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You are here: Home / Bags / The “Well Suited” Pleated Clutch Wallet (plus brief How-To!)

The “Well Suited” Pleated Clutch Wallet (plus brief How-To!)

March 15, 2012 by Jodi 27 Comments

I love it when an idea gets out of my head and into fabric. 

I’ve been mulling over this idea for a good while. My husband and I are “cash envelope”, “zero-balance” budgeting types, which means I carry a lot of small bills in my wallet.  I keep the categories of cash separate with binder clips. (Oh, how I love my binder clips.)

The wallet’s roomy center section works well for those wads of bills, checkbooks, and things. And, of course, it has a spot for my iPod and cellphone, and a zippered pouch for change…

and eight pockets for IDs and debit cards.

Is it a wallet? A clutch? A purse?

Do I wear it cross-body, or hanging from my wrist?

It depends what I am doing, and who I am doing it with. It can tuck away in diaper bag, or be the star of the show when I’m kid-free.

How-To

I don’t have the time to come up a printable pattern right now. So, instead of making you wait forever, I thought I could just show you the rough idea of how it comes together. I would be happy to answer any questions you have about it too.

The finished wallet is 8 inches wide, 4 inches high, and 2 inches deep. The body of the wallet looks like this (without seam allowances).

For the outside, I used a lightweight polyester suiting, spiffed up with pleats and buttons.

The inside is some pretty quilting cotton.

And between those two, of course, is interfacing and stabilizer. (I don’t use stabilizer on the sides. In hindsight, I would recommend a fusible fleece instead. The stabilizer is just a bit too stiff for this project.)

I made two 4 inch by 8 inch dividers. One zippered…

and one with 8 card pockets, both with interfacing and stabilizer inside to give them oomph.

It turns out all that interfacing and stabilizer was too stiff to sew through. No kidding. 🙂 So, I used rivets to attach the dividers to the wallet body, and to attach some D-rings for the strap.

I harvested the hardware for the straps from the sweet garage sale Purse Pickin’s, but you can find similar stuff on Etsy.

Gray + Yellow : Pretty Buttons : Purse Sewing
Rivets : Recycled Hardware: A bit of Fabric Origami

What’s not to love?

To give credit where credit is due: this wallet was inspired by Cotton Purr’s lovelies. If you don’t want to sew you own wallet, I would definitely check out her shop. So much pretty there!

Filed Under: Bags, Women's Clothing Tagged With: clutch, envelope, envelope system, gray, homemade, purse, rivets, sewing, suiting, wallet, yellow

Previous Post: « Sewing the Lining (Sidekick Sew-along Day #5)
Next Post: Corner Patches and Piping (Sidekick Sew-along Day #6) »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Karen says

    March 15, 2012 at 8:30 am

    Wow and wow. So impressed! Beautifully done!

    Reply
  2. Catrin says

    March 15, 2012 at 8:36 am

    Wow, this is gorgeous. I love it. Especially the fabric choice you made.
    Greetings from Germany
    Catrin

    Reply
  3. Emily says

    March 15, 2012 at 8:41 am

    Love. Love love love.

    Reply
  4. Angela says

    March 15, 2012 at 9:48 am

    I hope someday you can find time for a pattern. I’ve been wanting a cross body wallet to make for myself and for the women in my life for Xmas.

    Reply
    • Jodi says

      March 15, 2012 at 10:05 am

      All the dimensions are listed on the picture of the pattern. You could draw one out for yourself. 🙂

      I do hope to make an easy printable one though. Someday…

      Reply
      • angela says

        March 16, 2012 at 9:02 pm

        maybe I’ll give it a try. Do you have pattern suggestions for the inserts?

      • angela says

        March 16, 2012 at 9:05 pm

        the body is easy to make out – but the sides are a little confusing. Can you explain that a bit more?

      • Jodi says

        March 16, 2012 at 9:17 pm

        I would make the zippered pouch kinda like this one except with finished dimensions of 8 by 4 inches. http://flossieteacakes.blogspot.com/2009/05/lined-zippered-pouch-make-up-bag.html

        And add extra interfacing to the outside pieces to give them body. I used my favorite stabilizer too, but I think A fusible fleece might have worked better.

        Something like this will work for the credit cards. http://nancyscouture.blogspot.com/2011/03/so-many-cards-so-little-room.html
        I fit 4 rows of pockets (2 cross), with extra room on the sides.

      • Jodi says

        March 16, 2012 at 9:29 pm

        If you look at the picture of the brown paper pattern piece, you can see some red lines branching off at 60 angles from the rectangle labeled “bottom”. The sides of the body fold up, and are “pinched” around the sides of the insert, either sew or rivet in place. Amy Butler’s blossom bag uses this method to attach her inserts. http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/2010/09/free-amy-butler-pattern-blossom-handbagshoulder-bag/

        I recommend drawing out the body pattern onto a brown paper bag and cutting out 2 pieces of cardboard (4″x8″). Then, play around with the folding to see how it comes together. I love using brown paper and cardboard for my bag mockups. 🙂

        Clear as mud, right? sorry.

  5. Amy says

    March 15, 2012 at 5:06 pm

    I love this design! I just checked out Cotton Purr, and it took all my restraint not to put one of their similar wallets in my Etsy shopping cart. Maybe I’ll just have to make one up for myself! Thanks for the inspiration!

    Reply
  6. Angela says

    May 18, 2012 at 8:46 am

    Can you explain how you added the additional fabric for the pleats in the front flap?

    Reply
    • Jodi says

      May 18, 2012 at 7:08 pm

      I sewed the pleats onto a rectangle of fabric using a technique like this one. Then I sewed that rectangle onto a larger rectangle and cut out the wallet outside using the pattern.

      Reply
      • angela says

        May 30, 2012 at 10:49 pm

        thanks for answering all my questions!

  7. Alessandra says

    June 4, 2012 at 12:56 pm

    I LOVE THIS. It’s like all the cool details of so many many cool bags out their, but all in one. The pleats with the buttons! Well done you! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  8. Alessandra says

    June 4, 2012 at 12:57 pm

    THERE, not their. Ugh.

    Reply
  9. clara willis says

    December 28, 2013 at 12:06 pm

    I made a wallet with a card holder, check book holder, and a place for money but I still have to put it in a purse. I think you have a better idea than I had. I would like to thank you very much. I cant wait to set down and start sewing.

    Reply
  10. gina S. says

    April 16, 2014 at 3:01 pm

    This looks just line the Necessary Clutch Wallet from Emmiline Bags.

    Reply
    • Jodi says

      April 16, 2014 at 3:17 pm

      Gina, it is very similar in design. There are a number of accordion style clutch wallets being made, and patterns that are released these days. Neither, Janelle or myself were the first to come up with this style and we won’t be the last. Janelle released her pattern after this blog post, but she designed it before she saw this one. And when I saw that she had released her’s, I decided to drop my plans to develop my pattern further, and just refer any requests for this pattern her way. Janelle and I have met since the release of her pattern and became friends. We have no bad feelings with any of this.

      Reply
      • Gina S. says

        April 17, 2014 at 6:24 am

        Yes it is. Janelle shows a small clutch that gave her the idea to make a larger one. Also says your a very nice person! I do like the pleating on your clutch and it would be another way to switch up the wallet. 🙂 There is a FB group that make her clutches and you should see how many ways the ladies have changed or added to it.

  11. Sandra says

    November 18, 2014 at 8:15 pm

    Thank you so much for sharing this! I had the best time making it. Posted on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/96670716077/permalink/10152415043911078/
    Wish I had used stiffer interfacing, but this is the wallet of my dreams! Thanks again!!!

    Reply
  12. Валентина says

    September 28, 2016 at 8:56 am

    А в сантиметрах сколько это будет?дюймы не знаю..спасибо.

    Reply
  13. Pam says

    December 25, 2019 at 10:56 am

    Beautiful! Do you sew it with a regular sewing machine or an industrial sewing machine?
    Merry Christmas!
    Pam

    Reply
    • Jodi says

      January 14, 2020 at 1:57 pm

      I use a home machine with a strong needle. I am definitely pushing the limits of its capabilities with this project.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. FabMo: Building a Stash in an Afternoon « Sew Well says:
    April 8, 2012 at 3:25 pm

    […] were small designer samples, perfect for wallets and bags. I’d love to make myself a nice clutch wallet, and these smaller pieces would be perfect. But, since I haven’t even made the gift clutches […]

    Reply
  2. Tutorial - How to Install Metal Rivets - Sew Fearless says:
    October 15, 2012 at 1:19 pm

    […] than your sewing machine can handle, or the location is prohibitive to sewing. I used them for my Pleated Clutch Wallet because it was making my machine cry like a […]

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  3. Sewing the Handle (my favorite bag strap method) (Sidekick Sew-along Day #7) says:
    April 9, 2013 at 9:33 pm

    […] corners here. I used this method to make all the straps on my Mommy Poppins bag and the recent clutch wallet. They look sharp and stand up to daily-bag-use […]

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  4. Off to Sewing Summit! says:
    September 16, 2013 at 11:37 am

    […] might recognize the shape of this “pouch” as the same as my pleated wallet. I’ve modified the pattern to include piping, and swapped out the card insert for a second […]

    Reply

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