Introduction: How to Make a Shiny Duct Tape Trifold Wallet Using More Than Just Tape

By
About: I'm pretty much an all around person.


Tired of making ugly duct tape wallets, but still want that duct tape essence? Well here it is! My old wallet was trusty, but thick. The best option for a thin wallet was the all-ett billfolds, but i didn't want to spend $30 or wait for shipping! Unfortunately I've never made a duct tape wallet before nor a paper one, but that doesn't stop me! Well anyway being a novice, it took me one and a half hours but for you pros I bet a lot less.


Step 1: The Materials


For this step you will need:

-Duct tape
-Any other type of tape you want for designs and bordering or who knows what
-scissors (for cutting of course)
-something for the outside material of the wallet ( I used gift wrap)
-scotch tape
-a ruler, pencil (to draw and measure out wallet design)
-a idea of how your ideal wallet should look like. Maybe a stencil of your idea wallet size.
-clear plastic for id slot

Step 2: Cutting Out the Design.


For this step, you would want to cut out the design for your wallet. You just tape the duct tape and paste it over your intended cover design. I suggest something durable like metallic gift wrap which I used here. I made a dumb mistake by cutting out just a large rectangle instead of adding flaps. I didn't make a picture, but check out other duct tape wallet tutorials and you'll see what I mean. I just took some duct tape to make a piece of tape fabric twice as tall as it should be so that I can just fold it over. Notice that I added a little gap in the middle so that the wallet would fold easier.

P.S: the reason why the top of the wallet isn't bordered is because the edges of the square have extra gift wrap over the duct tape which i wrapped over... kinda hard to explain.. but it gives a better look with the same amount of durability, just adds about an extra millimeter.

Step 3: Adding the Middle Pocket.

I don't know the correct term for this pocket, but since it's in the middle of the tri-fold, I'll call it the middle pocket. Just cut out a piece of fabric a little wider (like 2-6mm depending on preferences) and tape it on. if you have flaps, this is where they come in handy; all you need to do it flip over the flaps and tape them. Unfortunately I didn't do that and had to have black tape bleed onto the outside of the wallet.

Make sure that you tape the top portion of the pocket with the tape going on the inside of the wallet so you can actually open it and put cash inside. I taped the middle according to the bottom diagram so that it would mostly remain silvery.

Note: add bordering so that the wallet won't fall apart like in 4 weeks.

Step 4: Making a Card Pocket.

In this step we add a card pocket to the wallet so that we can put cards in them or photos.

Get two pieces of the excess material from your excess material pile and cut two pieces out. The first one should be about 1 cm less wide and the 2nd one should be about another cm thinner. So you have two pieces one which is less wide than the other. Stick them together pretty much the same fashion as you did for the middle pocket.

Top Edge: Then attach the 1st(and wider) piece alone to the inside of the wallet with tape. Do that with the second piece as well (the shorter piece)

Bottom Edge (Easy Method): Do pretty much the same thing as the top edge.

Bottom Edge (Hard Method): This is when is gets a little tricky. So This is to avoid showing tape on the outside of the wallet. If you don't care that much then do it the easy way. What you have to do is to sandwich a piece of tape with the non sticky sides facing together on the inside. Then in order to keep the wallet tight and spiffy, you need some scotch tape. So get a piece and roll it up so that it's like a double-sided tape. (don't use double sided tape please) Then stick that between the non-sticky sides of your original tape used to tape the pocket on. Then your original tape should look like a double sided tape. With that tape put it on one side on the bottom edge and sandwich the upper and lower layers of your pockets together. Next you need to remove the scotch tape in between the original tape. Phew.. that was a lot. I only recommend this for the contact between the first pocket and the wallet, not between the smaller and large pockets.

Step 5: Identification Clear Plastic Thingy

So now you just add the clear plastic identification slot for cards and stuff... just make sure it's big enough to fit your card. You don't have to use my method, but I had to resort to this after my plastic was too small. I just took the plastic and stuck the bottom and top with tape. Amazingly, it works great. This is also the step when you stick the sides of the wallet together. Again if you made flaps.. It will probably look better and save you some time.

Step 6: You're Finished!


Enjoy you're great new wallet and show it off to your duck-tape wallet friends who will cry over their wallets' lack of functionality and style. (Just Kidding!!!!) So This is my first duct tape wallet, technically not one at all since purists will argue, but nevertheless a cool wallet. It's much thinner than my original one by like a factor of a thousand!!!! It's really about only 4mm thick and it's awesome. Tell me how everything goes if my instructions need any clarification. Have fun!