Starry Sky Wallet

I made this wallet from this Straight Stitch Society pattern a few years ago for my sister.

She still uses it, which I’m like aghast about because it is not that good. It looks nowhere near the examples. The same thing happened with the other pattern I tried from this company (Orange Sewing Caddy). I think it just means they are not for beginner sewers.

First, I bought the fabric at Joann. I’ve seen it there for years and I wouldn’t be surprised if they still carry it. Yep, they do have at least the blue! Here it is. There are a good number of other colors including one teal that is a little different from the one I used and a cool “oil slick” version. I found them by searching for “Keepsake Metallic”.

The way this is constructed is interesting. First you do the zippered panel, then you do the card panel. Then you sew them to the inside base fabric. THEN, you sew all that inside out to the exterior fabric that has seriously heavy interfacing. You leave a hole at the bottom to turn it.

Another part is that there’s a snap closure at the top, opposite from the hole. You have to finaggle your hand in there because it’s only on the inside of the wallet. The other end of the small is on the exterior on the other side of the zippered panel. I’m kind of wondering why I didn’t do the snaps before it was sewed together, but either I made a mistake or it’s just for maximum accuracy for the snap to fit together.

Because of the interfacing inside, the seams were not very crisp and were kind of puffy. I wish I had done a topstitch around at least the top. It was also sew-in interfacing so it’s just flopping around. I much prefer fusible for things like this because it just makes sure the layers all fold right, especially when there is nothing else to anchor it (except the one side of the snap).

Oh, I wonder if sew-in was used so that both sides of the snap could use it. Never thought about that and I don’t think I did that. That would explain why the snaps are done last, too. Hmm. I like to think I follow instructions but maybe I just missed that part.

After you do the snap, you sew up the hole and it’s done. My sewing can be very inexact and I don’t totally love this because of that, but I guess it represents finishing a difficult project. And I’m glad my sister likes it!