There was a call out on IG for people to test this wallet and Mieke, the designer at Zipperzoo.be was offering to send the pattern and leather. Postage to Australia is so expensive (and slow) that I said I’d use my own supplies, and the pattern was delivered via email. One of the things Mieke wanted was her English grammar checked as she’s a non-native English speaker. This was something I could do quickly as her English is actually excellent, and then I made up the wallet using some of the leather I had marbled with my friend Claire. I used some kangaroo leather, which is thin and strong. Just for information – kangaroos are not endangered in Australia.

I made a couple quite quickly and own up to some unpicking, which is not advisable with leather.

I finished up making the third wallet on my Elna Stella. The first two were made on a modern Bernina which, whilst it does have an adaptive thread tension, which is useful, it also has an automatic stitch finishing method which I find leaves extra threads, and I wasn’t very happy with the finish.

The instructions for the wallet are excellent and it’s a fairly easy make but does require some precision. I made the one with the green zip first and when I made the next one I doubled some leather over the end of the zip to give a neater finish. This worked well, but did increase the bulk.

I was slightly dissatisfied with the first two hence the third.

I am much happier with it. I used a flat piece of leather to cover the ends of the zip, and I didn’t topstitch the flap which I think looks better given my rather untidy topstitching.

However when I was taking the photos I pulled the inside apart to show the pockets and I caused some of the stitching to come undone.

It was in such an awkward spot the only thing I could do was glue and hand stitch the very top.

This seems to have worked!

I still have more marbled leather and also some washable paper so I will be making more of these.

The pattern is available in Zipperzoo.be’s Etsy shop, as a PDF download or you can order the wallet as a kit, which includes the following:

The kit includes:

• Sewing pattern Harmony wallet (pattern parts printed on sturdy paper so that you can reuse it over and over again + pdf manual in your mailbox)
• Materials:
  • Leather (A4 – 21 x 29,7cm): choose your favorite color
  • Coil zipper #3: 15cm + 1 slider
  • Matching thread
  • Snap fastener & stud button, mix of 2 colors (so you can still choose which one to use ;)) (note: hole punch pliers and setting tool for snap fastener not included)
• Handy tools:
  • Double-sided tape (stylefix tape, 10m)
  • Silver pen (for marking on (imitation) leather)
  • Leather needles (100/16)
  • Wonderclips (10 pieces)
  • Piece of sanding paper (200)

I was very drawn to the name of this wallet, it seems so appropriate given current world events.

I think this is going to become a thing – your bonus photo of Miss G playing with a spinning top. She really loves this one!