Tutorial: Card Condo, a credit card and loyalty card organizer

Here it is!  The tutorial for the Card Condo I made last week.  This little organizer has 24 credit card sized pockets and two larger pockets to hold all of those plastic cards we seem to accumulate – credit cards, store loyalty cards, insurance cards, you name it.  You can keep them all neat and tidy in here where they won’t overload your wallet.

  A note about the pockets:  I created my credit card pockets a little differently than you’ll find in most wallet tutorials, which make the credit card pockets by accordian-folding a long strip of fabric.  I find the math for this overwhelming, so instead I decided to sew individual strips for each row of pockets.  It takes a little bit more time to sew, but it saves the massive headache of trying to keep all of those folds accurately measured and creased.

One other thing to note before starting this project:  All of these pockets create a LOT of layers to stitch through.  Some places will have as many as 12 layers of fabric that your machine will need to be able to stitch through.  The Janome MC 6300P that’s on loan to me sewed through this without difficulty, but you might want to do a little test with your machine first to be sure.

In addition to fabric & interfacing listed below, you’ll need 3.5″ -3.75″ quarter-inch elastic (or hair elastic) and a button.

Cut your fabrics & get them ready to assemble.

1.  Cover – 5.5 x 8.5″  Embellish as desired.  Interface with lightweight fusible sized 4.5″ x 7.5″ and centered on the back of the fabric.  (You’ll leave a 1/2″ margin all around the interfacing. )

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2.  Page bases – cut 3 of them 5.5 x 8.5″ each.  Interface with lightweight fusible (4.5″ x 7.5″ centered.)  Your pockets will get stitched to these bases, so make sure this fabric looks good with your pockets!

3.  Credit card pockets.  12 pieces 4.5″ x 8.5″.  You can use all the same, or mix & match.  They’ll be arranged on two panels, 6 pocket strips per page.  I used 3 coordinating prints, cutting 4 pockets of each.  Fold each pocket in half lengthwise and edgestitch across the folded edge.

4.  Large pockets.  1 piece 7″ x 8.5″.  Fold in half lengthwise and edgestitch across the folded edge.

These are all of my pockets – 12 smaller credit card pockets, and 2 larger pockets.

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Make the large pocket page.

1.  Pin the large pocket across the bottom of one of your page bases.  The bottom of the pocket (unfolded edges) should be aligned with the bottom of the page base.

2.  Stitch around the sides and the bottom with a 1/4″ seam allowance to anchor the pocket in place.

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Make the multi-pocket pages.

The card organizer has two multi-pocket pages, so you’ll need to do this part twice.  A quilter’s cutting mat with gridlines is really helpful for this portion of the project.

1.  Pin one of the pocket strips across a page base, with the folded edge 1.5″ from the top of the page base.  This will be the top pocket on the page, and you’ll build down from this to the bottom of the page base.

2.  Stitch across the bottom of the pocket strip (unfolded edges) with a 1/4″ seam allowance.

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3.  Zig zag the seam allowance to secure the raw edge.  I used a small zig zag.  On the Janome MC 6300P it was a length of 2 and a width of 2.

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4. Pin the next pocket strip across the page base, overlapping the first pocket.  The top of the second pocket strip should be 1/2″ below the top of the first pocket strip.  Stitch across with 1/4″ seam allowance, and then go back and zig zag the allowance to secure the raw edge.

5.  Continue working down the page base until you have stitched down 6 pocket strips.  The bottom of the last pocket strip should be 1/4″ above the bottom of the page base.

6.  Sew a line of stitching down each side of the page with 1/4″ from the edge to anchor all of the pocket strips in place.

Repeat all of this with the remaining page base and pocket strips to create two multi-pocket pages.

Put it all together

1.  Layer one of the multi-pocket pages on top of the large pocket page, right sides facing.  Stitch around all four sides with a 1/2″ seam allowance, leaving a gap to turn.  I’d suggest leaving the hole on the top, where there are only the single layers of fabric.

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2.  Clip the corners and turn right side out.  You might also want to grade the seam allowances on the thicker portions if there’s too much bulk.  Iron the seam allowances in on the turning hole, camouflaging the opening.  Edgestich around all four sides.

The photo here shows me turning the edge up so you can see both sides of the page – the multi-pocket page on one side, and the large pocket on the other.

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3.  Now we’ll finish up the cover.  Fold the 3.5″ piece of elastic in half and stitch it to the remaining multi-pocket page, halfway up the right side, with the loop facing in.  (The top of the second pocket from the bottom should be just about smack-on halfway.)   Stitch it 1/4″ from the edge.  I usually go back and forth a few times because I’m anal-retentive like that.

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4.  Now, lay the cover on top of the pocket page, right sides together.  Stitch around all four sides with a 3/8″ seam allowance, leaving a hole to turn.  Notice that we’re using a smaller seam allowance on this pair of pages.  That’s because we want them to be slightly bigger than the inside pages.

5.  Like with the other page pair, clip the corners and grade the bulky seam allowances if necessary.  Turn right side out, press to make the edges sharp, and edgestitch all the way around.

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6.  Take the inner page (the smaller of the two) and use a temporary marker to mark a line straight down the middle of the multi-pocket page.  On the one that I made, it was 3 5/8″ from either side.  Yours may differ slightly, so go ahead and measure to be sure.

7.  Center the inner page on top of the cover, with the multi-pocket pages facing up.  Stitch down the center line that you marked.  This line of stitching attaches to the two page panels together and creates a “book”.

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8.  Now, sew a button on to the cover for the closure, and you’re done.  I make that sound easy, don’t I?  It’s  little bit more complicated than that, stitching the button to the front without stitching through the pockets on the inside.  I got brave and put my finger in the top pocket so I could feel if the needle tried to go through.  I’m happy to say I didn’t prick my finger once.  🙂