The Crafty Side of Me: Mini wallet and pencil case.

I'm desperate to do some more sewing and have a couple of projects planned with some gorgeous material that's been sitting in my stash box for ages. I'm trying to be patient and wait till the end of the month when I can invest in some grid rulers which will make my life so much easier as cutting out fabric neatly is not something I'm particularly good at. my lovely hubby got me a rotary cutter and large cutting board for Christmas which I really wanted so once I purchase my rulers I'll be raring to go, it will be a lot quicker cutting out patterns.

I have done a little bit of sewing so I thought I'd share some of the things I have managed to make recently.

I wanted to make a credit card holder and found this super easy and cute tutorial on You tube by Watermelon Wishes. This is lovely little project and a really easy one for newbie sewers.

 

I was pleased how they turned out but unfortunately they're too small for my cards.With the first one I thought it was my bad cutting/measurements and possibly wrong seam allowance but I made a second one and was much more careful and it still turned out too small. I used a 1/4 inch seam allowance but I think it needed to be smaller.

As it happens they have actually been quite handy. One, I gave to my mum for some rosary beads my aunt gave to her and it's perfect to keep them safe. The 2nd one I use to store my earphones in one side and my USB stick in the other, so all in all I'm quite chuffed with them. A nice little size for my handbag, although I will be attempting to make the correct size for my cards. I would like to get some clear vinyl so I could make it into an oyster card holder.

I also had another go at perfecting my boxed corners and made myself a cute pencil case. I messed the up the zipper, one side came out ok  but the other I ended up with a puckered zip. Why??? I'm not sure as I know what to do to avoid it and thought I did but obviously not. I'm really pleased to have got the box corners right which will be great for future projects.

There are quite a few good tutorials on You tube and on blogs about making zipper pouches and also boxed corners, so here's the ones I like -

This one on Sew delicious clearly shows how you need to fold you zip in order to avoid puckered corners.

http://www.sewdelicious.com.au/2012/09/simple-zip-pouch-tutorial-for-beginners.html

A nice tutorial on You Tube



Here are 2 tutorials on You Tube which helped me with my box corners. The 2nd one uses a device to mark the boxed corner but it shows the technique for sewing them clearly.






If you haven't tried zippers or boxed corners yet, then you really should, don't be afraid! My first ever project was a zipper pouch, I like to jump in at the deep end!

Here's the post about it with links to more great tutorials.

I'm linking to Sew Darn Crafty linky party