We’ve talked a lot lately on the forum about projects not turning out as planned.  Sometimes we have happy accidents like my scarflette that turned out better than I had planned.  However, that’s not always the case.  That’s why we all have UFOs.

Last year I decided to design a credit card wallet. I spent a lot of time measuring and making resists and batts, cutting prefelt and designing a master pattern complete with shrinkage built in.  I wanted it to be functional enough to be able to put most of the things I use in one place.

I didn’t have a wallet to use as a model, so I winged it.  I used the prefelt as the base and began adding resists then the batts on the inside.  To keep track of where my folds and placements were I used pieces of threads to help keep everything in line.

On the inside I wanted three long pockets, then eight credit card slots. There is one resist under the red batt.

Then I added the second lower pocket offset about a half inch, and began putting the credit card slot resists in.

Once I finished adding the slots, I turned it over and added resists on the front. I wanted a license holder and a pocket.

Then after covering in black merino and decorating with some red silk throwsters waste, I began the felting and fulling process.

The hardest part and one of my big mistakes was cutting out the resists. I decided to use an Exacto knife to cut the top large opening.  Guess what?  Yes, that’s a pen sticking thru.  I couldn’t figure out how to take a pic with my finger thru it.

The lower hole is where I wanted the pic ID to be.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t large enough to put in the whole ID and cut out a window to view it.

The pocket on the front was also too small an opening to put anything in there that wouldn’t fall out.

On the inside the larger pockets were functional, but I made a mistake with the credit card pocket by making each row a little deeper.  Duh, what was I thinking?  All credit cards are the same size!

 

There was room for cash and a checkbook and coupons, if need be.  However, the credit cards were a disaster.  I couldn’t reliably put them in there and think they’d stay put.

Folded over it doesn’t look bad on the front.

The back is a different story.

I had considered trying to save it, but I don’t believe it would be worth the time since many of the proportions are off and there a gaping holes. However, I did learn a lot from the experience.

• Try not to make the project too complicated
• Use a model for size proportions
• Never use an Exacto knife to cut out a resist

I hope this may help others when they are planning a big project in the future. 🙂