Gifts to Make for Friends

Hello and happy Wednesday!  Today is the 25th of the month, and that means it’s time for a “Gifts to Make for Friends” post. I’ll be posting gift ideas all year on this date each month. Hopefully you can use some of the ideas throughout the year for birthdays and other special occasion gifts…and if you make something each month to save for holiday gift-giving, you’ll be that much more ready for the season!

I thought I’d concentrate on more non-seasonal gifts during the first part of the

year and then really focus on holiday themes beginning in July. My first idea is actually something I’ve been wanting to make for quite a little while now–a handmade zipper wallet. The Zip Organizer from Zakka Style: 24 Projects Stitched with Ease to Give, Use & Enjoy (Design Collective)was exactly what I was looking for…it’s absolutely the perfect size, finishing at 5 ½″ x 8″.

The cutting directions were easy to follow. The pattern calls for canvas or similar fabrics, so I used a combination of Moda Mochi Linen in Natural and a couple of different prints from the Rifle Paper Company collection for Cotton + Steel. (regular quilting cotton can be used for the pocket lining). I did make a couple of changes…instead of using a combination of light weight and medium weight interfacing, I used Pellon Shape Flex for all of the interfacing. And I used Soft & Stable for the inner reinforcement piece.  I also used by Annie handbag zippers instead of regular zippers which made it easier to add cute zipper pulls to both zippers.

This wallet has everything I was looking for including nine card holder slots and three larger slots that can be used for a checkbook, cash, or even a passport. There is also a handy pen holder. I love the fact that everything can be kept safe because it zips securely closed!

The outside zipper pocket is super handy, too…I plan to keep receipts in the pocket while I’m shopping to keep them from getting lost in my purse.

The pocked actually extends along the whole back side of the wallet, so you could even put your phone and your keys inside if needed.

I did find one typo in the pattern…the measurement given for the interfacing for the outer and inner panels was incorrect, but since the panel measurements themselves were correct, I just needed to cut the interfacing the same size as those panels.  I spent three and a half hours making the wallet from start to finish, and that included cutting everything out and hand-stitching the binding.

 One additional change I made was to use a double-fold bias binding instead of the single fold called for in the pattern. The pattern was well-written…the only thing I felt that could have been more clear was to have more written directions on placement of the outer section pocket (I turned mine around initially and had to un-baste and re-stitch after realizing from the photo that I had placed the pieces incorrectly), and I would have also liked a few more directions about attaching the binding around the zipper areas.
 

I really loved making this wallet–it’s a great pattern in a terrific size, and you can really have a lot of fun mixing and matching fabrics for the different pockets and sections. I’m going to keep this one since it was my test project, but I’m super excited to make one for each of my girls this year…either for their birthday or for Christmas. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!