Passport sleeve/wallet tutorial

Quilting DD requested a passportsleeve too and since I had to sew one anyway, I might as well take pictures and write a tutorial.
Here we go!

 
 What you'll need:

2 pieces of fabric 26x18.5 cm (the base)
For the interior pockets:
2x  23x18.5cm
1x 19.5x18.5cm
passportpocket: 20x11cm
closure-flap 1x 16.5x8cm
Heavy and medium/light fusible interfacing
a snap

if you prefer inches you can round your numbers so you won't get
too odd sizes to work with.
My Dutch passport fits ( it's 9x12.5cm), if you are from another nationality you should measure beforehand (or put it in a different pocket inside the wallet :)
Read the whole tutorial before sewing!

Iron the heavy interfacing on both base parts and the flap(the black and white in my case) and the medium/light onto the rest.
Put the base parts aside.
Take one of the 23x 18.5 pocket pieces and iron it in half. With a (quilter's) ruler cut of a 45 angle on the FOLDED side.

With right side together, sew the side where you cut off the corner, with a small seam-allowance.

Turn and topstitch the angle and the across the folded side.  

Take the passportpocket, fold it in half ( the 20cm side) and with right sides together close one side, again with small seam-allowance . Mind that the 11cm goes from left to right.Turn and topstitch folded edge.

Fold the remaining pocketpieces in half and topstitch all the folded edges.                                  

                 

I did it earlier here and there, but now is a good time to round the outer corners. On the pic you can see how to layer the pockets and which corners are on the outer side. I used a threadcone as a template.                       

Take your passport pocket and the one with the angle. Match the rounded corner and sew the right side of the little pocket on to the bigger one, again with a tiny seamallowance. If your seam is too big, the passport will not fit.

Take your right pocket, match outher corners and sew a line in the middle off the smaller pocket so it is attached to the bigger ánd is made into 2 pockets.

Layer all the parts but the outer part, together and machine baste all around. If you want, you can sew an elastic loop in the middle for a pen.                                                                                                                                  

Now it's time to take your flap: cut it in half,  and sew together with the same small allowance. Turn and topstitch. Add a snap. 

 

Machine baste the flap on the outer part of your wallet , right sides together.

Put the piece with the flap on top of the piece with the pockets, machinebaste and sew all around. Leave an opening for turning where the pocket with the angle is. That way you have a "reasonable" turning opening and all the pockets will allready be attached . 

Now will be a good time to take a break and perhaps take a cup of coffe or tea ...... 

Next step is: TURN and that's a bit easier said than done.... 

You'll probably have to press the whole wallet again 'cause it'll look like this now 

 After pressing, , attach the other part of the snap. Now you can excactly see where it is supposed to be and you can put your hand in the opening for acces . 

Topstitch all around , this will close your turning opening as well . 

Pfffff, whipe the sweat off your face, admire your work and dream of all the places you want to travel to...

I hope this story makes any sense. If it doesn't, let me know, it's a lot easier to sew than it is to explain how to:)

                                                                                                                                      

The generosity of bloggers and an apron

When I was Bloghopping the other day, I came across an apron swap and one of the participants used a lovely fabric for her apron. I mailed her to ask which manufacturer it was from, for I promised Baking DD to sew her one. To my surprise (that's an understatement, I sat with my mouth open after reading her response) she offered to sent me the fabric as a gift. How about that!
Last saturday her package arrived all the way from New Zealand

She even took the trouble of making a nice, warming package with a heart and a letter..

Here's the fabric!

I immediately started cutting and sewing. It involved biaisstrips (lots) and even buttonholes for which I had to read my machine's manuel carefully *lol*

I struggled with the biais binding. I bought ready made and it wasn't the best quality, but I pulled it off. My Husqvarna and I are on very friendly terms lately.

This is the result: a sleepy eyed baking DD (quote: what a lame pic Mum!) dressed in a lovely apron!

And..it's reversible :)

Thank you Sarah for sending me the fabric, you rock!

And to give all the right credits: here is where I got the pattern

Now you should think DD is in the kitchen baking ME yummy cupcakes. Nope, she's baking 2 (!) birthdaycakes for friends. Ah well, she's doing household chores so I can sew. Better for my waistline!

Getting to know the Monster

Here I am, typing away (more like slamming) on the Monster's keyboard (aka the family pc)
Quilting DD called and asked if she should drag sent me to an old people's home, since in my last post I said that I didn't know where to plug my USB stick. She suspected Alzheimer, but I can now tell her that I found it! *lol*
In my defense the following pics!

The Monster is to big to stand anywhere else than on the floor (OMG check how DIRTY the central heating thing is!)                                                                                                                                                     

All the way down is the USB slot. So I have to go down on my knees, butt high up in the air, to plug the USB in. (and again...I really should do some neccesary dusting here..) So it's not so bad I overlooked now is it??

Oké, now that's clear..what did i do lately. Not much I'm afraid! It has been hot and now, even tough temps have dropped for the time being, it's still warm, humid and I feel sticky. Not ideal sewing weather!
I did sew a passportsleeve

Ofcourse Blogger flipped the pic but let's ignore that. I miscalculated a little: the rounded corners take up a bit of space and it would have been better to add 1/2 an inch to the width, but nevertheless: I'm very happy with the outcome :)

Except for some very slow progress on handquilting my Holland Quilt, that's about all I did. Sorry, not enough energy..                                                                                                                                 

In the pursuit of a better bodyshape, C and I try to walk once a week for an hour or so and we often say to eachother that we ought to take pics of our neighbourhood. Well, last week i did, so now you can all see what's there to see practicly in front of our home.

Right in front we have this fishingpond, and when we walk around it and go right there's this

Not hard to imagine that, although my home is (too) small, I love where I live!

Last but not least: How to get my girlfriend to the Prom by Biking DS (and how to keep one's skirt down on the back of a bike by the Girlfriend)

This machine will selfdestruct in 10..9..8..7..

Last few days were very hot here and not only me got overheated. I was sewing and had a tutorial on my laptop. I already thought my little friend was very quiet, but it didn't sink in that something was wrong and that the laptop didn't cool itself anymore. It overheated and had a meltdown. "sob"..
Now it's really really dead and gone, Dh thinks he can save the harddisk and that'll be it.
Now I'm on the family pc with which I am certainly NOT on speaking terms. I have to share the Monster too with my familymembers and wait my turn..

I can't share any pics either. Nobody's home right now and I have no idea where to plug my USB stick in *lol*.
I guess I will be a bit disconnected and not online as much as I was.
It has a bright side though: less pc time means a cleaner home ánd I even started to handquilt again in the evenings instead of browsing the net searching for whatever what... Hopefully someone can show me how to become friends with the monster so I can share some photo's.

I even was too late to congratulate Mamaspark Pam with her birthday, shame on me!! If your pc still works, stop by her blog to say "hi". Her link is in my sidebar (have to install Blogger things on the Monster too..}

Quilting....

Someone posted this youtube movie on the Dutch messageboard. It's something that any quilter will recognize....
Instead of linking to the messageboard, I'll give it a try to put it on my blog. (had to read a how to first..)
Thanks Carla for finding this!