Lessons From an Old Wallet

Last week, I posted about a new zippered wallet. What I didn’t say was that it was actually a Mother’s Day gift for my wife. It was an opportunity to make a very nice gift and revisit the last wallet I made for her over 10 years ago. Although looking at old work often makes me wince, it reminds me how far I’ve come. It’s a helpful practice to see what details you have overlooked, whether they have improved, and what you should be doing to refine your work further.

My students often say that they only notice their mistakes, to which I reply, “Others will never notice.” And it is also true in this case, as my wife has made it her daily wallet ever since I made it. 

Time has aged this wallet, so judging an old, worn wallet against a brand-new one is a bit unfair. So let’s start with the good parts. 

All the right ideas are there, like how the parts fit together, the spacing, and their proportions. I still use 3mm stitch spacing, 632-sized thread, and a snap-closure for a bi-fold. I like the color choice; the tan’s warmth complements the black’s coolness. The ecru thread color ties them together both literally and figuratively. The texture of the liner is slight, matching the grain of the exterior alligator. 

I got lucky in some regards. The exterior alligator and the interior lining leather are too soft in temper. They are garment-type leather that only keeps its shape after sewing; this was a mistake. However, it worked out because this wallet was routinely over-stuffed with receipts, cash, and often three or four cards in each pocket (*cough* no judgements). The softness of the leather allowed the pockets to stretch to their desired, though unintended, capacity. The length of the closing flap is too short, something I realized soon after making it, but again, the poor choice in temper meant that it eventually stretched to close comfortably.

In many ways, my base technique hasn’t changed, but my execution has. Stitching is a tell-tale sign that this is my earlier work. Recently, a student lamented how bad her hand-sewing was, and I showed her an old project that had terrible stitching on it. It’s mostly good on my wife’s wallet, but you can see the inconsistent tension, which was magnified by the soft leather. This is also evident where the pockets overlap and the compartments join. 

Then there are the details that I got wrong. Skiving was the most glaring error. It’s acceptable at the top, but not at the bottom, where the most layers connect. I have long since learned to skive much more thinly. At the time, I thought I was already good until I stacked up all of the layers. For my students, this is the most obvious tell of their current skill. Skiving is hard for beginners; they either lack the technique, the sharpening skills, or both. Even when you have both, you might not notice how quickly the layers stack up, like I did.

Learning From Customer Usage

One other area to learn from is how your customers use your work. Choosing this new style vs the old one was not arbitrary. I surreptitiously took out her old wallet and examined it while she was asleep to see how she used it, what worked, what didn’t, and what the new wallet should do differently. I learned that my wife needed more organization.

This could mean more pockets, but seeing the contents and the old wallet’s usage, what she really needed was more space. This came with a catch. Knowing the purses she carried this wallet in, I knew her new wallet couldn’t be much bigger than the old one. I also knew that it didn’t have to be smaller. I have never seen her carry her wallet in a pocket. This is very common given the abysmal state of women’s pants pockets. 

This was a great design challenge, and I solved it by choosing a new base design and resizing some of the details. The zippered wallet base design was a good choice. Although she needed more organization inside the wallet, it could be simple. For example, I noticed she carries a lot of receipts. Her old bi-fold grew to a comical thickness after shopping. The zippered wallet creates a space for this in the open section between the card slots and the divider. It also compresses everything down when it closes, keeping the size compact.

A potential trouble area was the divider pocket for cash. Unlike billfolds, where you can easily see individual bills, this zippered wallet requires folding all of the bills to fit into the divider pocket. Again, I used my knowledge of her use and knew she doesn’t carry a lot of cash. So while the divider is a bit awkward for a lot of bills, it works when you only have a few.

The last modification was the width of the pockets. I knew she had more cards, so the six slots had to hold more. Here, I could have chosen softer leather, a lesson I had learned from the first wallet. Instead, I widened the pockets and used firmer leather. This will help to maintain the shape over time while accommodating multiple cards.

All of these design choices, along with my technique improvements, resulted in a much-appreciated piece that I hope will last many years to come. The old wallet showed me valuable lessons in refining my construction details and picking the right design for my very important customer. Have you had a similar experience learning from your old work? I’d love to hear about it.