Iron-on Vinyl Wallet Project

Lining and Inside Spread

     This fairly simple wallet project is an easy hour project for this holiday season, birthdays or even graduation presents (as mine will be).  I used this pattern as a base for it, but not having oil cloth, or wanting to make a wallet from my cat's food bags, I used our 100% quilting cotton with a layer of our Heat'n'Bond Iron-on Vinyl to toughen the outside of it.

Outside Spread

     I adjusted the pattern a little, adding more pockets on the right side, a sideways pocket on the left, lined the dollar area and added trim to the pockets (on the bias).  This is my first attempt past the original plans, I sewed out the original one as a test and found the dollar area to be too short and had money sticking out, which was about the only problem I found with their instructions.
     I found the original instructions here at Instructables.com

Inside Spread

     The Iron-on vinyl is easy to use and gives a good finish for the cloth you're protecting.  It claims water resistant, durable and UV rated, so possibly you could make a nice jacket or a water resistant purse out of this?  It suggests "lunch bags, aprons, art smocks, place mats, coasters and other home decor projects."
     The instructions for use are easy, to simply peel off the wax paper, stick the clear side face down on fabric, recover with the wax paper and iron for around 8 seconds and allow to cool.
     It is only 17" wide so large panels that need to be covered would need a seem to hide the edges of the vinyl.  It is very sensitive to the heat of your iron, on my first wallet, it skimmed just the edge of it and left a nice melted smear.  I cut another piece and patched it, it looks pretty good, I can still feel the edge of it, and I just turned that half to the inside of the wallet, but I wouldn't suggest patching or overlapping this material if you can't hide it with a seam or turn it under.
     Overall I enjoyed using this project, fairly easy, the only complaint or warning I would give is, while turning the wallet be gentle with the vinyl, it tends to crinkle a little leaving lighter lines in the cloth.  It does come some when re-ironed, but it would be best to avoid it as much as possible.  Also topstitching is going to need some more work, but I'm sure that is just operator error.