Of the manly kind {sewing}

The passport wallet is done. That took nearly the whole of the closing Olympic ceremony to finish it off (you know the one that was never ending). And I love it!

The different fabrics I used are as follows: the 'newspaper' fabric is from the Etsy shop of Stefaniexu, the blue one is Lotta Jansdotter's Ruta in navy (I love her range) and the third one is from the Washi range designed by Rashida Coleman-Hale (Star flower in charcoal). So basically some of my favourite designers in a wallet!

I loved making the wallet. Firstly the pattern from One Shabby Chick is brilliantly written with loads of pictures - just in case you are a bit confused with just seeing written out (or not reading the instructions). Then I learnt a lot from it. I have not that much top stitching before - and it was  a great exercise. I loved how the binding of the wallet was done, I found it so clever. I did change the closing with a big press stud - because that is all I had handy at 11pm. 

The only thing I would do differently is that at some point I had to stitch through many layers of fabrics (I think 6). After talking to Kelly, it seems that I should have changed the size of the needle (it may have written in the instructions to be fair,but see point on reading instructions). Anyway I would not have the energy to do it. If you have the energy, do it - change the needle when it comes to top-stitching the whole thing, it will look better.

All in all a very interesting project, that happens to bring something useful to the house - we actually know where our passports are now (except that I have not found the British one still) - very useful! So you remember that I had Mr MiH in mind in making this, and that it needed to be manly. I am not sure Mr MiH agrees it is manly, but is happy to carry it. Result!

Preparations

It is Wednesday and I think I am getting the hang of WIP Wednesday and trying to schedule my new projects accordingly. We are off on holiday soon, and that only means one thing, I need to get ready, so ... 

I clearly need a new passport wallet. 

Mr MiH has his very own, but tends to carry my wallet as well - and I am assuming this will mean the baby's one in the future.So the fabric choice needed to be 'manly', Mr MiH would refuse to carry the passports otherwise - and he is providing a valuable service (i.e. it is not my fault if we lose them, and he runs much faster than me if there is a problem). 

I bought the pattern at One Shabby Chick's Etsy store, after seeing Kelly's one. You can see my choice of fabric on the left hand-side corner of the picture. It is all cut and I am ready to start with the instructions, loads of pictures so should be straight forward. I am making the 4 passport wallet, although with the baby we are going to end up with 5 passports in the household - I am the single-passported member of the family - feeling slightly 'under-passported'. 

Next is a beach/swimming pool bag. There will be a swimming pool where we are staying, and there are beaches as well. I found the reversible bag pattern yesterday (free pattern), cut it out last night. And I have already made some modifications - it will be bigger and bi-coloured on the outside, and in linen fabrics. Looks fairly easy on paper...  

I obviously need a holiday project, and you will be glad to know I am knitting again! It took a bit of time to recover from Winnowing, but now I am back swatching away for a cardigan, and trying to find the right colour and gauge.. 

It is not just about WIPs, I finished a little project using my bias tape, I just need a couple of things to really finish it off - so hopefully that will be over and done with this weekend, but here is a sneak peak at it. I love this bias tape..

Go and check out all the other Wednesday WIPs over at Freshly Pieced.