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Fold In Half Wallet – Patterning Part 2

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At this point we have a lot of pieces to assemble.  If you are using leather (or vinyl) you need to be careful about your stitch placement to align things properly and not add holes in the material that don’t need to be there.  I’ve touched on the concept of laying out your stitch pattern in past leatherworking projects but I’ll walk you through it.

Make a pattern for a leather wallet

If you missed it Click here to view Part 1.

 

The two main pieces that need to sew together are the outside of the wallet and the inside wallet backing.

Mark evenly spaced stitches along one edge of the wallet backing.  I typically leave 1/4″ (0.3cm) between stitches is a good distance but it is up to you.  Again, think about the structural integrity of the material you are sewing as well as making sure the stitches are evenly distributed across the piece.

When you cut your leather, the pattern pieces will be placed face up so you can see the information or notes you have written on them.  However, when you actually sew the pieces together, many pieces will have their wrong sides touching. (Think about your construction steps while making your pattern!)  Therefore, when you transfer you stitching marks you need to flip them for some pieces so any slight variances in spacing won’t leave you with a puckered project.

 

You just placed stitching marks on the inside wallet backing.  This piece will be placed wrong sides together with the outside wallet piece.  When you transfer your stitching marks to the outside wallet pattern piece, you want to place the pattern pieces together as they will be when you sew them.  Place your pattern pieces wrong-sides-together and transfer the stitching marks to the outside wallet piece.   Tip: You might need to mark them on the back of the first piece so you can see them through the paper of the second pattern piece.

Do the same for the opposite end of the wallet.

Create the stitching lines for the long sides of the inside wallet backing (only one side has the stitch marks in the image below).

Working with wrong sides together, we’ll figure out how to space the stitching on the edges that will fold.  Place the two pattern pieces with their wrong-sides together.

The outside will be cut longer than the inside but they need to sew together.  The outside is longer to accommodate the fold of the wallet.  We need to carefully create a curve around that dashed middle fold line that denotes the half-way point of the wallet.  Begin by lining up one end of the wallet.

Transfer the stitching marks between the corner to almost the fold line of the wallet (shown inside the red box).

Match the opposite corners and transfer the marks from the corner until almost the fold line.

We are left with a gap in stitch marks around the fold on the outside of the wallet.  We are going to ease this space over the fold.  Essentially, easing through the fold means the wallet will naturally hold closed and the inside won’t bunch up with we close the wallet.  In my example I’m missing 3 stitches that need to be transferred to the outside pattern piece with a wider spacing.  The red lines show which holes will match up when sewn.

Do the same with the other long edge of the wallet.

The inside edge of the wallet frame will sew to fabric.  Layout stitching marks for sewing the leather to the fabric.

In Part 3 and Part 4 we will create our stitching patterns for the inside pieces.