Handmade Gifts for Boys Day 1: Trading Card Carrier Tutorial

Today fellow boy mama Stacey and I are back for our fourth annual Handmade Gifts for Boys series! We love this series so much!! We have some awesome tutorials and inspiration for you, plus a HUGE giveaway at the end of the week. So fire up your sewing machines and bust out your craft supplies, and get ready to make some gifts for the boys in your life! (And yes, of course, we know that many girls would love these gifts too! We have seven boys between us, so we like to help out other boy moms and boy gift-givers.)

My oldest recently got into sports. Like really into sports. He loves to play sports, but even more so, he loves to know all the facts and stats about the games, players, and teams. So I made him a trading card carrier for his football cards.

And yes, he’s a Packer fan. ;)

Supplies:

• Two pieces of not stretchy fabric (mine were 16×18)
• Clear vinyl
• Heavier interfacing, quilting batting, or felt — if you’re using quilting cotton, you’ll want something to give the carrier more stability. You can get away with not using this if you are using a sturdier fabric like a canvas, home dec fabric, etc.
• Snap or velcro closure – I prefer Kam snaps (affiliate link)
• Sewing machine/thread

1.Cut the vinyl slightly larger than the cards. My vinyl pieces were about 4in x 3in. This gave the cards plenty of room and would accommodate larger cards as well. More than one card can be held in the pockets. For this size fabric, I cut 12 vinyl pocket pieces.

2. Space the vinyl pieces evenly along the fabric in rows.  Don’t pin the vinyl. Either mark with chalk where they should go or use scotch tape to keep them in place.

3. Use a zig-zag stitch to attach the pockets to one piece of fabric. Make sure you back stitch at the beginning and end of your stitching (at the top of your pockets), or the stitching will come out as your kids put cards in and out of the pockets.

4. Continue until all pockets are attached to one piece of fabric. 12 pockets should fit four across, three down. I spaced them so there was a little bit extra space in the center for folding. I didn’t measure when I placed my pockets, I just tried to keep about the same distance between each pocket.

5. If you need to use interfacing, iron it to the wrong side of the other piece of fabric now.

6. Take the two pieces of fabric (one with the pockets, one without) and place them right sides together. *If you are using felt or quilting batting, this should go next to the wrong side of one fabric piece. It will end up sandwiched in between your fabrics.* Sew along three sides, leaving one short side open – this should be the side where you want your closure tab to go.

7. Cut two small rectangles of fabric for a closure tab.

8. Put right sides together and sew three sides. Turn right side out, press, and topstitch.

9. Turn the main fabric pieces right side out and press the raw edges of the open side under. Place the closure tab in between the fabrics and pin. Pin/clip the opening closed.

10. Topstitch that side closed and continue topstitching around the three other sides, all around the carrier.

11. Add a snap or velcro closure – one piece on the closure tab and one on the other side of the carrier. I put one of my snap pieces on backwards – your closure should go on top of the carrier, not inside. (But Kam snaps are awful to remove once you’ve put them on, and for a project like this, I wasn’t going to go through the effort. ;)

Then grab a pack of sports cards, Pokemon cards, whatever kind of cards your kiddo is into, and you have a great gift!

It’s such a fun way for the cards to be displayed, but also tucked away and kept safe. They can look through them, but they’re also a bit more protected.

You can fold it in half…

Or you can fold the bottom up and the top down before folding it in half to make a really easy to carry around! I love how small it gets, because then it really tucks the cards inside, and they aren’t likely to fall out.

An easy way to keep things organized and displayed or safely taken on a road trip or to a friend’s house!

Now make sure you head over to Boy, Oh Boy, Oh Boy Crafts to see what Stacey made for her boys! And don’t forget, more handmade boy gift ideas tomorrow!

If you didn’t follow along with our previous Handmade Gifts for Boys years, you can find all the tutorials here.

Remember, there’s a BIG giveaway coming later this week, so be sure to check back! Happy sewing!