We are going travelling next week and this was a required sewing project for the trip. My old wallet was starting to really fall to bits and I wanted to replace it. I had been looking for a new wallet to meet my needs: I wanted something handmade with pockets for sorting receipts and slots for cards. Nothing I found really fit the bill though and I ended up deciding to make my own. It turned out to be a remarkably quick project (once I had all the math done).


The print was a fat quarter of linen I won in the Crafty Slacker Give-a-way. I really wanted the pattern to be centred and for the pattern on the closure to line up; I miss-cut my first piece and ended up with just barely enough to make the wallet. I'm glad I took the trouble to centre the design though - I think it gives my wallet a more polished look. The plain linen was cut from a dress I found at the flea market a few weeks ago (one of my best finds yet). There are two layers of interlining: one canvas for structure and one muslin for stability while piecing.


I did all my cutting on Saturday night and sewed my wallet (except for hand finishing the binding) before we went out for lunch on Sunday. I spent a whole evening earlier in the week working out exactly how big everything should be and how to put it together (many diagrams were involved).

I've been giving my new wallet a thorough testing since Sunday and have found it very satisfactory. Now I just need to make a little coin purse to match.

This is the result of my drafting out that Japanese pattern last week. I asked Rob to sound out the name of it for me and it turned out to be “linen blouse” - just replace all the L’s with R’s and put a little emphasis on the E at the end of blouse - that’s pretty close to how it sounds. Mine is actually made from some cotton batiste left over from this summer’s Regency costuming.
 
I decided, based on the other diagrams with the pattern and some guessing that my Sashiko book was originally printed in Japanese (same sorts of diagrams and the English text is really squished), that seam allowances were probably not included in the pattern. It is intended to be loose anyway so I didn’t think an inch or so would really make much difference. I cut out the pieces (front, black, sleeves and bias binding) on Sunday afternoon and I got to try it on at about nine o’clock. I like quick patterns.
 
The 1 cm seam allowance was very nice to work with, especially on such lightweight fabric. To finish the seams I just ran a zig-zag stitch next to the seam and trimmed off the excess fabric. I took some extra space on the armhole seams to make sure they wouldn’t be too tight.
 

 
This shirt is very comfy. I might put a longer elastic in the neck band; right now it pulls the underarm fabric kind of strangely. It’s got a bit of a pear shape to it when you wear it (the bottom is very full) so it might not be a good style if you’re concerned about your hips. I don’t really mind so long as I’m cozy. I think it might be cute with slightly puffier sleeves too. The weather is a bit cool for this now but it is going to be wonderful next summer. I might even make a second one, with a few alterations, or one of the other patterns - maybe with a cute print from the nani IRO line at Purl Soho.
 
 
Zeke was “helping” me out again yesterday. Since I couldn’t finish my seam I got out the camera instead. He’s a very obliging model.