Finally: A Holder for the Postcards!

So I needed a holder for the postcards for The New Book, right? And y’all fabulously suggested many possibilities, remember?

I shopped. Oh, yes, I did:  online and in Actual Stores. I looked at leather wallets and little booklets and fabric cases and paper cases. I thought about constructing something using bookbinding techniques. I could do that. But, after much thought—and after becoming, once again, determined Never Again to Shop, EVER, I decided I had to make my own, and it had to be made in the way I like to make stuff.

The problem, of course, is that I had no pattern. I do not make patterns, not in any sense of  actually “making patterns.” Plus, you know, the whole I Am Not Going to Measure Stuff Thang. Actually, I did measure some stuff for this, but not very carefully, and not often enough:  I had to rip out a seam and re-do it, since it somehow, in the process of being made, became too small. How does that happen? Who knows? Someone braver than I about measuring would surely have prevented this.

So I thought about this for a while, and I figured out some requirements:

1) I wanted it to be the right size—not big enough for anything but the postcards. No extra little pockets to tempt me to carry it as a bag. And no—NO!—handle!

2) It had to be soft but sturdy:  I wanted some structure but no real stiffness or rigidity. We have enough of the latter without its making an appearance in my accessories. . . .

3)  I wanted it to Go With the postcards. Coz, as y’all know, I’m Old Enough to LIKE the whole Matchy Matchy Aesthetic. Nay:  I LOVE matchy-matchy-ness. You Young People go on ahead with putting your navy blue plaid pants with your black print shirt and your brown knit sweater, with maybe some gray and some taupe thrown in for good, non-matchy-matchy measure. Me? I like things that look as if they have some relationship to one another. I like fabrics that come from the same source, you know:  the earth, as opposed to some coming from Planet Plastic and the rest coming from one of its moons. I like colors that make their neighbors feel good about themselves instead of going, “Hey, look at me! I’m just like you, only browner! And with stripes!”

4) In short, I wanted this little holder to make me feel happy every time I take it out to give someone a postcard. Opening up a little plastic box (I found some that are the perfect size, and they were on clearance, and I bought two for less than $3 total) would just make me sad. Esp. since the ones I bought are green, and green will not provide any degree of Matchiness at all.

This is what I came up with. Here are the three pieces.

I bought some fabric in the appropriate colors, since I don’t have much in the brown-ish family. [And isn’t that a surprise?] I bought some El Cheapo gold felt (it comes from the sixth moon of Planet Plastic). I ironed heavy stabilizer, cut the proper size, to the felt, and then I used fusible webbing to adhere that to the fabric. I stitched on the appliqués, and then I did the gold stitching on the side piece, and then I sewed it all together. And then I ripped some of it out and re-sewed. And then I added the rest of the stitching. I found a really old funky button—it feels like it was made from chewed-up cardboard—and braided a string to wrap around it. It will stand up by itself, and I like it.

Et voilà:

 

 

So now you know I did something with my week besides just the writing and the ripping of CD’s and the addressing of the postcards.