Purse Palooza – Pattern Review – Swoon Pearl

This post is part of Purse Palooza 2015. For full details and contest rules, check here.
Today’s post is from Jaime Stephens.

Hello! My name is Jaime Stephens, and I am super excited to be invited to participate in Purse Palooza 2015. I was a member of the Bag of the Month Club for the past two years and have been taking more risks with sewing bags. Traditionally, I am a selfish creator, making mostly clothes for myself and occasional items for friends and my kids.

When I received the email asking for participants, I had just bought, printed, and prepared the fabric to make the Swoon Pearl Wallet Clutch. This summer I sewed a couple of the Swoon Della Wallets and had a great experience. I have been sewing since I was 9 and am a pretty confident sewist, but wallets seemed to be too difficult because you have to be precise.Not sure I could be that detail oriented. The preview pictures for the Pearl posted on Facebook had me stalking the Swoon pattern page for days, waiting for the Pearl Pattern to be released. As soon as it was, I downloaded it! (I may or may not have been sitting in church…) Anyhoo…

The instructions are very clear and I cannot stress enough that you need to read through them once before starting. This will help you see the progression of everything over all. Even doing that, I made a few mistakes, mostly because I was excited to finish. You may not understand each thing, but at least studying the pictures and a quick read through is always a good idea.

I always draw off my pattern pieces onto tracing cloth. After a few uses, I may need to redraw a piece. I’d rather do that than reprint it. Plus cutting paper with my sewing scissors is a no no.

If you don’t learn anything else from this review, I hope you internalize this: have faith and follow the directions. That’s it. If you can embrace that tidbit, then you, too, will have a beautifully, functional wallet.

My biggest question while cutting out was, “I only need ONE Card Slot Panel?” I can clearly see two card slot sections…But I had faith and only cut what the directions said.And…it totally worked out!

Because you cut one, get it all prepped and topstitched, then cut in half. Genius!I didn’t have the lightweight interfacing on hand so I used SF101 for the card slots. I like the extra stability it provides.

I have made the Pearl twice and I did change the interfacing for the Main Pouch from the first to the second. The first time, I followed the pattern and used the Peltex 71. This made it difficult to fit my phone and keys in the zipper compartment. The second time I used the new Pellon Flex Foam, and I will use thisin the future because it gives enough that I don’t feel like I am pulling the pocket too tight. I did not quilt the foam to the exterior fabric because the directions tell you to adhere the stabilizer to the fabric then fuse the Pellon SF101 on top. This step kept the foam in place. Once I sewed the pouch together the fit is so good, I don’t see the foam moving at all.I did make a change to the width of the Wristlet Strap. I cut it 2” wide instead of 3” because the hardware I had handy was for a ½ inch strap. That is also the same width as the Della Wallet, and I already knew I liked it. The strap itself is shorter than the Della, which I liked because I have a small wrist and always felt like the Della strap was too big.

When it came to cutting the two Backing pieces, I worried that fabric direction would matter, but alas it does not. You end up folding them back and self-lining the slip pockets. So the few minutes I took to align Thor on my fabric, was not necessary. It was a bit tricky keeping the Card Slot Trim Stabilizer 1/4”away from the top edges of those pieces because I had to flip it over to adhere it and sometimes it shifted. I need to find a better way to do that, but once I fused the SF101 on top, it didn’t move.

I did have to mind fabric direction when I cut the Bifold Compartment Exterior. This is the front that shows when you have the Bifold snapped to the front of the wallet. You have to keep in mind how it will close when finished and the snap tab placement. I didn’t want Captain America to get covered, so I made sure he was off center and at the bottom of the piece near the “female” snap marking.

The measurements for the snap marks are spot on. I used a combination of the pattern piece and the measurements given to mark the positon of my snaps. Both ways were accurate. I made a crosshairs mark to make sure I could see the center. I then placed the back disk on the crosshairs and used a seam ripper to poke a hole into the fabric. The seam ripper is sharp and will rip through even the stabilizer. Once I installed my snaps, I added a square of interfacing to the back of the snap, so it wouldn’t rip the fabric it was against when turned inside out. I have seen that direction in other patterns and have pretty much made that a habit.

I also added SF101 to both of the Snap Tab pieces because I wanted the extra reinforcement on a piece that would be used extensively. Additionally, on the second wallet, I installed the snap at ½” inch instead of ¾” inch on the Snap Tab. This keeps everything secure, but doesn’t seem to put as much stressed on the tab or snap. Once the wallet has cards inside and a phone in the zipper, the extra quarter inch is nice. If you do that, be careful when top stitching. You don’t want to break a needle.

I used my large clear ruler to make the marks on the back of the Card Slot Panel. Again, have faith and follow the directions.

The prep time before sewing anything was tedious, but once I got through all of that, it was a fast sew from there. The only thing I can say is take your time and read the directions because when I went to sew the cards slots for the Main Pouch Card Slot Panel, I almost didn’t read the direction that said to reverse the card slot direction from the previous steps. If you don’t do that the card slots will be facing in two directions, which might not sound bad, but when you start to use the wallet and it is hanging off your wrist, your cards will not fall out if you followed the directions. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to lose my credit card…The slots are fairly tight. I don’t see anything falling out, but I like the attention to detail ensuring the open parts of the slots are upright when finished and being hung from a wrist.

Other than that it was a pretty straight forward sew.

Except for the time on the first wallet when I didn’t open the zipper before stitching around the wallet. I went to turn it out…couldn’t do it.

Or when I was preparing the zipper for the second wallet and cut off the zipper pull…

Remember what I said about reading the directions…well. This was the second wallet. I knew what I was doing…and there is a picture and words that remind you to make sure the pull is between the Zipper Tabs. Good thing I know how to put a pull on a zipper, so it all worked out, and I didn’t have to use another zipper. Both issues were not because of the pattern. Total user error because there are reminders in the pattern.

I will definitely be making more of the Pearl Wallet. I even have fabric ready for several more. It took me about two movies (my measurement of sewing time) to make. One movie for cutting out and one movie for sewing. I think a confident beginner could tackle the Pearl if they were looking for a way to up their game. I hope to see more of these popping up in the Swoon Patterns Flickr group and online. Thank you to Sew Sweetness for the opportunity to do a review and to participate in Purse Palooza 2015. I had a great experience!