New wallet...

I designed my own wallet once, but after using it awhile I realized that a lot of the pockets I thought I needed were rather unnecessary.  And when the elastic I was using to keep it closed snapped, and the button disappeared, I decided it was time for a new one.

I loved the looks of the Greenbacks Wallet Trio by Sew Sweetness and picked it up to try.  Again, pictures are just quick snaps, not pro shots... :)

I modified a bit, because I really wanted a wristlet to make it easy to grab and go.

I love this style, the divider zipper pocket holds my coins and the wings (?!) don't let it open the whole way so all your stuff won't fall out!  I love that it zippers completely closed too.

The pattern is written with both sides being sewn for credit cards, however I left one side so I could use it for my cash envelopes (a la Dave Ramsey's cash envelope system, which we do our own version of!). I only need a few since we aren't hard core cash people, so I have an envelope for my fun money, one for eating out, and one for household.  If you needed more, you could leave both sides as full envelopes and add the smallest of the pattern's trio for your cards, or just tuck them into the zipper pocket (because if you are hard core D.R. fans, you probably don't have many anyway).

I really like how the cards stand up, I think they fit much nicer that way.  I've got a few different ones stacked together (i.e. one pocket for all our insurance cards).

It is actually MUCH bigger than I thought it would be, but I quickly adapted... I quite like that I can fit my checkbook inside (as is with my current cover, though I plan to attempt a streamlined, slimmer version so it doesn't make the wallet quite so chubby. My Cake Batter Chapstick (Limited Edition, eek! How many should I stock up on????) fits in there too.  I had planned at some point to make a clutch to tuck both my wallet and checkbook into to quickly switch purses/diaper bags, so this actually takes care of that for me.

It was NOT the easiest thing in the world to sew... I did a lot of picking out of seams, though that was mostly because I kept trying to use my machine, even though the directions said that a lot of the binding needed to be hand sewn... It is time consuming because of all the hand sewing, at least for me since I don't do much of it.  It freaked me out a bit that my hand sewing was the only thing holding the outside fabric on to the rest of the wallet!  I was able to machine sew some, if I did it again, I would probably only machine sew the straight edges and hand sew the corners and into the V made by the dividers since the corners gave me the most trouble on my machine.  So if you are patient, give it a whirl!  Most of the wallet is very simple to put together, so if you have the time to sit down with a movie and hand sew the binding, you will be fine!