The First NCW

I have made a couple of wallets in my relatively short time of sewing. Quite a few small change purses as well. A fair few purses and three diaper bags to round it out. So to be quite honest, I don't know near enough about sewing to give a scholarly review. I am, after all, self taught. But this....

The Necessary Clutch Wallet is a gorgeous pattern by Emmaline Bags. You do need to purchase this pattern, and by no means is this a tutorial of this pattern. This, as is with all of my posts, a review of sorts. A critique and how I changed things for my own bag, if you will. You can find the pattern for this bag and many more at their website and following this link.

If you are worried about printing out a pattern, never fear! Not only is there a physical copy you can buy, but you can also purchase acrylic templates. But even if you don't go with the physical pattern or templates, this pattern only calls for a small amount of pages to be printed, the rest can be read at your leisure from a tablet, phone or other device.

The NCW pattern is insanely versatile and extremely customizable! Clearly there is a reason for all of the hype for this pattern, and I am late to the party! There are tons of blogs, videos, web pages and forum posts for this pattern alone! The pattern comes with an optional trim piece pattern of which I made for my NCW. 

I love the feeling and size of this wallet! I prefer my paper money to be unfolded, so long wallets are my favorite type. I used a magnetic clasp rather than a turn clasp because this is what I had at the time and I wanted to make this wallet with out spending a bunch of money. I had to buy more stabilizer to make it though.... lol 

For those that are curious about the stabilizers I used, SF101 is fused on to almost every piece and the main wallet as well as the flap have two layers of DecorBond 809. I highly recommend watching Lauren Mormino on Youtube if you have problems with deciding which stabilizer to use. She helped me to decide for my wallet. You can check out one of her tutorials here.

The fabric that I chose here is Link from the Legend of Zelda series of games. The trim and backing of the wallet is my favorite accent fabric. I have a purse that I used the polka dots on for trim, a diaper bag for my youngest son uses it as the main fabric, a hair bow and a scrunchie to name a few things that I have made with it. (Do you believe it is my favorite fabric now? lol)

Opening the wallet we find my card pockets. As a reminder to myself, BE WARY OF YOUR SEAM ALLOWENCE! I cut it a little too close on one side of the card pocket, so now I can't get cards to fit properly on that side. Clearly I need to make another one of these wallets so that I can do card slots better. WINK WINK. Lol Upon careful study of my wallet I realized where I went wrong with the card pockets. I should have left the sides open, rather than make a seam and turn it right side out. Doing this is what made my pockets JUST too short in some places. Be sure to NOT do this! Feel free to baste the sides together, as this is what I will be doing next time I make it.

I chose for my fabric the music notes because Ocarina of Time is my favorite Zelda game and one of the prominent features of the game (In fact you can't beat the game without it!) is music. You need to play the ocarina for several different reasons in this game in particular.

For my zipper pocket, I chose to go with the directions of the pattern. I could have gone with two zippers, though after I thought about it, I realized I personally might not use that extra zipper that is all the rage. It turned out to be probably my best zipper pocket to date! Inserting the pocket was a little more of a chore.

Many people use rivets to hold the zipper pocket. I opted to use my sewing machine, as at the moment my husband and I can not find the rivets. Make do with what you have I suppose. I should warn you though, the rivets would have been preferred. I had to rip the seams for at least two of the four connections for not having the pocket inserted deeply enough. I would also like to stress that sewing the flaps down over the card pockets first does make for a cleaner finish.

The fabric of the zipper pocket is the same as the inside of the wallet, Legend of Zelda Wind Waker. Though I am not that found of the art style for the game itself, this fabric makes it look more like stained glass, and that I can get behind! Inside the zipper pocket you will find another fabric, this time a different set of musical notes. I didn't have enough of the other, sadly.

Over all I would most certainly recommend sewing this wallet for yourself. The price point for the pattern is certainly affordable and again the small amount of pages to print makes me a happy lady to say the least! I do plan on making another one at some point, perhaps this time with some Harry Potter fabric! Or it could be interesting as a scrap piece. I just might have to make it for this blog!

Remember to leave your comments below and I will answer them to the best of my ability. If you are seeking a wallet for your own made by me, feel free to message me on Facebook and we will talk shop! Much love to my readers and those that support me in other ways! Also, let me know if there is a specific pattern you would like me to try out for this blog. I am always open to your thoughts!