How to Make an Oilcloth Wallet

I've been looking for a good oil cloth wallet pattern, one where you don't have to turn it inside out. Oil cloth can be a little bit stiff to work with, and I couldn't quite find one that I really liked, so I made one, and this is it. And I'm going to teach you how to do it. I really enjoy working with oil cloth. It's a lot more affordable than a cotton based fabric these days, and it comes in all these great fun color reproductions. So let's get right to it. The first pieces that we are going to do are going to be the pockets that hold the credit cards and the cash. So if I turn these over, you'll see that I've just written in Sharpie on the back so that I can identify which pieces are which. And on pocket A and pocket B, I've already folded it over a half of an inch and done my top stitch. We still need to do that on pocket C, so I'm going to show you how that works. We're just going to fold this top piece down about a half an inch. I'm just going to use my ruler here to make sure, and we're going to finger press it. You don't want to press it with an iron because it will melt, so finger pressing works just fine as well. Now, to hold it into place, you can use pins if you would like, but you tend to bend pins 'cause it's a little tough to get this through, so I like to use paper clips, or binder clips work as well, and we'll be using some of those later. So we're just going to put a couple of paper clips on the top here so that it holds in place. And you don't want to put your paper clip down too far because then, you know, this little metal piece will get stuck, and it'll be hard to remove as you're sewing. So we're going to bring the machine over here. And I like to sew on the front side. I just feel like the bobbin stitch doesn't exactly look as great as the top stitch. So we're going to slide this under here, and I am just going to sew very close to my top edge. And you don't need to back stitch here because you're going to be stitching another seam across this one. And you'll see, I'm just going to remove the paperclips as I go, stitching very close to the top until we get all the way across. Now, oilcloth can be a little bit sticky, which makes it kind of tough to sew with. At this point, I have the shiny part up, and I have the rough part down, so it's sliding really nicely across my machine. But when you're sewing with it, and you feel like it's sticking, and the needle is sewing in one place for quite a while, you just to lift the edges like this and kind of keep them out of the way and that way it will smoothly go over the machine instead of sticking so badly. Alright. So we're going to pull this out, and we'll clip our threads. Move this guy back out of the way. And now you can see I've made a really nice top stitch right across the front there. So now we're going to, this is piece C, pocket C, we're going to take pocket B, and we're going to put it right on top like this. Because we've got a couple layers of credit cards in here, we are going to make a little seam right down the middle. So here we go again with our paper clips. I'm just going to paper clip that side. Line up my raw edges at the bottom. Paperclip that side. Now we need to find the middle. I'm going to sew a line right up the center. Actually, before I do that, if I put my credit card down in here all the way to the bottom, it's going to sink all the way down, so I actually have to do a little bit of a stay stitch right here before we can move on. So I have this in place, and I'm going to pull my sewing machine back over. And I am going to stitch a three quarter inch seam right over here. So if I use my... It's right about in here, and if you use your card, you'll be able to see that if you slide it down there, you'll still have a little bit of your card sticking out so that you can retrieve it. So now that we know where our line's going to be, let's bring it over here, and we're going to put it under the machine. And I'm just going to do a little double checking. I'm going to line this up with my needle so I can tell. And it looks like this particular line right here is exactly three quarters of an inch away from my needle, so that is the line that we are going to use. So let's put our foot down, and we're going to sew all the way across. We're going to just watch the edge of our fabric with that line, so we sew a nice straight line all the way across. And again, we're sewing with the backside, the rough side, down. So you shouldn't have too much of a problem with it sticking to the machine. Alright. Now we're done. You can see our little line has been drawn so that our credit cards won't slip in. Let's trim the threads. We'll move this guy out of the way. And let's just test it to make sure it works. Perfect. Okay, now we want to divide these into two separate pockets, so we're going to so a line right up the center of this. So we're going to add pocket C, or sorry pocket A into the front of this like this. So now you can't see that seam that you've just done. And we're going to clip this at the side. Hold them all together. Line up my edges a little better there. Looks great. And we'll do the same over here. Alright. It's very tough to draw lines on oil cloth like you would do with a chalk pencil or an iron off pen in regular sewing with regular fabric, so we are actually going to use sticky notes. So I'll show you my little trick here. I'm just going to grab my pattern piece here, and I'm going to hold it on top here. I have a middle line, so instead of having to measure, I am just going to put a little pin right here at the center line where I'm going to end, and then down here, I'm also going to find the center line at the bottom where I'm going to start just like that. Now, to meet the two, usually you would put your ruler down, and you would use a chalk pencil to draw the line, but it doesn't really work very well on oil cloth. However, a sticky note works wonderfully. I am just going to take this sticky note, and I'm going to meet the pins, and then I'm going to start here, and I'm going to sew next to the sticky note all the way down. If you're really good at sewing, you can eyeball it, but I seem to wander all over the place, so I definitely need something to help guide me. So now, I am going to put this under here, and I'm going to line up my needle right where I want it to start, and you can use your flywheel to get a real accurate start. And you're going to go forward for a couple and then you're going to do your back stitch so it's nice and sturdy. And then you're going to sew all the way across all the layers. And if you sew a little bit of the sticky note, it's not a huge disaster. We're gonna do our back stitch at the end, and then we're going so forward all the way off the end of the project. Alright. So I'm going to clip my threads here, and move this guy out of the way. And when I remove my sticky note, I have a perfectly straight line right down the center. And I can remove these clips 'cause now it's being held together. So we also need to do this for the other side. But on this side, I want a little pocket for my cash right here, so I'm not going to sew all of the layers together. I'm only going to do that with A and B. And you'll see that I've already got that piece done right here. Then we're going to take our finished C piece, and put that behind. And now we are going to clip these together. Put a little clip there and a little clip there. And now we have our two pocket sets. So the next part is you're going to take your lining piece, and notice I've written lining piece on it. And I also do this so that I can make sure that it's because this isn't square. I know which way is up. So I'm going to take my pieces, and I'm going to line the raw edges of my pocket up with one side. I'm going to flip this guy around and line him up with this side. And this time, we're going to use a couple of binder clips to hold this in place, just because you can get through several more layers this way. So binder clips are very helpful. Binder clips, I also use when I am doing other types of projects where there's several layers of fusible fleece, just because I find I'm just bending pins all the time trying to get the pins through, and the binder clips just work so much better. Alright. So we now have the inside pocket done. In order to work with this comfortably, we want to baste this whole entire thing together. So we're going to sew a very thin seam. It can just be under a quarter of an inch is fine, just enough to go right along the edge. And sew all the way around to sew these pieces together. What you get in the end looks like this. So here we've got all of our pockets all sewn together just like that. And it's just basted around the edge. Now, when we do a basting stitch, if you can see the stitch, you can see it's very, very long. I've set my stitch length to the longest stitch possible. This doesn't really need to be firm and hold the wallet together. We're going to do a final stitch after that that's going to be on this side of it. This just needs to hold it in place. It's basically like using pins. It's just a lot more convenient than pins. So now that we've got that piece done, we are going to install our snaps. I have two magnetic snaps here, and we are going to install these onto the pieces. I'm going to grab my strap piece. And I'm also going to grab my backing piece. And on the pattern pieces, there are, you actually cut a circle out of the pattern piece so that you can in turn trace the circle onto your pattern. But then I wrote a little note here that says, "do not cut," because guess what? I cut it, and I cut a hole in there. We actually don't want to cut this hole out. We just want to mark it because we're going to take the little backing that goes on this magnet, and we're going to set it right there in that circle, just like that. Then you're going to take a pen and holding it still and upright, you're going to draw a line inside this little metal piece, just like that so you know where to seam rip it. And then you're going to move this one over there, and we're going to do the same thing here. We're just going to draw our little lines so we know where to seam rip. I'll set that aside. Now seam ripping, you have to be gentle with it. These are very, very sharp right here where we're going to use to cut. And it's very easy to get excited and cut way too far into the project, so use some restraint when you're doing this. We're just going to gently slip this edge right under the oil cloth, and oil cloth is also a lot thinner than regular fabric and it rips even easier. And we're just going to go very carefully and cut all the way to the end, and that's all we need. So we're going to do the same with this one. And we're going to repeat this process on our strap piece as well. Cut that one, and then we're going to cut that one. Perfect. Okay. So we're going to use the thinner of the two pieces of the snap. This one has some bulk to it if you look at the two sideways. So we're gonna use the thinner one on the strap. So we're just going to flip this over, and we're going to put the two ends of the bread through that strip like that. And then we're going to put the backing on like this. And let's do the same with this one. We're just going to flip this over. Pass that into the little holes like that. And then we're going to put this on. Now, the best way to bend these is out like this. I'm just going to push these down to hold my snap in place, just like that. Make it nice and flat. Okay. Now with this one, if we push these out too far, we're going to have to top stitch really close to this. So just to be safe on this guy, we're going to bend them in like this. Push that one down so it doesn't come up. Perfect. And now, your snap is installed. So we're going to put this piece aside for the moment, and we're going to make our strap. So once your snap is installed, we're ready to go ahead and fold the long edges of your strap over. And we're going to make sure that it is about a half of an inch, and that looks pretty good. So I am just going to again use my paperclips to kind of hold this in place. One there and one there, and then I'm going to turn it, and I'm going to do the other side, just like this. Once I have these fairly well finger pressed, I'm going to fold the entire thing in half, and it might take a little bit of finagling to get it just right, but we're going to fold this whole thing, trying to keep your fold as best you can, in half like this. And then we're going to take a binder clip, and we're going to clip it just like that. Once it's clipped, you can remove these because it's pretty well folded over, and oil cloth's great. It holds it's shape just because it has so much sturdiness to it. And there is your strap. Now, we are going to the top stitch around. We're going to start down here, and we're going to go up the side and across and down. And you'll notice that we don't have a whole lot of room to sneak by either side or the top here, so we're going to have to switch to our zipper foot and go very, very carefully and slowly. So bring the machine over, and I'm going to take this foot off, and I'm going to put my zipper foot on. Now, the reason I like the zipper foot is because it's so very, very thin. There's not a whole lot of bulk from this foot over on the left-hand side, which is going to be important for this step. So I'm just going to move this out of the way a little bit so that I have a starting point just like this. And I'm going to move my needle all the way over to the left. I want it to be as close to the end of the foot as possible so that way we can sneak right by this zipper as we get there. Okay, so let's lower our foot. And you're going to sew forward a little bit, and you're going to have to do your back stitch as well. The raw edge of this is going to be showing, so a back stitch here is important. Okay. Now we're going to sew, and you can see how I'm just barely sewing here. And this is a little bit sticky on my machine at the moment, so I'm just going to put my fingers on the back, and I'm not going to pull so that my stitch length is longer. I'm just going to pull gently in rhythm with the machine so that I'm kind of helping it sneak by. Put my needle down here. Alright, now I'm ready to turn, and I'm going to go across the other way. And you can see how this foot is nice and thin, and it just barely sneaks by that snap. We're just going to tip toe right by it. And then we're going to turn, and we're going to do this last edge. See, can you see how it's sticking a little? So I'm just going to remove this binder clip so I can hold it. And I'm just going to give it a little firm tug, tugging with the feet as they, the feed dogs, as they take the fabric. We're going to get all the way to the end, and then we're going to do a little back stitch. And now we're going to sew forward all the way off the end. Alright. So I left my needle here. Now we're done. Clip the ends here. Clip the ends here. And now you can see we've got a very nice top stitched edge strap. And we didn't even break a needle on the snap. Yay. Okay. So now that our strap is done, it's time to install our welted zipper on the back. So we're going to move this guy out of the way. We're going to take this piece that we've installed our snap into, and we're going to put our zipper in here. So there needs to be a pocket to catch all of the change behind here, so we've got a piece called the zipper lining, and we're going to put this face up on the back just like this. We're going to line up those windows that we've cut out of here. And this is where you have to get out your set of your least favorite pins because you actually have to use real pins this time, and they can bend sort of easily. So I'm going to put that one there. And we're going to put this one here, just to hold the whole thing in place. And I want to be able to see the heads when I turn it over, so I like to get them so that they're sticking out the side here, just like that. And we'll flip it around, and I'll do the same here. Now, this hole right here that's on your pattern is meant for a seven inch zipper, but you don't necessarily have to use a seven inch zipper. This one's a nine, so I'm going to show you how you can shorten the zipper for the project that you're doing. So now you're going to turn this guy over so he is right side up. You're going to lay your zipper down on the table, and then you're going to center your window. Let me move this guy that way. You're going to center this little window above the zipper like that. Now this is a little bit difficult because this hole that you've cut can get wider if you pull too hard. Like I said, it's a lot easier with oil cloth because it holds its shape really well, but just to be careful as you're doing this. So I'm going to pin the top first. I'm going to take a pin, and I'm going to go in through all the layers and then come out through the side here. And I'm just going to pin around the mouth of the zipper because we're going to top stitch it. So let me grab another pin, and I'm going to put this over here and just get everything pinned up nice. Now, I have my pins on the top facing to the left. Then I'm going to pivot this around, and I'm going to pin upside down so that the pins are opposite on the bottom. The reason why is I'm going to start sewing here, and I'm going to sew this way. This will allow me to easily pull my pins out as I'm going so I don't get that awkward backward pin, and then there's an injury and that's never good. Okay, so we're going to put that one there, like that. Let's just put one more over here for good measure. Okay, now let's refer to our finished wallet. Let me flip this guy over. And if you look right here, you'll notice that our handle has an unfinished edge. We talked about oil cloth doesn't need to have a finished edge on it. Because it's a laminate, there's no cotton in it. It won't fray, so you can just cut it and be done with it. It's really wonderful. So we've lined that edge up, and you can see as we top stitch around our entire zipper, we're also catching the strap. And then later in a later step, we do another one up here when we top stitch the entire wallet, so now it's really sturdy in there. So after you first do this step, this might be a little bit floppy, but don't worry. We're going to nail it down a little better later. So now what we're going to do is we're going to take this guy and making sure that your snap front is face down, we're going to center him onto the project. And I'm lining up the raw edge of my strap with the raw edge of the window that I've cut out of the zipper. Now this is a lot of layers to pin through, so this is my pins are bent, because I love oil cloth and I sew with it all the time. So I'm going to kind of jam this guy all the way through all of the layers and then carefully kind of get him to come back out just like that. And now my strap is in place. Now we're going to top stitch this entire thing all the way around. So let's pull this over here. We've already got our zipper foot on. Get my threads out of the way here. Okay. So of course, we want to do the handle first because it's kind of a scary part. So we're just going to get this guy under here, just like this. And I want to start right before the strap so that we can just get it done. So I'm going to line up the edge of my foot right here with the edge of my fabric. That looks like a pretty good top stitch. I'm going to lower my foot. And now I have a pin right here, which now that I have pressure, I can pull this pin out. And I'm not going to backstage just yet because I'm going to go all the way around in a big circle or a square in this case. I'm going to meet my original stitching. I'm going to go over it for about five stitches, and then I'm going to do my backstitch. That'll prevent so much bulk from hanging out. Okay. So we're about to sew the strap. Now, my machine is already bulking because my presser foot is pushing down. So sometimes it's nice to lift your foot, kind of get it settled under there, and then you can lower your foot again so that the foot can drive easily on top of the strap. The other thing that we want to note right now is that there is a lot of bulk that we're about to sew through, so you really want to turn your tension on your machine to a higher number. I have mine on seven right now. You can turn it up to eight if you'd like as well, and that will help get through the layers without causing problems. And you don't necessarily need a special needle to sew with oil cloth. I find that a regular cloth needle works just fine as long as it's sharp. The sharper the needle, the less stress it's going to put on the motor of your machine. Okay. So we're going to sew all the way to the end of the zipper here. Let me get my needle down. Now, I'm going to turn my corner. I'm going to pull this pin out, and I'm going to pivot the work like this. So my zipper is quite a bit too long for this project, and it looks like I'm going to have to sew across the zipper teeth. Now these are polyester teeth, so it's not a big deal if you sew across it. But if you use your pedal, there's a good chance you could break your needle just because the needle is going so fast. So I just use the flywheel on the side, and you always want to turn it towards you, with the top towards you. And you'll see here, I'm about to put the needle right through the middle of the zipper teeth. And if you just go very slowly, those teeth will separate, and they will let the needle pass right through. And then I'm just, because I have such a short amount, we're just going to use the flywheel all the way, and then I'm going to turn, and now I can finish my other side. Remove my pin here. See how nice it is when your pins are turned the right way? It's kind of nice to take the time to position your pins the right direction. It just makes life easier when you're sewing. Okay. There's another pin. Pull that out. And I thoroughly bent it. Okay. So here's another trick. Now we are very close to the zipper head. A lot of times, if you have a thicker zipper foot, it doesn't really allow you to get past this very easily. So what I like to do is I like to put my foot in the air, leaving my needle in, I pivot, and then I grab the zipper, and I just gently open it like this. Now, if I turn back and I lower my foot, I can continue, and I don't have the zipper head threatening to be in the way of my foot as I sew past it. So I'm going to sew right down to here. And then I'm going to turn this corner again. We're going to sew across this end. And then we're going to just finish where we started. So on this last end, I'm now aiming for my original seam. I'm going to sew over that seam for a few stitches, just like that. And then I'm going to do my back stitch. Alright. And then we'll lift our needle, and pull this guy out like this. Trim the threads, and then I'll show you the finished product. It just looks great. So let's move this guy out of the way so you can see. And I don't need this pin anymore, and I don't need these either. And now you can see we have a very lovely zipper that goes to nowhere. So this is where we need the other part of the back of this pocket. So we're going to flip this guy over like this. Some extra pins hanging out there. And we also don't need all the rest of this zipper, so we're just going to cut the rest of that zipper off. We're just gonna cut it like this. Now, please be sure, if you're using your really expensive sewing sheers, that these are polyester teeth, or try to keep a set around that is meant for cutting paper and things like this. I have a pair of kitchen scissors that you use to cut chicken, and I use those all the time for my sewing projects. Okay. So now this zipper basically goes to nowhere. We need a backing here. So in your pattern, you will have cut another piece of the zipper lining that does not have the hole in it. So what you're going to do now is you're going to place these right sides together. You're going to scoop this up, and again, this is no fun with the pins, but just go slowly and carefully. And you're going to pin all the way around this zipper piece so that we've got a pocket on the back like this. And you're going to do this all the way around. And when you sew it, you're going to turn it over, and you're just going to move this out of the way. And you're only going to sew on these pieces. And then when you get here, you'll pull this out of the way and sew down, and then you'll move over and pull this out of the way. This way you don't get any of the front of it in the project, and then you get a finished product that looks like this. And you can see we've sewn all the way around, and we haven't caught the outside, so it's freed. And now when we open our zipper, we actually have a pocket in there that will hold things. Alright. So we are now ready to put the inside and the outside together and finish our project. So we're going to turn this guy over, and we're going to take our basted pocket piece. And there's really no up or down to this guy, so you can just kind of put them in there like this. And what I'm being careful to do here is to make sure that I have about a half an inch all the way around. Okay. And this is where we're going to need our paper clips or binder clips, or even better if you've got them. So I'm just going to this sideways. I'm going to fold this over onto the wallet, and I'm going to clip it just like that. We're going to do this all the way around. Now your corners, you can decide how you want to do it. You can fold it like this, and you can fold it over like that, but that kind of shows a little bit of the edge, so here's what I like to do. I like to do a mitered corner. We're going to push this in on a diagonal, and then, being really tricky, you're going to push this one in like that. And then we're going to take a paperclip and put it into place. And then on this side, we're going to do the same. Flatten it out nice and even, and then we're going to just fold it over just like this. and put a clip right in it, just like that. So you're going to continue to do this all the way around the project. Oops, let me do my corner first here. I think the corners are a little easier to do if you do those first and foremost. So let's clip that one. We're going to go ahead and fold this one over as well. Now, sewing with oil cloth, you can see how it's a little bit sticky. When you sew with a cotton laminate, I feel like it sticks even worse. So some of the tricks I do, the best thing to do would be to use a Teflon foot if you can get your hands on one. I personally don't own a Teflon foot, so my favorite trick is putting a piece of scotch tape on the bottom of my presser foot so that it slides nice and easy over the oil cloth or the laminate, and it doesn't get stuck. The other thing I've been known to do is when I so with clear vinyl, I've made some grocery bags before that have a clear vinyl lining inside them, and they're very nice, but it's really difficult to sew with the clear vinyl. So that one also, it sticks to your foot pretty bad, but it also sticks to the machine pretty badly. So what I've done with that one is I just took pieces of computer paper, and I taped them over the base part of my machine there so that the plastic didn't have anything to bite on as it was going across, and it just slid across really nicely. And the other thing I've done with slick fabrics is the vinyl, when you buy vinyl from the store, so that it doesn't get scratched, it comes with a piece of paper already backing it. And I've just used the piece of paper and sewn right on top of it, and then you just tear it away when you're done. And you don't even have to spend any extra money on tearaway paper. Works great. Alright. So now you can see our entire project is paper-clipped all the way around, and now we're going to top stitch it. And again, we have an unfinished edge here, but it's not to worry. And I like this design better because not anywhere in this project did we turn anything inside out. We didn't sew it face-to-face and turn it inside out. When you do that with oil cloth, that leaves a big bunch of bulk. So with project this small, that's very noticeable. So this way we're almost binding it kind of like a quilt, and this works a lot better. So let's sew this guy up. Alright, we're going to put him under here. And I like to start right in the middle of a long edge, just so that I've got plenty of room to backstitch. And I'm going to lower my foot onto my project. And again, you don't have to, oops, I'm starting on a back stitch. You don't have to backstitch, even though I just did, because we're going to go in a great big circle, and you're going to go over your original stitching for about five stitches and then back stitch. So again, this is a whole lot of layers to sew through, so if you just go nice and slow and make sure that your tension is up, I kind of slipped out of here a little bit. If you just make sure your tension is up nice and high, then you should be just fine. Let's put the needle down. Alright, we're going to turn our corner here. I'm going to remove this guy. We're going to sew all the way across this long side. Now, we're coming to the strap. Now we're really adding some layers. So when you're doing the strap, I'm going to hold it from the back a little, just so I can kind of get in rhythm with the machine and sew it nicely. I'm going to pull my pin. I'm just going to make sure that I'm holding it nice and straight. I don't want to tug, I want it to lay nice and flat, and then I'm just going to hold it in place. There's no need to even bother trying to pin this 'cause it would just be a mess. And just go nice and slow because you're going through a whole lot of layers. And look, I'm just using a regular needle, and it goes through just fine. It's not a problem. Okay, so we're going to sew all the way to the edge here. Make sure to remove my clips as I go. Alright, turn this corner. Okay. Now, there's a big piece of bulk right here. It's my zipper. When you get to that, you just reach under, and you unzip it, and then everything will flatten out nicely. The zipper heads move pretty nicely. I do that a lot when I'm sewing skirts too. I always make sure to just move the zipper head out of the way before I try to sew past it. That way you don't have a nice stitch on the front that looks like you've veered around a zipper head. You just unzipped it and got it out of the way, so it's not even an issue. And again, we're sewing through a lot of layers here, so just go nice and slow. Oops, I got that guy stuck. Turn another corner here. And oil cloth comes in, I can't even think of how many different fabrics that they're currently making oil cloth in, but it is definitely gaining in popularity. And like I said, it's so affordable, which just makes it so great. Now, I'm coming up on my snap under here, so I just want to kind of lean this guy this way so that he's out of the way and I don't end up sewing on him and breaking a needle. But you can sneak just past him like this. Get my thread out of the way here. I'm going to turn our last corner. Slide our last two clips out of the way. Finish up this one side, and now we're going to aim for our original stitch. We're going to go over it for a few stitches. Then we're going to do our backstitch, and then we're going to pull it out. Oops, lift our needle. That would help. Alright. Move this guy out of the way. Find my scissors. Alright, let's trim this guy off just like this. And now we are all done. And you've got a really adorable oil cloth wallet that is all your own, that snaps and has a little zipper for your change purse, and it was just as easy as that.