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I lost my wallet in San Francisco a few months ago and have not wanted to buy a new one. As I was throwing a coffee bag away the other day, I thought it was good material for something or other so I saved it. While saving the 4 th bag, it shone in a glossy attractive way and I realized it could be my next wallet with a little folding and sewing.
Over 3 mornings of coffee, I designed a billfold that holds credit card and plenty of cash.
Great thing about this is it is camoflaged as trash so when you leave it at the counter of the In N' Out, people leave it alone thinking it's your trash, so when you go back later to find it because you forgot it, it will still be there!
I've sold several of these to people who want to give them as gifts to their friends who are hard to buy for... friends who don't like being bought for, so give them the gift of a handcrafted useful item made of shiny colorful trash that smells great and helps them make friends of the curious people attracted to their interesting money carriers.
Steps
1. open the bag
2. remove the vacuum belly button
3. practice folding to make sure you like how it'll look
4. sew (or duct tape) the hem
5. measure and sew the middle separator
6. measure and sew (or duct tape) the ends
7. attach velcro closure (optional)
8. fill with monies, calling cards
9. make friends with the curious admirers of your wallet!
Materials
1. coffee bag, at least 10" wide when opened
2. sewing machine (or duct tape + needle/thread)
3. duct tape
4. measuring device
5. velcro (optional)
Cost
Negative $7 (I've sold 6 of these, and one person offered me $10, but I would only take $7)
40 minutes for the first one, 15-20 minutes once you've made a few
This instructable has pics from making 3 different wallets...
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Signing UpStep 1A Foot of Bag
Measure the bag dimensions. Carefully cut the bag to be 12" wide (as you are reading bag text).
The Dunkin Donuts bags are already exactly 12" wide.
You should have at least 9" in the other direction (don't need to cut down to 9 inches, the excess gets cut off later).
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First, I sewed two bags together to make a larger fabric from which to cut the pattern.
Secondly, despite numerous attempts to use a practice sheet of paper, I could not figure out how to get the design where I wanted it on the finished piece. So, I constructed this backward. That is, I folded the design where I wanted it to be on the finished wallet, and then I folded the top, bottom and insides. Here is the wallet. If you have any questions, let me know, and I'll make an instructable.
Boning is to use a smooth implement to make a strong crease on your paper, coffee bag, card, etc.
Burnishing is to rub a smooth implement onto an image to 'shine" or polish the image.
Love these wallets however I must admit I find the written directions a bit complicated and have referred to the pictures for my instructions.
But this has worked out great. I needed a wallet and this was a handy one to make quickly. Plus it is durable and smells fantastic!
I zigzag stitched my edges and then cut close to the stitching. I wanted something a bit more finished looking than the simple cut edges.
And you're right. It draws attention. I got a lot of comments from the folks at Starbucks.
Great work