Sewing Project!

I recently got the book Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol and I have been itching to make one of the very cute things from it. I thought I would start simple and try the No-Cash-Wallet. Now, I am not an experienced sewer by any measure, so please keep this in mind as you read.

The book has instructions for each project with measurements and, for some, a pattern that you can enlarge on a xerox machine and cut out. I do not have access to a xerox machine, so I was going to try to just use the measurement given with the instructions. I am not sure if it is because of my lack of experience or if I was having a foggy-headed day, but I could NOT get the pattern worked out using only the measurements given in the book. No matter which way I turned it, it just doesn't work. I even measured the small scale pattern in the back and used that math I said in 8th grade that I would never use to figure out what the enlarged measurements would be and it just doesn't work. I consider myself a relatively intelligent person and this made me feel the opposite and very frustrated as well.

So I ended up scanning the pattern picture into my computer, enlarging it with a program and printing it out over several pages, then cutting and taping it together. When I did this, the pattern worked, but I still say the measurements in the book have got to be off.

I made four wallets - one for my sister, my mom, my friend Amy and, of course, for me! I forgot to get pictures of my sister's finished product but, trust me, it was cute. I almost kept that one for myself! :)

*Note - I am still trying to get the image functions of blogger figured out - I feel like it should be more user-friendly. The captions for the pictures are underneath this time*

This is the one I made for my mom. It is a little crooked, but it was the first one. The quarter is a button that I didn't end up using but, for reference, it is the size of an actual quarter.

I picked out these two pieces to go together, but when I got them cut out and next to each other I wasn't as sure about it. Too much going on, I think. I will find something more subtle to match with these and save them for later.

This material is so pretty. I love that I found a positive/negative match. I made Amy's wallet with the white background on the outside and pockets with the brown background as the liner. My wallet is the opposite.

This is the material I used for my sister's wallet. The blue mousies are on the outside and pockets and the pink is the liner. It has teeny tiny white hearts on it. I told you it was cute.