Tea Wallet -- A Photo Tutorial

Here's a step-by-step guide to sewing a tea wallet. It's a good way to use up scraps. Enjoy!

Materials:
Two different patterns of cotton fabric
light interfacing
one snap
sewing machine
iron
needle and thread

The wallet is made of five parts: The outside material (piece A), the inside material (also piece A), the two inside pockets (pieces B and C) and a little strap to fasten the wallet together (not pictured below).

The body of the wallet is 6.5 inches wide x 4 inches tall.
The first pocket is 6.5"x 3"
The second pocket is 6.5" x 2.5"
The little strap is made from the outside material and it's 1.5" x 3"

The first thing you'll need to do is iron on some light interfacing to the inside parts of the wallet, namely the inside A pattern and the B and C patterns. It's up to you what material you use for the pockets, but I like pocket B to be made of the outside material and pocket C to be made of the inside material.

Cut the interfacing for patterns A, B and C and iron the shiny side of the interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric.

Turn down the top edge of pockets B and C and iron flat. Sew a straight stitch across the top edge of each pocket.

Arrange pocket C on top of pocket B, which is on top of inside piece A. Baste along the side edges of the pockets. Fold these basted pieces in half and iron. Make a stitch along the ironed line from the base of the wallet to the top of pocket B, making sure to backstitch. This creates a dividing line between each side of the wallet.

Next, you'll make the little strap. Iron in the long edges of the strap and then fold the piece in half and iron. Basically, you're making a small piece of bias tape. Sew along the ironed edge of the tape.

Sew one side of a snap to the outside piece of pattern A, about an inch inward. Place the raw edge of the little strap on the opposite edge of the outside pattern A, facing inward. Pin outside piece A to inside piece A, right sides together and sew all around the edge, leaving a 2-inch space open at the top of the wallet, closer to the snap side.

Trim the edges of the wallet except for the top edge. Turn right side out and iron flat. Sew the opening shut, very close to the edge.

Next, place the tea bags and sugar packets in the wallet and figure out how long the little strap should be in order to reach around to the snap on the body of the wallet. Trim the strap accordingly, fold under the raw edge, then fold it again and sew it down. My machine didn't feel like sewing this part, so its easier to hand sew for me.

Finally, sew the other side of the snap to the inside of the little strap.

Ta-da!