passportholder-closed

I made this passport organizer a couple months ago for a craftster swap. I made it out of a dollar store dish towel (possibly the cutest DS dishtowel I have ever seen) and some spare plain yellow fabric I had in my stash. It has pockets for a passport, important credit card-sized cards, a zip pocket for change and other loose stuff, and a sleeve for keeping money or boarding passes for planes.

passportholder

Project Materials:

  • Dish towel or other cute fabric, $1
  • Lining fabric, on hand
  • Zipper, $1 or on hand
  • (Optional) Velcro-type tape, on hand or $1
  • (Optional) Hair elastic and shank button, on hand

Total: $1 and up

I didn’t take step-by-step photos of how I made it, but I wrote down the steps for constructing it and drew out rough pattern pieces in my sketchbook before I made it. I also don’t have specific measurements for these pieces at this time.

passportholderinstructions

I used 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper to draw and cut out the pattern pieces for each piece.

Pieces you need:

  • Outside
  • Inside lining – cut an inch or so wider than the outside to accommodate seam allowances for a zipper
  • Left side flap – make sure it is more than wide enough to accommodate a passport pocket
  • Passport pocket piece (on top of left side flap) – cut 1″ wider than passport to allow room for seam allowances
  • Small goodie pocket piece (on top of passport pocket piece)
  • Right side flap – narrow enough to allow cards to peek out from pocket
  • Optional: Velcro flap (2 pieces) – I ended up just using a button and hair elastic loop closure

Pre-Assembly:

  1. Measure and cut pattern pieces
  2. Cut lining piece about 6″ from right side and sew zipper on
  3. Sew seams on edges of flap pockets, passport pocket, and small pocket
  4. Sew small pocket on passport pocket
  5. Sew passport pocket on left side flap
  6. Sew pockets onto lining (right sides facing out, as it would look if you were going to use it)
  7. Sew credit card dividing lines on right side pocket, reinforcing seam at opening
  8. (If you are using a velcro closure): Sew velcro flap, sew velcro to outside piece
  9. (If you are using a button & elastic closure): Sew button to outside piece

To Assemble:

Sandwich everything together, right sides facing:

  • Velcro flap facing outside velcro OR Elastic band facing button
  • Lining with all pockets sewn to it
  • Leave zipper open to allow for turning

Sew around the outside of the sandwich layers, taking special care to reinforce elastic loop.

Turn inside out.

Sew a line down center of organizer (next to zipper) if desired.