just remember if you use quilt batting that if it's polyester it will melt a little when pressed on the cotton setting, so do not press with the quilt batting until you've sewn and turned your project right side out- you don't want to fuse quilt batting to your iron or your ironing board! If you don't have a cutting mat and rotary cutter, thats also okay but you may find it easier to make a pattern to pin to you fabric in order to cut your pieces with sissors.

Supplies-
Outer fabric- 9 x 5.25 inches
lining fabric- 9 x 5.25 inches
fusible interfacing (heavy)- 9 x 5.25 inches
snap ( & tools to install)
scissors, rotary cutter, cutting mat, ruler
disapearing marker
coodinating thread

Okay, lets get this started!
First select your fabrics.
 Cut outer fabric, lining, and interfacing into 9 x 5.25 inch rectangles
If you want your wallet flap to have a curved edge, sandwich all three peices and fold in half long-ways, then cut a curved corner with your sissors on the end that will be your flap.
Fuse your interfacing to the wrong side of your lining fabric.
Now to pin your layers together. Pin right side of outer fabric to the right side of the lining fabric with the interfacing on the bottom. Pin across the bottom to mark an opening, you'll want to leave an opening for turning it right-side out after you stitch it together. If you curved your corners for the flap, mark/pin your opening on the other end of the fabrics.
 Start stitching at the end of your pin you placed for the opening, finish on the other end of the pin, using a 1/4th inch seam allowance.
 Here is how it looks when your done.
 Trim your corners, then I like to trim along the sides to about 1/8th of an inch. Don't trim where you left your opening.
 Now your ready to turn it right side out!
 Make sure your corners are pushed out nice and neat, a pointy chop-stick is handy for this.
 Now you need to press it and make sure everything is smooth. Press your opening nice and neat and even, you'll top stitch it closed. I do my top stitching about 1/8th of an inch from the edge and set my stitch length longer so the stitching looks nicer. Stitch all the way around.
 Now fold the bottom up about 3 inches and pin in place. Stitch right over the lines where you just top-stitched to secure the bottom of your pouch.
 Now it's time to install the snap. If you've never installed a snap before I suggest you practice first so you don't damage your project.
 Use your ruler to find the center and using your disapearing marker, place a dot where you want the snap to go on the outer flap.
 Now mark under the flap.
 You can purchase snaps with this nifty tool to help you install them, though the heads don't work well with it. There is also a pliar type tool that I may cave and purchase one of these days. Once you get the hang of it installing them is pretty easy, but I still ruin heads on occasion.
 All finished and looks pretty cute! I think I like a curved flap better though. Notice how you can see my dot through the snap head? It will fade away in a couple days, and if you use a solid colored snap you don't have to worry about it.
Pretty easy right? The green one below I curved the corners a bit on the flap. The great thing about this project is that you can play around with the dimentions. If you want a bigger pouch, just increase the size of your rectangles. So there you have it, if you try out this tutorial please leave a comment and/or post a pic and let me know what you think. Let me know if you have any questions.

*Thanks for checking out my tutorial! Don't forget to follow me :D

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