How Is This Done? Magic?

[zaynexpetty]

I have made a lot of wallets with these slit pockets. It cuts down on thickness but takes quite a lot of work. Used only glues(in copious amount), never stitched them. I usually use porous polymer fabric as interior. Looks nice, cuts down on thickness and weight but a headache to get them right. Tried to use canvas as interior but the weight made the glue ineffective.The steps are quite simple,

1)Cut fabric for interior in such size as it covers the lowermost pocket along with the part above the lowermost slit.

2)Repeat (1) for the required number of pockets.

3) Stitch or glue the cut fabric by stacking them in such way that they form pockets that are equal in area but each 1-1.5cm(the difference depends on the separation of the slits) higher than the other.

4)Stitch or glue the entire set of pockets to the exterior. The extended part of each pocket should be glued or stitched to the parts above the slits.

Pardon my English and my poor description of the process.

Here's a sample with polymer as interior :

My solution to the glue was to sew the ribbon pocket in.

Here's an example of what it looks like:

Horween_Minimalist-2.jpg

Lapis_Minimalist-2.jpg

I have made a lot of wallets with these slit pockets. It cuts down on thickness but takes quite a lot of work. Used only glues(in copious amount), never stitched them. I usually use porous polymer fabric as interior. Looks nice, cuts down on thickness and weight but a headache to get them right. Tried to use canvas as interior but the weight made the glue ineffective.The steps are quite simple,

1)Cut fabric for interior in such size as it covers the lowermost pocket along with the part above the lowermost slit.

2)Repeat (1) for the required number of pockets.

3) Stitch or glue the cut fabric by stacking them in such way that they form pockets that are equal in area but each 1-1.5cm(the difference depends on the separation of the slits) higher than the other.

4)Stitch or glue the entire set of pockets to the exterior. The extended part of each pocket should be glued or stitched to the parts above the slits.

Pardon my English and my poor description of the process.

Here's a sample with polymer as interior :

Let me draw an instruction picture to show you..... Actually the fabric lining was glued on the flesh side of the front leather, and when you sew the lining's two sides, it forms a card back....I wish you can understand the instruction picture. You can use a whole piece of fabric or cut them into pieces, both are OK.

I've made a couple of roper wallets using the ribbon for pockets. I learned to make these in a Chan Geer class and it was opinion that the glue bond was strong enough on its own to hold the pockets in place. After reading the other comments in this thread I decide to put it to the test. I built a small test pocket using just glue to hold the ribbon in place.

image.jpg

I took a piece of scrap and made a pocket with two credit card slots, then made the ribbon for the pocket and glued it in using Weldwood contact cement.

image.jpg

I then folded the leather over and clamped it in place and let it dry overnight.

image.jpg

I'm now in the process of repeatedly sliding a credit card into the lower slot to see how long it takes for it to break. When done properly Weldwood has a very strong bond to leather and I don't think the ribbon will pull away from the leather. I think the ribbon will wear out first but I don't know for certain. For my wear testing I assumed that a heavy user would might use their card three times a day, so I figured three insertions a day every day for a year would work out to about a 1000 cycles per year. That's probably easily twice what an actual user would do so it's probably a good stress test number. I would like it to at least last for ten years so I need it to make at least 10000 cycles to be acceptable, though I would prefer it goes twice that.

Right now I've put it through almost 3000 insertions and so far no problems. I'll keep it up and let everyone know the results.

Thank you all for your responses opinions!!!

Bob, I think you have figured it out, and your testing method/formula seems promising.

I think I may have to try the ribbon/glue technique out. Although I do like the idea of stitching reinforcing the ribbon/fabric pockets, I do think that it makes it look less appealing aesthetically. I like to make my items with as little stitching as possible, as I think that too much can easily complicate a sleek, minimal design.

The only problem I can see myself having is that I use weld woods green contact cement, which might not hold up as well as the original weldwood, but I will test it out and let you know!

Thanks!

Zayne

[Bob Blea]

Just an update for everyone. I have tested my pocket through just over 6000 credit card insertions and so far it looks good. I can see a little wear in the pocket lining but no signs the lining is detaching from the leather. I will post more once I have more wear on it.

[NVLeatherWorx]

Thanks for the update Bob. I would say, that unless someone is an EXTREME shopaholic (and that would have to be really extreme) that you have just tested the stress of the pocket lining to a level that I don't think many people would achieve in a lifetime. Then again, there is always that one that has to push the limit of what extreme really is. Would be interesting to see where it stands at 10,000 "uses" though.

[DoubleC]

I enjoyed reading this because I hate to make wallet interiors. However, right here in the pinned tutorials at the top is a Kevin King tutorial on making a wallet and he covers the glued backs. Although I think he uses some kind of special card stock. Cheryl

[RavenAus]

Knocked this up as an exercise, trying to work out the phone holder. Still not happy with that side but the card slots work great Wide ribbon pockets and slots, not too hard to make, everything works fine

[Hi Im Joe]

Just an update for everyone. I have tested my pocket through just over 6000 credit card insertions and so far it looks good. I can see a little wear in the pocket lining but no signs the lining is detaching from the leather. I will post more once I have more wear on it.

That's some dedication right there!

[Bob Blea]

Thanks Joe! If I'm going to sell these I wanted to make sure they were not going to fall apart after a few months.

Richard, I intend to keep pushing it to see how it does, but I'm with you. I think 10,000 will be a lifetime for most people.

[LNLeather]

Just an update for everyone. I have tested my pocket through just over 6000 credit card insertions and so far it looks good. I can see a little wear in the pocket lining but no signs the lining is detaching from the leather. I will post more once I have more wear on it.

Wow Bob, you tested it 6000 times? Hope you were also watching a good movie!

All kidding aside, I have an Oberon wallet that has this style of card slots that I have been using for about 14 years and I can put 2 and 3 cards in each slot and the wallet shows no sign of wear or tear whatsoever.

Just thought I'd mention that the slots are about 1/2 inch wider than the cards and there is a small round hole punched out at either end of the slots. I think the hole helps keep the leather from tearing

Also it looks like the material behind the slots is a thick Dacron and I can see it is wider than the slots.

Edited January 22, 2015 by LNLeather

[Bob Blea]

Wow Bob, you tested it 6000 times? Hope you were also watching a good movie!

Actually I have it here at my day job and when I get a few moments I can shove the card into it a few times. I just keep track during the day. It's more of a relaxation technique! My arm would fall off if I tried to do those all at once.

I punch round holes in the end of my slots too. I've been told that will help reduce stress on the slits and keep them from tearing with wear.

[Bob Blea]

So, its time for an update.

So far I've cycled the lower pocket over 9500 times and it's not showing signs of wearing out. However, I realized there is a flaw in my testing. The lower pocket was attached so that the bottom fold is glued to either side of the leather pocket. This means that if the bottom of the ribbon was to break or tear, the leather is actually reinforcing it and would prevent the credit card from sliding down any further anyway. The way I was shown to do this you glue the ribbon in between the two pieces of leather, so it's normal for the ribbon to be reinforced this way. But, I realized the fold at the bottom of the ribbon is taking to most stress on any part of the pocket. I really don't see wear anywhere else and the fold at the bottom takes all the force of someone pushing a credit card into the pocket. So, by having it glued on both sides, I might be hiding the biggest risk for using this kind of pocket.

Fortunately, my little test wallet has two card slots, and the upper one I left completely free of glue so I could examine everything for wear from the side. I have the view my (pretty poor) drawing above shows, and the upper pocket doesn't have any glue at the fold holding it in place. The upper pocket is only glued in where the ribbon meets the pocket mouth. So my second test it to forcefully push the card all the way to the bottom and make the ribbon stop it. If anything is going to fail its the fold in the ribbon as the card repeatedly pushes against it. I'm basically trying to use the credit card as a plastic knife to see how long it takes to cut through the ribbon.

As of now, I'm up to 4000 insertions into the upper pocket and the fold appears to be holding up well. It obviously won't last for ever, but I'm impressed with how well it's done so far. I'm shoving the card in pretty hard each time as I really thought this might be an easy way to break it. It has already reached a lifetime of between 4 and 8 years (assuming the user is pretty rough with it) and maybe more. I'll keep abusing it and let you know what happens.

[RavenAus]

Bob, that's an insane level of dedication! Thanks for all the effort. Have you worn out the card yet?

[Bob Blea]

Bob, that's an insane level of dedication! Thanks for all the effort. Have you worn out the card yet?

Ha! Surprisingly no. Neither the card or the pocket material is wearing that much. The card has rounded the edge that goes in a bit and it's kind of scratched up, but otherwise looks fine. It's been in the top pocket over 10000 times now and the bottom pocket 5000 and everything seems to hold up well.

[oclack]

I know this thread is getting old, but I thought I'd throw my two cents in...

I made wallets for a while using this ribbon pocket method (mainly because the t-pocket method was scary to me back then).

To cut down on weight and bulk, I opted to use black Tyvek instead of leather or cloth. Its so thin, that when closed you would only feel the two layers of leather. Someone else here on LW.net made that suggestion to me and I'm still grateful for it. It works great. The contact cement bond was plenty strong enough without any stitches. I used it in my personal wallet for two years and have received no bad feedback from customers. The problem is that it takes a lot of time to glue up.

Since becoming more serious about selling my goods, I'm now always concerned with productions times. I've since switched to the t-pocket method. Once I got going and comfortable with the assembly and prep steps I can easily produce 10-15 wallet interiors with the t-pocket method, compared to maybe 1-2 using ribbon-method the in the same about of time.

Now... If they ever developed a REALLY good double side 1/4" tape that held leather as well as Barge contact cement... I'd started doing more of the ribbon style card slots again. I could really crank those suckers out then.

[RavenAus]

Odin, how about spray contact adhesive and a stencil?

[zaynexpetty]

On 1/8/2015 at 11:03 AM, Bob Blea said:

I've made a couple of roper wallets using the ribbon for pockets. I learned to make these in a Chan Geer class and it was opinion that the glue bond was strong enough on its own to hold the pockets in place. After reading the other comments in this thread I decide to put it to the test. I built a small test pocket using just glue to hold the ribbon in place.

I took a piece of scrap and made a pocket with two credit card slots, then made the ribbon for the pocket and glued it in using Weldwood contact cement.

I then folded the leather over and clamped it in place and let it dry overnight.

I'm now in the process of repeatedly sliding a credit card into the lower slot to see how long it takes for it to break. When done properly Weldwood has a very strong bond to leather and I don't think the ribbon will pull away from the leather. I think the ribbon will wear out first but I don't know for certain. For my wear testing I assumed that a heavy user would might use their card three times a day, so I figured three insertions a day every day for a year would work out to about a 1000 cycles per year. That's probably easily twice what an actual user would do so it's probably a good stress test number. I would like it to at least last for ten years so I need it to make at least 10000 cycles to be acceptable, though I would prefer it goes twice that.

Right now I've put it through almost 3000 insertions and so far no problems. I'll keep it up and let everyone know the results.

Just curious, is it still holding up?

 

Zayne

Edited November 9, 2016 by zaynexpetty

[Bob Blea]

2 hours ago, zaynexpetty said:

Just curious, is it still holding up?

 

Zayne

Hi Zayne,

I hadn't played with it for a while but it's still sitting on my desk here.  I just rammed the card into each slot a few dozen times again and everything still seems to be holding up well.  No sign that the pockets are coming apart.

Bob

[JLSleather]

I stitch the pockets.  Using 42 or 69 thread, and a little thought, you can actually make the thread part of the design.  The pockets are made with taffeta.  For this one, the leather is 1 1/2 oz kidskin.

 

[bgl500]

If it helps someone, here's a video showing the method using a ribbon. The maker of this video says he uses double-sided tape and that it works well.