Brandt's Boulevard - Flash Sew Along!

This is a speedy sew along, with a quick pattern!  We'll leave it open through the weekend so everyone that wants to can have a chance to join!  You'll need to be a member of the ChrisW Designs group on Facebook and then respond as "going" to the Event, plus sew along to be eligible for the prizes!  Make sure you join, Amanda has graciously offered to do some live videos of the wallet!

The Brandt's Boulevard is one of the Easy Street Patterns, and I've done sew alongs for it before, but it's a great pattern and I get orders for it all the time!  I finally broke down and made a template for the strap piece with my dollar store cutting board, but it keeps wandering off...the template is great because I can audition my cuts before I actually make them to see what will be covered by the tongue lock!  Since I can't find my template (maybe need to clean the sewing room...eventually), I made a new one and I can show you the steps!

Template piece, auditioning my placement!

First off, print your pattern pieces and assemble them (Amanda shows how to do that in the video!)

I bought my clear-ish cutting boards at the dollar store, $1 for 2 and they are super handy to make templates for wallet and flaps!

Stick the pattern piece underneath, you can see the lines to trace!

Put the cutting board on top of the pattern piece.  If your paper keeps sliding around, stick a piece of tape on the bottom side to hold it in place.  Trace with a sharpie or other permanent marker.  Include things like placement for connectors, seam allowances, and other markings.  I also like to make a note of WHAT I'll be cutting with this template.  Now, for the most important part, LET IT DRY!  Since the cutting boards are meant to have stuff slide right off them, the marker will take some time to 'set' and if you try to do anything with it too soon, you end up smearing it.

letting it dry!

Carefully cut out

Cut out your new template! I use some scissors for scrapbooking from Tim Holtz, which are heavy duty but small and easy to control!  I also use them for my vinyl cutting.  You can see that I marked some dotted lines on the top for a seam allowance, so I can fussy cut my strap!

Don't forget to leave room for the closure!

When you are using it to cut, be aware that rotary cutters WILL cut through the mat, so you may want to trace the outline using a disappearing marker or tailors chalk.  I lost count of how many of my templates are now slightly off because of overzealous rotary cutting...but since they cost less than 50 cents to replace and only take a few minutes to make, it's not a big deal!

If you are following along in the group, I believe they are already done with the prep work, but I'm not that far yet so don't feel bad if you haven't even started!  I can't wait to see what everyone chooses for their fabrics!