Tutorial: The Pixie Hexie Wallet

This is a great project that is fully sewn and assembled by hand! If you have never made hexagons before, I will briefly walk you through how I made mine.

The fabrics I used for my wallet are all from Laurie Wisbrun's line for Robert Kaufman called 'Olive the Ostrich'. Laurie's signature animal prints (in this case, a super-cute duo of ostriches!) are combined with cute red and pink coordinating fabrics. I really love these...I have fabric from all of her lines and they are just so great for many things (I used Tufted Tweets for both a quilt and a dress, and I'm still hoarding a yard of each of them, lol!).

Finished size: 6-1/2" x 3"

Supplies

- 40 squares measuring 3.5" x 3.5" (or a charm pack would work great!)
- 1/6 yard Pellon SF-101 Shape Flex fusible woven interfacing
- 16.5cm x 8cm metal purse full frame (I purchased mine here)
- hand sewing needle and thread
- fabric glue (I used Aleene's Original Tacky Glue, and also UHU All-Purpose Glue)
- small paint brush
- paper clip

Printer Friendly Instructions and Pattern Pieces

Making the Hexagons

1. Cut out your hexagons from the fabric squares using the template provided in the link above. I used the middle-sized hexagon on my Accuquilt die.

2. On your printer, print out copies of the hexagon template. Cut out each of the hexagons. You should have 40 hexagons (with 5 extra).

3. Take 1 fabric hexagon and 1 paper hexagon. Place the paper on the wrong side of the fabric, approximately centered. Fold down 1 edge of the fabric to the edge of the paper, toward the wrong side of the fabric, and paper clip in place.

4. Working counter-clockwise, fold down the next side of the fabric. With your needle and thread (the end should be knotted), baste through the first folded edge and come up on the second. Even though basting is a series of temporary stitches, you still want the thread to be taut and not loose, so your hexagon holds its shape around the paper. Fold down the third folded edge, then sew through the second/third. Repeat until all corners have been sewn through. Be careful not to sew through the paper! Tie off the end of the thread.

5. Press the hexagon well, then remove the paper.

6. Repeat Steps 3-5 for all remaining hexagons.


Sewing the Hexagons Together

1. Divide your hexagons into 2 separate piles. One pile will be for the front of the wallet, and the other for the back of the wallet.

2. Your layout for each side of the wallet will be as follows:

3. To sew the hexagons together, I just add 1 at a time. To start out, take 2 hexagons, right sides together. Choose the edge that you will be sewing them together, and place that edge facing you. Sew with small stitches, very close to the edge of the fabric (mine are approximately 1/16" away; just make sure that your seam allowance is the same while attaching all the hexagons).

4. Add your next hexagon! It doesn't matter what order you sew them together, but it can be helpful to add another one where your thread left off (so you can continue on sewing instead of tying off and starting a new thread). You will always be sewing the new hexagon right sides together with the edge of another. If you find that the new hexagon is intersecting the seam that you just made, be sure to flatten the hexagons against each other and especially pay attention to the corners to make sure you get a nice tight seam.

5. After all 20 hexagons are attached, press the unit flat. Repeat to assemble the other side of the wallet.


Finish the Wallet

1. Fold your interfacing in half. Take 1 of the hexagon units and place it on top. Trace around the unit on top of the interfacing, then cut out the interfacing. You should have 2 pieces of interfacing. Fuse 1 piece of interfacing to the wrong side of each hexagon unit using manufacturer instructions.

2. Take 1 hexagon unit and remove 1 of the shells from the wallet. Spread the fabric glue (I used Aleene's Original Tacky Glue here) onto the shell using your paintbrush. Make sure that the entire shell is covered, but be careful not to use too much so that the glue doesn't saturate the fabric.

3. Place the hexagon unit on top of the shell and apply light pressure. At this time, the hexagon unit should be overlapping the shell on all sides. There will be excess fabric at the corners; gently fold the corners over in a pleasing manner. Using a small amount of fabric glue, glue each of the folded corners down.

4. Using scissors or a rotary cutter, trim the excess fabric from all edges of the shell.

5. Place a small amount of fabric glue on the ridges of the metal frame (for this portion only, I used the UHU All-Purpose Glue - it's slightly messy, but has a really strong hold). You don't want to use too much because any excess will come up and onto your fabric.

6. Place the shell into the ridge and apply light pressure for a few seconds.

7. Repeat Steps 2-6 for the remaining hexagon unit and shell.

8. Leave the wallet open at least an hour to allow to dry.

I hope you've enjoyed this project! It's a fun little bit of sewing to take on the go. You can also embellish the front of the wallet with fabric flowers or applique before you glue the hexagon unit onto the wallet shell (I appliqued a larger hexagon onto the front of mine!).

And now...how about that giveaway?!? One lucky winner will be chosen at random to be the recipient of this lovely fat quarter bundle of 'Olive the Ostrich', courtesy of Laurie Wisbrun and Robert Kaufman Fabrics!! Thank you Laurie!

To enter the giveaway, please click the link below to take you to the entry page. You have until August 31st at 7pm CT to enter!

This giveaway is now closed! The winner is #39 Anonymous (left an e-mail address).

Click Here to Enter the Giveaway!