Step 2 (Making the Covers) Step 4 (Making the Clasp) 

Wallet Tutorial: Step 3 (Making the Interior)

Materials:

Prepping Fabric

TIP: I typically stiffen four or five fabric swatches a few days ahead of time because it's a somewhat lengthy and slightly messy process.

If you are using paper, you can proceed to Cutting the Fabric/Paper.

  1. Stiffen the cotton fabric. [Must it be cotton? Yes! I've not found another material that works well, although, of course, I've not tried every fabric type!] I buy fabric by quarters of a yard. The fabrics I buy are typically 45" wide resulting in 9" x 45" of fabric, which is enough for two interiors. I cut the fabric in half, giving me 9" x 22.5". I stiffen this amount and then I cut it to the needed dimensions as described in the next section.
  2. Using an old bowl or container, pour approximately 1/2 cup of Stiffy into the bowl. Loosely wad the fabric into a ball and place it in the container so that it is covered with Stiffy. You might want to let it sit several minutes to ensure the Stiffy soaks all the way through the fabric. The fabric needs to be thoroughly soaked with Stiffy.
  3. Squeeze the fabric in your hand to get the excess Stiffy out of the fabric. It should not be dripping Stiffy by the time you are done squeezing! I just squeeze the excess Stiffy back into the container for later use. Clean your old bowl/container before the Stiffy dries!
  4. Hang the fabric to dry for about an hour. It is STICKY and will dry hard. I tend to fold them over my towel rack in the bathroom and the front and back like to stick to each other. Make sure this doesn't happen or it will be annoying to have to pull them apart once they've dried.
  5. Once the fabric is completely dry check for any soft spots. If you find some, rub some Stiffy on that part and let it dry again. If there aren't any soft spots, go to the next item in the list!
  6. Iron the fabric. [This is the only ironing I actually enjoy! I hates me the ironing!] The fabric will soften as you iron it but will stiffen again upon cooling.

Note: Because the fabric has been stiffened, it shouldn't unravel so there is no need for any sort of hem!

Cutting the Fabric/Paper

Imprecise Fold
While your covers are baking offers you some time to work on the interior origami. I really enjoy this process, although it took me a bit of practice to understand how to fold the interior. I must emphasize the fact that precision is important, in both the cutting and the folding. I strongly suggest you practice first on some scrap paper (or at least inexpensive paper). Go through the entire cutting/folding process with the scrap/inexpensive paper so that you can see why precision is crucial.

Folding the Interior

My advice is to take this a step at a time! Yes, it's complicated, but you can do it! Also, don't just look at the images, read the instructions!

Tip: Use a bone folder at each fold to ensure crisp lines.

Note: The purple shaded side is the RIGHT side of the fabric/paper.

  1. Fold in half with right side in.
  2. Fold top flap over from right to left, having the right edge meet the center fold.
  3. Fold top flap over from left to right, having the left edge of the top flap meet the center fold.
  4. Unfold. The dashed lines show the fold lines you should have. Next, fold so that Line A meets Line B. This will divide Section C in half vertically.
  5. Turn the fabric/paper around. Repeat steps (a) through (d) for the other half of the fabric/paper. Unfold.
  6. Fanfolded Fabric
    Fold the paper into an accordion shape along the crease lines (like the fans you may have made of paper when you were a kid if you grew up without air conditioning!). The center fold will have to be folded in the other direction to accomplish this. When the fabric/paper is "relaxed" and just sitting on the work surface, it should look as shown in the inset photo to the right.
  7. Press the accordion "closed" and use the bone folder to make the folds extra-crisp! When "closed" you should only see the wrong side of the fabric/paper. The "A" section will have one side that is an edge and one side that is a fold. Starting with the "edge" side, fold as shown in the second image below. Note that folding down the two tabs will expose the right side of the fabric/paper.
  8. Open flap "A." This will expose section "B." Section "B" has a fold on the left. Fold section "B" as shown. You will be folding through TWO thicknesses of fabric/paper. Make certain these folds are crisp and ACCURATE.
  9. Repeat this process until you get to the very last section [labeled "H" in step (f)] (see first image below). Turn the fabric/paper over. Fold the tabs for section "H" as shown in the second image below.
  10. Unfold all this hard work except for the four corner tabs! The red and green dashed lines represent fold lines. Refold into an accordion shape along the green lines while "pushing in" along the red lines. The problem with the red lines is every other one is folded in the opposite direction, so it will take some coaxing to make it go the proper direction. The yellow triangles are the troublesome areas. While folding the fabric/ paper into the closed accordion position, press down on green folds in the yellow triangles, carefully (and precisely!) bending all the folds in the yellow triangles DOWN toward the wrong side of the fabric/paper.
    Fanfolded Fabric Revisited
  11. After the fabric/paper is in the closed accordion position, it should look like this:
  12. Open section "A" to the right--it should look like the first image below. Fold the triangular-shaped top down as shown in the second image. Do the same for the bottom flap (not shown). The tips of the folds will overlap.
    13. Finished Interior
  13. Open section "B" to the right (exposing sections "C" and "D"). Repeat the instructions in the previous step for sections "C" and "D" and all the remaining sections. Eventually your finished piece will look like this:

    It essentially looks like a little "book," with a front and a back. The covers will be glued to the front and back.
 Step 2 (Making the Covers) Step 4 (Making the Clasp)