Today I’m bringing you my new favorite project – sewing handmade cork bifold wallets with the Cricut Maker!
My husband has been using the same wallet for as long as I’ve known him. I estimate that it’s at least 15 years old – and it shows! I’ve been tired of looking at it for quite some time, but I couldn’t find exactly the right type to buy him. So, I finally decided to just sew him a new wallet!
I thought about sewing it out of leather or cotton fabric, but then I decided I’d rather use a less conventional material – cork!
I purchased the Bifold Wallet Pattern from SewGnar. This is a new-to-me company that sells mostly wallets and patterns to make those wallets. I was a little nervous because I didn’t see very many finished products online in my search, so I wasn’t sure how the pattern would be.
But I definitely didn’t need to be nervous. In short, I loved this pattern. The pattern is very easy to follow and has the measurements listed for each piece so no printing is necessary (though there are pattern pieces for the pockets, if you do want to print them out instead of measuring).
I got the cork fabric from Pacific Fabrics yesterday afternoon, purchased the pattern at 7:30pm, ate dinner and had the wallet sewn up before 9:30pm. It’s a very quick sew! And my husband loves his new wallet. (And I love not looking at the old one anymore…)
I enjoyed sewing my husband’s new wallet so much last night that I decided I wanted to make one for myself tonight!
But this time, I decided to try cutting out the cork fabric with my Cricut Maker!
I got a Cricut Maker a few weeks ago, and I’ve been slowly playing with it and trying to figure out how to use it. It can do so many things – it’s a bit intimidating at first! But I’m starting to get the hang of it.
For this project, I created rectangles in the Cricut Design Space using the measurements listed in the pattern. I put the cork fabric face down on the pink mat, and I used the denim fabric setting for my Maker, which cuts with the rotary blade. It worked perfectly! The pieces were cut beautifully straight (and quickly!) without me having to measure them! And, the best part is, I now have my own Cricut Design file for whenever I want to sew up this pattern in the future.
And there will definitely be more wallets made in the future! Sewing with the cork itself was fairly straightforward – I used a denim needle, polyester thread, and just went slowly. And my Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.0 handled it like a pro.
Now that I know how to sew with cork (and how to make my own Cricut Design file!), I can’t wait to see what else I can make.