Zippered wallets are a bit hard to make, even if you have all the tools for the job. If you still want something with a zipper and enough room for multiple cards and currency, there is a simple alternative: a DIY fabric wallet with a zippered coin pocket.
You don’t need a zipper on all your slots or pockets as accessing your items might get too annoying.
This detailed guide will help you make your own wallet with a hook and loop feature and a closed-off interior pocket. As you’ll notice, this design is quite basic but you can customize it once you get the hang of cutting your pattern pieces.
Materials and Tools
- Half a yard of cotton fabric
- Half a yard Interfacing fabric (depending on how rigid you want your wallet to be, go with medium weight or heavyweight interfacing)
- 5” regular zipper (you can also get a longer zipper if you have the tools to shorten it)
- 5” hook and loop fastener
- Fabric marker or pins
- Sewing essentials
- Sewing machine (optional)
- Ruler
- Pencil
- Iron and ironing board
- Scissors
Sizes of Pattern Pieces
To keep things simple, we’ll make all the pattern pieces rectangular. Here are the dimensions:
- 5 x 10.5 inches for main wallet
- 8 x 10.5 inches for large pocket
- 4 x 8.5 inches for card pockets
- 6 x 4.5 inches for coin pocket
Fabric Patterns
Here’s what each piece should be made of:
- Main wallet – 2x fabric and 2x interfacing
- Credit card pocket – 3x fabric and 3x interfacing
- Large pocket – one piece of fabric and one piece of interfacing
- Coin pocket – one piece of fabric
How to Assemble the Pieces
Interfacing
First, you’ll want to apply the interfacing on the wrong side of the fabric pieces. You don’t have to do this for the coin pocket. Use a piece of damp cloth as a buffer between the interfacing and the iron.
In order to get the best fusing, don’t swipe with the iron. Instead, just hold it for a couple of seconds then lift and move to the next position. Repeat this for all your pattern pieces that have interfacing.
Folding and basting
Your large pocket piece needs to be folded in half. Make sure to keep the wrong side down and to fold it vertically. After you’re done, do a basting stitch across all sides that don’t have a fold. This would mean left, right, and bottom sides get stitches.
The top edge, the folded part, will require a straight stitch across with about 0.25” allowance from the edge. Backstitching is also required.
Moving on to the pockets
Fold your pocket pieces in half just as you did with your large pocket. Stitch a 0.25” seam allowance on all of your credit card pockets, once folded. Only do this on the right side. When you’re done, cut a small piece from the upper right corner without cutting into the seam.
This will allow you to turn the pocket inside out. Then perform the same stitches that you did on the large pocket. One on the left side, one on the folded edge with a 0.25” seam allowance.
Measure down 0.75” from the upper edge of the large pocket. Mark it with a pin for easy reference. This is where the top of your first credit card pocket should go.
Align the left side edge of the pocket with the edge of the large pocket. The second pocket should have its superior edge at the 5/8” mark from the edge of the large pocket. To secure it in place, follow the same procedure as you did for the first pocket.
The last credit card pocket should be the easiest as it won’t require any measurements. Simply align its bottom edge with the bottom edge of the large pocket and repeat the stitching pattern from the other two pockets.
This is where designing is up to you. You can choose to have large credit card pockets or choose to separate them. You can measure them and place a few marks down the middle of the card pockets. Do a vertical stitch down the middle to create separation and to get your six card slots.
Your loop fastener should be placed on the right side of the large pocket. Measure and place it down half an inch inside from the edge and somewhat centered vertically. Stitch it very close to the perimeter and don’t forget about the backstitching.
After that’s done, it’s time to align your large pocket with your wallet pattern piece. Align all the raw edges. Use some pins to secure the pieces together and do another basting stitch on the bottom and right and left sides.
To make the zippered pocket
Measure down 1” and set a marker. It’s best if you do this by using the marking fabric pen and drawing a straight line across the pocket piece. Do another line starting 3/8” underneath the 1” line.
In this rectangular box you sketched, draw another straight line in the middle. This time start from half an inch from the left edge and stop at half an inch before the right edge.
This is so you can have a visual representation of where to cut the hole for the zipper. You’ll also want to measure with your zipper so you know where to start drawing the ends which can be represented by triangles.
Flip the pocket and place it over your secondary main pattern piece of the men's wallet. Align the coin pocket to start from 1.5” from the left side.
Now comes the tricky part. Stitch around the box first. After that, cut the center line from one triangle to another. Then cut the corners of the triangles as if you were cutting in a Y shape.
After your cuts are done, push all the fabric from the coin pocket through the hole. You should have everything on the wrong side of the main piece now.
Place the zipper underneath the opening and start stitching around its perimeter, going through the main fabric too.
Finishing
Flip your assembly and fold your coin pocket in two. Do a basic stitch on the top and basting stitches for the left side and the right side. The upper edge doesn’t have to be stitched to the main wallet piece.
Put the second hook and loop in the same position as the other side of the wallet. Now you can put both large wallet pieces on top of each other with their right sides together.
FINAL VERDICT
Pin the two sides together so you can control your stitching and go all the way around. Note that a 3” gap somewhere on the top edges is required so that you can flip the wallet inside out when you’re done. There you have it. Now you know how to make a fabric wallet with zipper.