My boyfriend recently got a sketch wallet for himself — in leather no less — to hold just a few sketching essentials. Namely a Moleskine and a pencil and pen. Sometimes if the mood suits him he’ll throw in his ID and a few important credit cards so he can completely sustain himself on this wallet alone. Needless to say, I got super jealous and wanted one for myself. It gave me an opportunity try out installing a zipper in the cleanest way possible. This zipper is sewn right into the side seam of the wallet, sandwiched between the outer fabric and the lining. There are no raw edges or seams to bind, so it makes for a clean finish even if it does take some coordination to put together 🙂
When it’s all done you have a wallet for sliding in a sketchbook on one side and pens and pencils on the other! I’m going to try carrying this around myself and see how it works out for me — hopefully I’ll start sketching more!
14 thoughts on “Free Pattern Friday! Zippered Sketch Wallet”
WOW that is adorable! Pinning and downloading – thank you! 🙂
sewing acrobats! Thanks for the great pattern.
I made one today but it’s too late to take photos – I’ll try tomorrow.
I added a vinyl ‘page’ pouch. Just because I always need more pockets. I was trying to figure out how to insert it into the spine seam that gets hand-sewn up. Next one, I am skipping the decor bond and inserting a peltex panel in through the spine seams after I finish sewing the zipper on the second side.
I only messed up twice. I mis-read the marking of the zipper and drew my second mark at 5 1/4″ after the first mark. It all worked out. The second one was putting in the slip pocket upside-down – oops.
I did add SF101 to the spine – I wish that was stiffer. Anyway – in the next week, I’ll throw a blog post up.
The zipper measurement was spot on. The next one I will have to do the math as I don’t own a sketch book this size. Or go shopping for one.
Thanks. Fab tutorial!
Fantastic! I’m so glad the pattern worked out for you 😀 I had to do a lot of tweaking myself to get the finished product you see now — and it really does depend on what you specifically need in a wallet. But that’s great that you were able to make it work for you. I hope future ones fit the sketchbook you need.
Thanks so much for letting me know how it turned out for you!
Okay – got my second one done today. I love it. Fits my idea of a sturdy zippered art wallet.
I showed both the first trial and the second. Awesome. Great pattern.
http://runningwithrocket.blogspot.com/2016/03/sketch-wallet.html
Oh wow! Those turned out beautifully! The way you’ve customized them for yourself is just fantastic 😀 Thanks so much for sharing the link!
I’m so glad the pattern worked out for what you needed 🙂
Thank you for posting such a great tutorial! I’ve been looking everywhere for this sort of wrap-around zipper idea and couldn’t find any. I’m going to give this pattern a try this weekend – I can’t wait!
Love the whole thing….except for one thing. Any way you can change the color of ink so that it prints black not gray for those of us with older eyes? That print is just impossible to read.
Thanks! I think if you’re familiar with your printer settings you can increase the print density, the dpi, or the print quality to make it print darker. But regardless of all that, I’ll definitely look into making the text darker in future patterns 🙂
This is exactly what I needed, specially since it comes with a tutorial – thank you so much!
Love this idea and needed something like this. However my sons sketchbook is bigger than this. His is 9×12”. Is it possible to make larger? Should I just enlarge the pattern pieces before printing or go you have a larger version already? Love your plushies by the way.
It is! Though it might come out a little floppy since it will be so much larger. Regardless, if you increase it by 210% the size should come out right 🙂 You’ll probably also need a wider zipper or to adjust the width of the zipper tab. I hope that helps!
That’s amazing help. I will try it. I’ll try a stiff stabilizer and probably handbag zipper that’s bigger. Thank you so much for the percentage amount. Huge help because it saved much trial and error.
Is there a video for this anywhere? I’m having a hard time getting through Step 7… Thanks!
Unfortunately there’s no video for this pattern 🙁 But this tutorial has some similar techniques: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukwr1j9NE4o
If you knew exactly where the issue was I can certainly do my best to clarify it!