New checkbook cover

From this:

To this:

What a great project and what a personal upgrade! It only took me an hour, start to finish, and was easily accomplished during a naptime. I used some Amy Butler home dec fabric for the exterior and interior, and some cotton cloth (a gift from a friend during her travels in Africa), that I believe is from Ghana, for the pockets. There is some topstiching (tan) on the interior pockets as well as the some zig zag (blue) for the top and bottom of the exterior.

I loosely followed the tutorial from Mudmuffins and Woogiemonsters, originally blogged about here. Since I am mostly an on-line accounting kinda gal I really only use my checkbook to hold my blank checks. I do all the other stuff with the computer so I didn't need to worry so much about a register pocket, elastic or the other straps. I also used fusible interfacing as that meant I didn't have to baste anything. Since I used a heavier home dec fabric this is working out fine, but if you go with a lighter cotton or other fabric I might suggesst sticking with the regular interfacing. I've had the fusible stuff wrinkle and bubble on me when folding lighter fabrics.

The only mess-up I had was that I originally planned to do some ribbon detail on the front cover. I sewed it on and really like the way it looked - it gave the piece some dimension. However, when I put the whole thing together I didn't think it through all the way and wound up placing the ribbons inside one of the interior pockets. Silly.

Maybe a matching no-cash wallet (Bend the Rules Sewing) next?