After finding some coins that fell out of my wallets at the bottom of my pocket again I thought that it was time to design a wallet that would fit my needs.
The idea is simple: something that allows to carry a couple of cards, folded bills and coins – emphasis on the coins, no more going hunting in the laundry bag for spare change.
I had seen a Japanese coin purse design that I liked so I had some fun with it and after a few experiments I came up with the pattern this tutorial is based on.
Print it on A4 paper and cut-out the pieces of the project.
Make sure that the pattern is not resized by checking your print settings. You can check if it was printed properly by measuring the test box on the pattern to ensure that its sides are 5cm long.
Print on thick paper to make it easier to trace the shape on the leather. 200g/cm2 and above is ideal (as long as your printer can handle it)
Tracing the outline of the pattern onto the leather
Use an awl to trace the outline of the pattern onto the leather.
Some pattern elements have to be used more than once. Check the pattern tracing checklist in order to know how many times to trace each element.
Don’t forget to mark the positions of the two holes that we will punch through later on in order to fit the snap button.
Cutting-out the pieces
Follow the outlines that you traced on the leather to cut out all the wallet’s pieces.
You can use a hole punch to deal with the corners of the walls of the coin purse.
Dyeing the leather
Choose your own adventure.
I used a watercolor brush with white and two shades of blue leather dyes to create the effect that I obtained.
Edge burnishing
Burnish the top and bottom of the coin purse’s side walls, as well as the top of the card holder.
Setting-up the snap button
Punch the holes on the marks that you left earlier and set up the two parts of the snap button.
Stitching the coin pouch
Start-of by gluing the backside of the lid.
Then glue the lid and the opposite side to the bottom piece.
Finally glue the side walls in place.
Mark your stitch lines with a compass and punch the holes.
Start by stitching around the lid. It will go like this: edge between the lid and the side wall -> backside of the lid -> edge between lid and opposite side wall.
Then start another stitching line from the top of the opposite edge. It will go like this: edge->bottom of the wall->bottom of the lid->bottom of the opposite wall->opposite edge.
Leave out the edge of the piece opposite to the lid as it will be stitched through the cardholder as well.
Stitching the card holder
Glue the two pieces of the card holder on top of each other.
Then glue main panel of the coin purse to the cardholder in order to create the pocket for the folded bills.
Before gluing the coin purse’s bottom to the card holder, remember to burnish the edge at the bottom of the lid.
I rounded up two corners at that point.
Mark the stitch line on the 3 edges that have yet to be stitched.
Punch the stitching holes.
Stitch the pieces together.
Finishing touches
Smooth-out the remaining raw edges by sanding them down and burnishing them.
Complete the project by applying your leather finishing product of choice.
Final result
There you go! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that you will enjoy using this wallet.
As always, please let me know if you have any feedback.
Footnotes
The following online content provided some assistance and/or inspiration during the making of this project:
Tutorial
Cloudy sky coin purse & card holder
3 hours
Moderate
Common for leathercraft
After finding some coins that fell out of my wallets at the bottom of my pocket again I thought that it was time to design a wallet that would fit my needs.
The idea is simple: something that allows to carry a couple of cards, folded bills and coins – emphasis on the coins, no more going hunting in the laundry bag for spare change.
I had seen a Japanese coin purse design that I liked so I had some fun with it and after a few experiments I came up with the pattern this tutorial is based on.
Requirements
Skills
Tools
Bill of Materials
Pattern
The free pattern can be downloaded here.
Walk-through
Printing and cutting the pattern
The PDF for the pattern can be found here.
Print it on A4 paper and cut-out the pieces of the project.
Make sure that the pattern is not resized by checking your print settings. You can check if it was printed properly by measuring the test box on the pattern to ensure that its sides are 5cm long.
Print on thick paper to make it easier to trace the shape on the leather. 200g/cm2 and above is ideal (as long as your printer can handle it)
Tracing the outline of the pattern onto the leather
Use an awl to trace the outline of the pattern onto the leather.
Some pattern elements have to be used more than once. Check the pattern tracing checklist in order to know how many times to trace each element.
Don’t forget to mark the positions of the two holes that we will punch through later on in order to fit the snap button.
Cutting-out the pieces
Follow the outlines that you traced on the leather to cut out all the wallet’s pieces.
You can use a hole punch to deal with the corners of the walls of the coin purse.
Dyeing the leather
Choose your own adventure.
I used a watercolor brush with white and two shades of blue leather dyes to create the effect that I obtained.
Edge burnishing
Burnish the top and bottom of the coin purse’s side walls, as well as the top of the card holder.
Setting-up the snap button
Punch the holes on the marks that you left earlier and set up the two parts of the snap button.
Stitching the coin pouch
Start-of by gluing the backside of the lid.
Then glue the lid and the opposite side to the bottom piece.
Finally glue the side walls in place.
Mark your stitch lines with a compass and punch the holes.
Start by stitching around the lid. It will go like this: edge between the lid and the side wall -> backside of the lid -> edge between lid and opposite side wall.
Then start another stitching line from the top of the opposite edge. It will go like this: edge->bottom of the wall->bottom of the lid->bottom of the opposite wall->opposite edge.
Leave out the edge of the piece opposite to the lid as it will be stitched through the cardholder as well.
Stitching the card holder
Glue the two pieces of the card holder on top of each other.
Then glue main panel of the coin purse to the cardholder in order to create the pocket for the folded bills.
Before gluing the coin purse’s bottom to the card holder, remember to burnish the edge at the bottom of the lid.
I rounded up two corners at that point.
Mark the stitch line on the 3 edges that have yet to be stitched.
Punch the stitching holes.
Stitch the pieces together.
Finishing touches
Smooth-out the remaining raw edges by sanding them down and burnishing them.
Complete the project by applying your leather finishing product of choice.
Final result
There you go! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that you will enjoy using this wallet.
As always, please let me know if you have any feedback.
Footnotes
The following online content provided some assistance and/or inspiration during the making of this project: