Project reviews

Accordion Fabric Wallet Project Review

I this post I’m reviewing the Accordion Fabric Wallet Tutorial from Free-Tutorial.net. I loved the photos for this finished project. Unfortunately I don’t have any similar fabric. That being said, I wanted some more practice with bias tape and wallet making techniques. I also hoped this would be a good beginner project to recommend to a friend.

The project tutorial is available here:

Accordion Fabric Wallet Tutorial

Note this project is for personal use only.

For the purposes of my review, I’m going to summarize the tutorial, tell you what I did differently (if anything) and share my general thoughts about sewing the project.

The tutorial beings with a photograph of a finished wallet. Next is an annotated photo of the main pieces. I planned to use some of my fabric scraps for this project so I scrolled down to find all the measurements and created a paper pattern.

Paper pattern forAccordion Fabric Wallet
Creating a paper pattern

I suspect that this tutorial has been translated into English as the language and terminology were unfamiliar and in some cases, unclear. Fortunately the many photographs help bridge the gap.

Step 1 Cut your materials

The tutorial didn’t specify what types of fabric to use so I selected some quilting weight cottons from my stash. I assumed that “soft lining -cotton filler (padding polyester)” was either thin batting or fusible fleece. I selected fusible fleece. Similarly I used medium weight fusible interfacing for “nonwoven fabric” and Pellon 808 fusible interfacing for “fabric backing with a layer of glue”.

Gather materials for wallet
Gather materials
Step 2 Assemble the exterior

I fused my fusible fleece to the back of my exterior fabric and my medium weight fusible interfacing to the back of my interior fabric. Next I fused the Pellon 808 fusible interfacing onto the back of the interior fabric using the spacing indicated in the diagram. I labeled the right side of the interior fabric with “top” along the top margin that had the 7 cm strip of Pellon 808 and made tick marks along the margins to indicate where the edges of the Pellon 808 strips were. Chalk lines between the tick marks helped me sew 2-3 mm from the edge of the Pellon 808 strips (we’re sewing through the Pellon 808).

Next I installed the magnetic snap and quilted the top, middle and bottom sections of the wallet. I drew some chalk lines to guide my quilting.

Here’s a photo of the interior showing all the chalk lines I sewed along.

Pink fabric with white chalk lines to indicate stitching
Quilted interior stitched along chalk lines

The last exterior step is to round the top corners.

Step 3 Assemble the coin pocket

This section of the tutorial wasn’t as clear as I had hoped it would be. I sewed a zigzag stitch across the top of the zipper tape near the top end. Next I measured 16 cm down the zipper tape and zigzag stitched across the zipper tape there too. I pressed each zipper tab in half then sewed the folded edge across the 16 cm marks of the zipper tape. I trimmed the zipper assembly to a total length of 19 cm and trimmed the zipper tabs to the width of my zipper.

19 cm long zipper panel
19 cm long zipper panel

I couldn’t find the seam allowance information anywhere in this tutorial so I estimated 1/4” based on the photos. My narrow zipper foot made it easy to sew both pocket pieces to one side of the zipper assembly then top-stitched along the edge of the fabric. I opened my zipper all the way before repeat these steps for the other side of the zipper assembly. Top stitching the second side was tricky. There wasn’t a lot of room to maneuver the fabric. In addition to pressing the coin pocket, I basted the short ends together.

Completed coin pocket; fabric is white with pink flowers
Completed coin pocket
Step 4 Create accordion panels

For each accordion panel I sewed two accordion pieces right sides together. I only sewed along the top and bottom seam as the sides will be hidden later. I turned and pressed each accordion panel then top stitched the top and bottom.

Step 5 Attach coin pocket to main piece

In the photo for this step, it appears that the accordion folds for the accordion panels have been sewn before the accordion panels are attached to the coin pocket. The tutorial doesn’t have any written instructions or photos to show this step so I took at stab at it myself. First I transferred the markings from the pattern piece to the fabric using chalk. The middle two lines appear to mark the stitch lines for sewing the accordion panels to the coin purse. I folded each accordion panel around the coin purse then folded the accordion panels back on themselves along the outer chalk lines. I pinned the folds along the outer chalk lines and stitched 1/8” from the folds.

Pink accordion panel on the white Accordion Panel pattern peice on a green cutting mat
Completed Accordion Panel & its pattern piece

Next I pinned the accordion panels to the pocket pieces and sewed them with a 1/2” seam allowance. I followed the rest of the section for attaching the coin pocket to the main panel according to the tutorial.

Pink accordion panels sewn onto white and pink coin pouch
Accordion panels sewn on to Coin Pouch
Step 6 Finish the edges

I sewed 1/4” double fold bias tape around the perimeter to hide the raw edges. I think a wider bias tape would better replicate the overall look of the wallet in the tutorial’s photos.

That’s it! There are only six steps.

Here are some photos of my finished Accordion Fabric Wallet:

Completed wallet exterior
My completed Accordion Fabric Wallet
Interior view with the coin pouch zipped closed
Interior view of my Accordion Fabric Wallet
Interior view with the coin pouch zipped open
Interior view (coin pouch open)
Interior view showing room for a smartphone
Roomy enough for a smartphone
Conclusion

While the lack of card slots suggests this would be a good beginner project, the poorly translated text and missing section makes this project more challenging. I wouldn’t recommend this project for beginners. Intermediate sewers who have some experience with wallets and bias tape should be able to complete this project. My finished wallet is wider than I expected and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there is room inside for my smartphone.

Did you try the Accordion Fabric Wallet tutorial? Comment below and/or Pin me for later!

Tanya

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Sewn By Tanya Project Review } Accordion Fabric Wallet from Free-Tutorial.net

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