Card crowd control {tutorial}

My wallet is a bit like the Bermuda Triangle. It collects detrius at an alarming rate, I’m not entirely sure what’s in there, and once something goes in, there’s a good chance it will never be seen again. A prime example is membership and loyalty cards – holy moly I seem to have a TON of these. And though the three big ones have grown out of it now, they used to have a grand old time pulling everything out of my wallet, and I was forever picking up cards, or not able to find them. After a while I got sick of stuffing them all back, and there ended up a large pile on my desk. So last week while Boy2 was happily playing Reading Eggs, and Butterfly & Beetle slept, I pulled out some scrap fabric, and ten minutes later, a little card holder appeared – the stripy one in the photos below.

It is a handy little holder I can slip into one of the zippered pockets inside my bag, and now when Beetle Baby hits that stage, all he can relieve me of are receipts – no more scrambling for a card at the library/video shop. I was asked for a tutorial on how to make one, so I whipped up the green one in the photos above to help illustrate this tutorial. It is a super quick and easy little pouch, I hope you enjoy the results!

You will need two pieces of fabric 8.5″x4.5″, and a tiny scrap of velcro (mines around 3/4″ square).

{STEP ONE} – decide which piece of fabric will be the outside. Lay this on your work surface right side up. Attach one half of the velcro centred across the width and half an inch from the short edge (you can see in the photo above I have a pin marking the centre of the width, and the raw edge is on the half inch mark). Rotate your fabric 180 degrees and attach the other side of the velcro to the other end in the same way (still working right side up).

{STEP TWO) – with right sides together, and ensuring all edges align, join the two short ends with a 1/4″ seam. Turn right way out and press, then turn back the wrong way.

{STEP THREE} – on the wrong side of one piece of fabric, along the long edge, mark the centre, and then 2.5″ from the centre in both directions.

{STEP FOUR} – fold one seam towards the inside/right side of the fabric (refer to photo), so that the fold lines up with one of the outer marks. Pin in place. Fold the other end in the same way and pin.

{STEP FIVE} – stitch all the way down one side with a 1/4″ seam. On the other side, sew a 1/4″ seam, but leave approx 2″ unstitched towards the middle of the edge.

{STEP SIX} – Clip the corners and turn right side out, making sure the velcro side of the pockets are facing out. Use a blunt knitting needle or pen to help make the corners turn all the way crisply. Press flat, and topstitch both sides.

VOILA! One card holder!

If you use this tutorial, I’d love to see your finished project – feel free to link up in the comments and I’m pop by your blog. Please note, this tutorial is for personal use only. Please do not sell items made with this tutorial.