Summertime Wallet | Purl Soho

My favorite summertime haunt as a child was the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, a timeworn amusement park about an hour south of San Francisco. It featured a creaky wooden roller coaster (The Giant Dipper!), carnival games, and corn dogs. I loved the relaxed atmosphere and laid back California beach style of the boardwalk. Everyone wore flip flops and puka shell necklaces. Surfers in wetsuits ate ice-cream on the pier, while hawkers sold neon tee-shirts that said “Hang Loose”.

Summertime Wallet | Purl Soho

Now that I live in New York the name of the boardwalk may have changed, but I still love going to the beach every chance I get. I relish in the carefree attitude of summertime at the seaside, whichever coast I’m on!

Summertime Wallet | Purl Soho

With beach season fast approaching, I wanted to honor this breezy style with a special summer accessory. A canvas wallet seemed like the perfect thing, a simple way to hold some bills and cards in order to pay for all that funnel cake and skee ball! This wallet is durable and quick to make, so you don’t have to be too precious with it or worry about it getting wet. Plus, as a nod to my eco-conscious northern California roots, it’s made from 100% organic Cotton Duck, which comes in a rainbow of pretty colors. –Molly

ps- These would make a great gift for dads and grads!

Summertime Wallet | Purl Soho

Materials

Summertime Wallet | Purl Soho

To make one wallet:

You will also need:

Note: You can make up to five wallets using this amount of fabric.

Size

8 1/2 by 3 3/4-inches

Pattern

Cutting

Summertime Wallet | Purl Soho

For the natural duck:

  • Cut two rectangles 4-inches by 9 1/4-inches. These are pieces A1 and A2.
  • Cut one rectangle 2 3/4-inches by 9 1/4-inches. This is piece C.

From the contrasting duck:

  • Cut one rectangle 3 3/4-inches by 9 1/4-inches. This is piece B.

Sewing the Inside

Summertime Wallet | Purl Soho

Zig zag stitch around all four sides of pieces B and C.

Summertime Wallet | Purl Soho

On both piece B and C press and fold the top long edges over once towards the wrong side. Sew these folds down with two lines of stitching, one 1/8-inch from the fold and the next a scant 1/2-inch from the fold, making sure to catch the back side of the fold.

The folds are the tops of these pieces.

Summertime Wallet | Purl Soho

Place piece C on top of B, both with their right sides facing up, lining up their bottom and side edges. Using the Hera marker and a ruler measure a vertical line across piece C, perpendicular to the bottom edge, 4 3/4-inches from the left side. Pin C to B along this mark.

Please note that this marking is not at the middle of piece C thus making the section to the left of the marking 1/4-inch larger than the section to the right. Keep the pieces oriented in this same manner, so you can keep track of the left and right sides from now on.

Sew B and C together along this marking, backstitching at the beginning and end of the seam. This is the billfold and credit card section.

Summertime Wallet | Purl Soho

Place the sewn together B and C section on top of piece A1, again lining up the bottom and side edges.

Summertime Wallet | Purl Soho

Place piece A2 on top of the other pieces.

Pin all of the layers together, leaving the left side un-pinned.

Sewing Together

Summertime Wallet | Purl Soho

Using a 1/8-inch seam allowance sew across the three pinned sides, leaving the un-pinned side unsewn. Back stitch at the beginning and end of this seam. Make extra sure that you are sewing through all of the layers of the wallet. If you miss a section go back and re sew it.

Snip off the 4 corners of this newly sewn piece.

Summertime Wallet | Purl Soho

Turn the whole thing right sides out, pulling the billfold and credit card pockets towards the front as shown above. pay special attention to poking out the corners as much as possible. Press the wallet flat.

Pieces B and C are now the billfold (B) and credit card pockets (C) while pieces A1 and A2 have created the two layers of the outer wallet.

Summertime Wallet | Purl Soho

Peel the billfold and credit card section away from the body of the wallet and mark a vertical line, perpendicular to the bottom edge, 4 3/4-inches from the left raw edge. This marking should match up with the credit card pocket seam.

Summertime Wallet | Purl Soho

Pin the two layers of the outer wallet together along this marking.

Summertime Wallet | Purl Soho

Sew the two outer wallet layers together along the mark back stitching at the beginning and end of the seam.

Summertime Wallet | Purl Soho

Press the wallet along the new seam so that the pockets are on the inside. The top flap, which still has raw seams, will be a bit longer than the back flap.

Summertime Wallet | Purl Soho

Working from the front tuck the raw edges of all of the pieces (including pieces B and C) inside the channel inside the outer wallet pieces. Arrange it until this front edge matches the edge on the back flap and then pin the edges into place.

Summertime Wallet | Purl Soho

Both the inside and the outside of the wallet should look neat with no raw edges peeking out.

Summertime Wallet | Purl Soho

Using a walking foot sew around all four sides of the wallet, with a 1/8-inch seam allowance, including the pinned edge. Back stitch at the beginning and end of this seam. Go slowly and if you make a mistake pull the seam out and start again.

Summertime Wallet | Purl Soho

Press the wallet closed and you’re all done!