Art House Wallet Tutorial: Card Slot Section Fold Measurement

The Art House Wallet is about to become your favorite sewing pattern. It features an asymmetrical flap, wristlet option, 6 card slots, zippered pocket and 2 larger inner pockets that can hold a phone 3" x 6" or smaller (my iPhone 15 fits perfectly!).

This tutorial references the "Step 1: Create Card Slot Section" of the pattern. The card slot section is made from one long piece of fabric. In this post I want to share with you what I think is the best way to mark the fold lines. Read through the tutorial with photos or better yet, watch the YouTube video below!

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I'm going to show you 2 different methods for measuring and drawing the fold lines for the card slot section. Because there are multiple folds made in the same piece of fabric, small discrepancies can add up to a much larger discrepancy in measurement. Let's start with my recommended way of marking the fold lines...

Draw the fold lines this way!

1. Align your ruler to one long edge of the card slot section piece. Mark the measurements provided in the pattern along the edge with a fabric pen/pencil. If possible, keep your ruler stationary while making all the marks. This will help reduce variations from moving the ruler and attempting to re-align it.

2. Repeat for the opposite long edge.

3. Line up the ruler with the marks on opposite edges and draw connecting lines.

4. Continue with the pattern instructions and use these lines to press folds and create the card slots.

DON'T draw the fold lines this way...

I am just as tempted to draw my lines this way as you are! In fact, that's why this post exists. I was doing this myself and saw the sometimes large discrepancy of spacing between the fold lines.

What you don't want to do is to use your ruler as a guide to directly drawing the lines. Do not align your ruler to the previously drawn line to draw the next line. Each time you move the ruler, it's likely you are introducing a slight discrepancy. Then, each discrepancy causes the next line to be even more off and so on. I provide in the pattern how wide the last section should be. This gives you a reference to know whether your lines are off.

The good part is that if that last section isn't the right width, you can easily fix it! Just go back, re-measure and re-draw your lines.

The top piece is measured the first way, the bottom piece is measure the second way. You can see in the close up photo that the lines are no longer matching towards the end. The right most section of the top piece is the correct width. The width of the bottom piece is about 1/8" too short. This example is modest, but just a little more variation in the earlier lines will make the last section even shorter.

Other things to think about

Ruler Lines:

One factor that affects both methods I've described is the thickness of the measurement markings on the ruler. If the line is thick, this will introduce variation in both methods. You could mark a little to the left or the right of center. This is why in the first method I encourage you to keep the ruler stationary while marking. Don't move the ruler in-between marks. If the ruler lines are thick, not moving the ruler will keep all the marks closer to an accurate measurement.

Fabric pen/pencil angle:

Okay, really? Yes! Normally this is a very unnecessary thing to think about. But again, we're drawing multiple folds on one piece of fabric. When drawing the lines, make sure the tip of your pen/pencil is right next to the edge of the ruler. This means the pen/pencil is likely at an angle to the ruler. If you reduce that angle and hold the pen/pencil upright, the tip may not fall right where the line should be...this happens with each line and voila, the last section width is off. TMI??

Don't forget to share your makes on social media!

I would love to see and share them.

Use the hashtag #arthousewallet and tag me @banjoflannel

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