Well the little ID holder key chain did not turn out as hoped. All was well until it was time to turn it out.

My zipper, a “metal all purpose zipper” that claimed to be “strong, durable, locking slider” was stuck. You assemble the thing with the zipper half open. Apparently with a locking slider zipper, it need to be pretty much open all the way. Even with the slider in the up & able to open position, it wouldn’t budge. And then all of a sudden, it did! And broke 3 or 4 teeth off in the process! Yippeee…

After spending several hours working on this, I was a little bummed. I went ahead and turned it out though, thinking, well there’s probably some way to undo the zipper and swap it out. (I always TRY to be optimistic about my sewing mistakes.)

Then I realized there is just too much bulk in the corners with all that binding. Oh the frustration! Also, I’m not dissing that tutorial at all. This was the first time I’ve done a binding like that and it completely could be my mistake.

After deciding there really isn’t a lot to be salvaged, I decided I would just modify the original design a bit, and make another.
I’m taking some inspiration from Keyka Lou’s pocket clutch pattern.

My first Keyka Lou pocket clutch
(Side note, that is a SUPER fun pattern. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Great directions, complete with pictures, make it a breeze to whip up. I made an enlarged one from the same pattern, and added a wrist strap. Its just a great little clutch to take to a wedding, or graduation, or anything when you don’t need to carry everything but the kitchen sink. The kitchen sink will definitely not fit. )

So I’m off to draw up some pattern pieces for this. The tutorial uses rectangular pieces, so I cut everything with a rotary cutter and straight edge. This is going to be a bit curvier. And without a locking slider zipper. lol. Chalk it up to experience I guess. I learned that I can in fact quilt something, sew in a zipper, and bind something today, so I can’t really complain!