Wallet Making How-To

I make, give as presents, and occasionally sell artsy wallets. When the wallet I’d had for a decade was stolen at a concert a few years ago, I decided to make my own rather than buy another. I figured out a simple technique that everyone loves. It’s quite easy. The wallets look beautiful and last for 8-15 months depending on how well put together they are, and then you make a different one to switch things up. For your reference and mine, here is how:

this is my current wallet; it's been in use about 8 months and still in pretty good shape

Find an image and clip it. Unless I stumble upon something randomly awesome, I typically use magazine clippings, particularly from art mags like high fructose and juxtapoz and regular mags with great design like Wired. You will need to cut your image to 7.5” x 6” or 6.5”. The 7.5” will leave a little bit of a margin on the sides to account for shape when folded. The 6” will be folded in half to create the pocket, so 6” will give you a wallet not much deeper than your cards and bills, while 6.5” will give you a deeper wallet. Find an image you’re sure will be big enough. When necessary I have combined images with breaks at the magazine fold and used completely separate images for the inside and outside (being 3” to 3.25” tall each), but be aware that these will likely create small cosmetic imperfections. When you’ve picked an image, cut it carefully. Always measure twice and leave a margin rather than cutting too small.

coated in contact paper, the image we're working with here is of a mermaid kissing a diver

Use clear contact paper to coat the image. This is important for strength, appearance, and durability. Regular laminate would be too hard, while I’ve found that clear contact paper that comes on rolls has major imperfections that really wind up looking like ugly blotches. I use Avery contact paper which I have bought in large packages but which you can buy in two-sheet packs at a CVS.

Use clear vinyl to make the shell and pocket. I use heavy shower curtain from a regular store like Bed Bath & Beyond; cheap shower curtains won’t work. You can get clear vinyl elsewhere, though, if you look around. I have been meaning to experiment with mylar sheets sold at art supply stores for a long time but haven’t gotten around to it. Depending on what you buy you may want to iron (on a low setting and with some cotton fabric like a t-shirt between the vinyl and the iron) and/or wipe it free of dust first (shower curtains come ridiculously dusty; I don’t understand why).

follow the folded vinyl; the pocket is on the left

The vinyl ought to be in pieces about 10 x 18. Carefully crease your image in half the long way so that its folded dimensions are roughly 7.5” x 3”. Make sure to crease so that the outside of the wallet is facing out, and so that the crease is well pressed and not going anywhere. wrap the vinyl the long way starting at the inside of the main pocket, wrapping around the inside face of the wallet, to the outside face, then around to the inside of the main pocket again. But! To make the pocket for your cards, you need to leave a card-sized flap hanging down 2.25” from the bottom of the wallet, which you will fold up on the inside and which will become the pocket. The ends of the vinyl that will be on the inside of the main wallet pocket ought to go most of the way to the bottom of the pocket, but they don’t need to be at all perfect; just trim any extra off. It IS important that the card pocket be pretty perfect, though; it’s a pain to get cards out of pockets if they’re too tall or uneven, and obviously too short causes problems. Try some cards in it to check. Once you’ve got the vinyl tightly wound around the wallet, fold it in half (like it was in your pocket) and put it under something heavy for a while to shape it up. I actually tend to put them under the hottest corner of my laptop; I think the heat helps ease them into the right shape (weird but it works).

sewing up the middle, and later closing off the thread on the side

Sew the wallet together, starting in the middle. Start by folding the wallet in half like it’ll be when it’s in your pocket. Make sure the vinyl is tight everywhere. First sew on the inside and in the middle, sewing just up to where the pocket is. Then get some cards out of your own wallet, put them in the pocket, and sew the edges up one at a time so that the vinyl is relatively (but not terribly) tight around them. To close it off I like to just loop through the thread on the sides over and over, tying a single knot each time.

Trim excess vinyl and image material. Carefully trim off any excess vinyl as well as any of the inside part of the wallet that can be seen from the outside. Don’t trim too close to the thread!
Voila!