Getting Ready For the Festival by Getting Carded

Well, The Main Street Festival in my town is this weekend.  I'm trying to increase some of my smaller items and have been sewing nonstop.  I've been wanting to try one of Dog Under My Desk's Erin Erickson's newest patterns, Get Carded, and thought this would be a great way to finally get to this pattern and to increase my smaller items at the same time.

Get Carded is a small ID wallet on a wristlet strap.  You can get the pattern here but be careful, it is addicting!  I have made smaller ID wallets before but they were so bulky and hard to sew and turn inside out that I dreaded when someone asked for one...no longer...Erin says she reduces all of the bulk and does she ever!  It is so slick the way it goes together and it comes with three variations of the front.  I loved the look of the gathered front and used this one exclusively.  This pattern can be made with two fat quarters, one for the outside and strap and one for the inside.

Here are some up close looks at the Get Carded wallets I made this past week:

and this one that didn't make the first picture because it was sold immediately off my sewing machine...still warm!

The inside of this wallet has 5 pockets.

The back has a clear vinyl pocket for your ID. (Love the mini owls looking at you!)

Some things I changed and other things I recommend:

• If you are going to make one, you might as well make two. Many of the pattern pieces are cut individually. It is just as easy to double the fabric and cut two! (See, I told you I was addicted...this is how it started).
• When I made ID wallets in the past, I made lanyards for them because many college and high school girls were wearing these around their necks. I decided to make a lanyard and a wrist strap for each of them so whoever buys these will have their choice. (You have enough fabric left over in your fat quarter to make a lanyard).
• The one thing I didn't like about this pattern was how she put the wristlet strap together. For a long time, I have used a pattern by MsElaineous for Loopy lanyards. I like how this strap goes together and I use it for wristlet straps as well. You can get this pattern for free here.
• After the first Get Carded I made, I switched from a D ring to a split ring so that keys could be easily threaded onto it to make them handy to carry.

Making two straps per wallet equals a lot of strap making this week!  These twenty-two and the two others that left with the ID wallet that sold.

Back to sewing...I've only got a few more days to make more bags.........