Selvedge Wallets & Accordion Wallet Pattern Review

Quilt Con is less than a month away and I keep thinking of projects I need to make for the big weekend! Most recently I've been revisiting my bag situation. I decided the best bag to carry would be my Edelweiss backpack, but I starting worrying about having to take the bag off and on to access my wallet, business cards, phone, etc. Some kind of wristlet wallet seemed like a good solution.

I can be really picky about my bag choices and wallets seem to be the worst. After several weeks of pattern hunting (and a few less than stellar improv attempts), I finally stumbled across NapKittenPattern's Accordion Wallet. 

After lots of waffling over fabric choices (you can read more about that in my previous post), I got the idea to use my hoarded selvedges to make the wallet exterior. You can read my tutorial on how to make a selvedge panel here. For the interior, I used some of my new love, Essex yarn dyed linen in flax which I had leftover from my Patchwork City Quilt (still need to blog about that). After the selvedge panel was complete, I selected Cotton + Steel Neotorious in mint/metallic gold for the accordion folds, Free Spirit Designer Essentials in Teal Rhinestones for the binding, Michael Miller's Glitz for the card slots, and some of Kim Kight's Cookie Book for the wrist strap.

Picking my favorite selvedges to use was a blast and I love seeing all the names of my favorite designers in one place. I did my best to flip the orientation of the selvedges so they'd all be right side up, but I had difficulty determining exactly where the folds would be some parts are a little off. 

NapKittenPattern's pattern was one of the best bag patterns I've ever used. She provides photos for every single step of the project. Even with Noodle Head and Sew Sweetness patterns which have lots of photos and diagrams, I inevitably come to a point where something doesn't have a photo and I just can't make sense of what they're trying to say. After a lot of examination, I eventually figure it out, but having photos for everything is priceless.

Another thing that I personally appreciated is that her pattern doesn't have you cut everything out at the beginning (although she does give material requirements) because it will be easy to confuse a bunch of rectangles. So true. 

While the pattern is in English, I get the feeling that English may not be her native language. There are a few places where her wording is a can be a little odd but it doesn't interfere with the pattern's integrity. For example, she tells you to "rub the corners" of the cover panel which what she's try to say is finger press the fold. When I first read that I just pictured myself tickling the corner of the rectangle and was seriously confused what that would accomplish. She also says to "clip" certain pieces, which I would usually think means to cut it. However, her photos show that she's literally clipping the layers together with binder clips. 

I was nervous about sewing the accordion folds, but her approach makes it a breeze. Even the final construction steps were not bad at all despite so many layers. 

The only things I didn't like about the pattern was the lack of a complete lining. The instructions only tell you to line the inside of the flap and the back (in the form of the card slots), but the front half of the wallet has no lining. She just says, "you may line the cover with interior fabric if you don’t want to see the stabilizer when you take out stuff from the wallet." I used fusible web to attach a complete lining. 

Her instructions also say you need 1.5" - 2" wide binding tape. You need it at least 2" wide, trust me. She makes double fold bias tape, but I just attached mine like regular quilt binding. 

All in all, I'm super happy with this pattern and the finished project. I'll definitely be checking out more of NapKittenPattern's patterns.