Custom Wallet for Etsy

I posted a few days ago about this bag I made in natural leather for a friend of mine....

While she was shopping at a local store, a lady asked her about it and where she got it.  

After talking with my friend she contacted me through our Etsy shop and sent me a photo of a wallet she liked.  She wanted me to design something similar and this is what I came up with....

 I sketched up some ideas thinking about what should fit in it and how to make it work good and look good...it should really do both.

 After sending her the photos of the sketches to see if it was something she was interested in, I started working out a tagboard pattern....

I cut out all my pieces for another "macaroni prototype" that will be used by me to work out some of the little details....

Then decided to dye the outside section this yummy color....

I mixed the "Sunshine Yellow" and the "Scarlet" in several layers to get this persimmon-y orangey red color.... 

I am still working out some kinks...my little oval with the logo on it needs to be a bit bigger vertically and smaller across...

I'm also trying to decide what to do with the strap so right now it's really long. 

I wanted to be able to create some kind of a wrist strap so you can carry it that way.  Still working that out...

 And I need to add about an inch to the overall length so that I have a bigger rollover at the top and the top flap comes down farther when it's all closed up...

You can see in the photo below how the cards are curving in because there isn't quite enough space there....

The phone actually fits in there really well.  An iPhone would fit even better.  Mine is just a track phone so it's bulkier but it still works great.

 I have about 6 cards in each of the card slots so it holds quite a bit....

 I am excited about this one---

It was really fun to work with the customer, see what she wanted and then work up a design.

 I'll be adjusting the pattern to accommodate all the little size issues and working on a second one for the customer...

Of course after making this one now I have more ideas for variations on this idea.  

And we have a satchel idea sketched up we'd like to try....

Doodlebug has requested a backpack for his big first year of school...so we're thinking about repurposing some WWII green herribone canvas and waxing it ourselves...