Has it really been 10 days since I posted?

Yowza!



Yeah, took me a little craft sabbatical. I hadn't really planned on it, but once I gave myself some downtime I just kind of had to ride it out. Between my little sabbatical and Liv starting pre-school for three full days a week, I'm happy to say that I'm feeling a lot calmer and much more in control than I've felt in a while.



With Liv in school, I've been able to work on getting a handful of unfinished craft projects to a state of completion. Like this wallet:







Isn't it PRETTY???? I'm just a little bit proud of it. I had this big idea about 2 months ago to make a wallet to match my little fabric purse. Found a tutorial, should have been easy-peasy, right?? Right??? Ummm... no.

Let's see. First, I wasn't able to make sense of some of the dimensions for folding the fabric into pockets. So I improvised. Then I decided to add in a zippered pocket to the inside. Improvised. And then I didn't have a zipper exactly the right size. Improvised. I could continue, but you get the picture... It was kind of this leapfrogging of following instructions, then improvising a detail, then following instructions again.

By the end, I decided that I never EVER would make one of these again. But the final product ended up soooo nice and it's quickly becoming my most favoritest wallet. It has three checkbook sized pockets, one zippered pocket, and 6 credit card slots. I've gotten oodles of compliments on it, and some requests from friends/family for a wallet of their very own. Hah.


We'll just have to see if I love them enough to take on the project again.

Though I did learn some very important lessons. Like, I could simplify the whole thing by binding the raw edges with bias tape rather than doing the whole sew-with-right-sides-together-and-then-turn-right-side-out-like-a-pillow thing. I think I'd get much sharper corners and I think I could avoid some of my zipper troubles by not having to estimate where the seam allowance would be.

I'm really not making this sound like a fun project, am I??? Well, if you want a beautiful fabric wallet and aren't a masochist, I'd suggest you get buy one of Dogwood's. They're super cute and really well constructed and you won't put your stomach lining through a torture test.