DIY Carbon Fiber Wallet

This wallet is visually striking, incredibly useful, and actually pretty easy to make!

Carbon fiber is an undeniably cool material. It's fire resistant, in case your pocket or purse regularly bursts into flames, and carbon fiber is often used to block RFID signals. It has an incredible strength-to-weight ratio, so it results in a wallet that's thin and durable. It has an amazing space-age graphite look, and fortunately you can get small amounts of carbon fiber fabric on Amazon. (As an Amazon affiliate I earn a small commission from purchases made through these links.)

The woven carbon fiber material that I am using produces a thin, flexible folding wallet. If you prefer a more rigid wallet, perhaps with a money clip attached, then this isn't the tutorial for you. But here are some really nice-looking ones on Amazon.

If the carbon fiber look isn't your thing, I have also used my same basic wallet pattern to make wallets out of treadmill belts and other offbeat-yet-sturdy materials. Wallets require such a small amount of material and effort, that it's worth experimenting with whatever zany supplies you've got on hand. I could see this wallet working really well in a metallic fabric, or an outdoor oilcloth like you'd use for a tent.

At least 1 yard of 4" wide woven carbon fiber material (such as this twill weave or this honeycomb weave)

Heat 'n Bond Ultra

Lining fabric (I used cotton camouflage fabric, but any reasonably heat-resistant fabric will work)

Sharp scissors (or, if you have one, a rotary cutter and mat is a lot easier for this project)

Ruler

Sewing machine fitted with a size 12 Microtex needle, which may be called size 80 depending on where you live (or, if you don't have access to a sewing machine, a sharp hand-sewing needle and a good thimble)

Sturdy black thread (I'm using bonded nylon thread, but any synthetic thread that's labeled "heavy duty", "12 wt", or is sold specifically for buttons, upholstery and carpet should work just fine)

First, use some small scraps from each material to fuse a test piece, and check for any bonding issues. You will also need the test piece to check the stitch and tension settings on your sewing machine, so hang on to it for now.

Here's how to use the Heat 'n Bond:

• Heat your iron to the silk setting.
• Place the Heat 'n Bond onto the carbon fiber scrap, with the paper side facing up. The rough-yet-glossy side of the Heat 'n Bond should be against the carbon fiber. Make sure that none of the Heat 'n Bond is hanging off the edge of the carbon fiber, or else it will bond to your ironing board!
• Press your iron down for 2 seconds.
• Let the material cool down, then peel off the paper. You should be left with a shiny patch on the carbon fiber.
• Add a scrap piece of lining fabric on top of the shiny patch, pretty side up. Make sure to cover the entire shiny area with fabric, or else you will glue the Heat 'n Bond to your iron!
• Press for 15 seconds, moving your iron over slightly every few seconds so that there are no unbonded areas where the holes in your iron's sole plate were. Don't slide the iron - just move it over gently, or else the materials will shift.
• Let the material cool.
• Check the bond and make sure that everything looks good.

You will need to cut the following pattern pieces out of Heat 'n Bond:

1 piece 8.75" x 3.75" for the wallet back (22 cm x 9.5 cm)

1 piece 8.75" x 3.5" for the wallet front (22 cm x 8.75 cm)

1 piece 8" x 4" for the credit card pockets (20 cm x 10 cm)

You can cut all of your materials separately, but I recommend cutting the Heat 'n Bond to the correct size, fusing your materials together, and then trimming the carbon fiber and lining fabric to the edges of the Heat 'n Bond. This method works very well because once the material has been bonded, it cannot unravel. So you won't have to worry about the edges of the carbon fiber fraying after it's been cut.

You will notice that I used 3 different widths of carbon fiber for the wallet, but I didn't want to trim the carbon fiber lengthwise to get the narrower pieces. That would reduce the strength and increase fraying as I cut into the selvage. So, I just pulled the carbon fiber on the bias (check out the .GIF to see this process in action) to reduce the width. I fused the 8" x 4" piece for the pockets without pulling it at all, to use the full 4" width. Then I pulled it a little bit to fuse my 3.75" wide piece, and pulled it a little harder to bond it to the 3.5" wide piece of Heat 'n Bond for the wallet front. Reducing the width this way does result in some triangular scraps of material (because you are angling the edges when you pull the material, and then later cutting them straight again). But I still had enough material to work with.

After everything has been fused and cooled down, trim all of the pieces carefully to the edges of the Heat 'n Bond.

Now cut the 8" x 4" piece into four pieces that are each 2" x 4", for the credit card pockets.

Fortunately, the bonded material was very easy to cut with my rotary cutter, or even a decent pair of scissors. I was a little worried, because I have previously ruined a pair of scissors by cutting Kevlar, and I wasn't looking forward to sacrificing another pair!

You should now have 6 carbon fiber and fabric "sandwiches" that are held together by Heat 'n Bond in the middle.

Remember when I told you to fuse a test piece of carbon fiber and fabric? Now is the time to use the test piece to make sure your machine settings, needle, and thread are all working well for you. It's important to note that the ideal needle and thread for your machine may be different from mine. Based on my tests, I'm recommending a Schmetz Microtex needle in size 12, and a heavyweight bonded nylon thread. Your machine may prefer a different setup, but these supplies worked very well for me.

To be honest, I was expecting to need a larger size of needle! But the Microtex needle worked amazingly well. Microtex needles have a very sharp, tapered point that gets along with metallic fabrics and other picky materials really nicely. The larger sizes of needles seemed to require more force to penetrate the bonded carbon fiber material, and my Microtex needle didn't break or give me any problems even though size 12 isn't a super heavy gauge.

I set my machine for the widest zigzag, which is about 5 mm wide on my machine, and a stitch length of 1.5 mm (or about 16 stitches per inch).

The Heat 'n Bond package recommends not stitching through the bonded material, so here's a fair warning that your sewing machine may not like it... but in my experience it always works great, and I'm 100% going to do it anyway. I do have to choose my needle carefully and stitch fairly slowly because the needle will build up some friction as it goes through the bonded layers. I also have a really butch vintage sewing machine that will handle 8 layers of upholstery fabric without a problem, so be sensitive to what your particular machine can and cannot handle.

Try stitching through one layer of the test piece first. Then fold the test piece a couple of times and press it flat, to test stitching through multiple layers. Check your tension settings, which may need to be decreased since you are working with a heavier weight of thread than usual. And pay close attention to your machine as well! If it's showing signs of struggling with the material, it's better not to risk hurting your machine. This project is relatively small, and you can either use the hand wheel on your machine, or hand-sew the wallet if it comes to that.

Because the carbon fiber I'm using is so loosely woven, I want to zigzag stitch around the edges of each piece to stabilize them further. I'm planning for this wallet to hold up to some heavy use, and I don't want to rely on the Heat 'n Bond alone to hold the camo fabric and carbon fiber together at the top of each pocket. The sides and bottoms of the pockets will be held together by the assembly process, but I ended up stitching around all 4 sides of every piece, because it made me feel better.

I sewed with the aforementioned sewing machine settings, making sure that the needle sewed into the material with each zig, and just over the edge with each zag. This created a sturdy edge that was wrapped with thread, so I'm confident that the pieces will never separate.

Knot your threads at the beginning and end of each stitching line for this project. Or, sew a few stitches in reverse to lock your threads. You may also want to add a dab of glue on the knotted thread tails to keep them extra-secure.

Place two of the pocket pieces on top of the wallet front piece. Align the edges as shown in the picture, with the 2" sides of the pockets lined up with the sides of the larger piece. The pocket pieces should be halfway between the top and bottom of the larger piece, and all 3 pieces should have the carbon fiber facing up.

Hold the pockets in place with binder clips or clothespins, and stitch along the bottom edges of the pockets only, as shown by the pink line in the photo.

Place the other two small pocket pieces on top of the first two pockets, lining them up with the corners of the wallet front piece. The edges that you sewed in the previous step should be covered by the new pockets.

Hold the pockets in place with binder clips or clothespins, and sew along the inner edges of all four pockets. You will be sewing near the center fold of the wallet, as shown by the pink line in the picture.

Now place the wallet back piece on the table, with the camo side up. Cover it with the wallet front piece, carbon fiber side up. (All four pockets should be on top of the stack.)

Line up the pieces along the lower edge and corners, so that the largest camo-side-up piece peeks out a little at the very top edge. (Having the edges of the bill compartment slightly different heights like this will make the bill compartment a lot easier to open up.)

Hold the entire stack together by using binder clips or clothespins.

Sew around the two short sides and the bottom of the stack, as shown by the pink line in the photo. This will attach all of your wallet pieces and pockets together.

Remember to sew slowly, and take a break if you feel like the needle is getting hot from friction. You will be going through four thick layers at one point, where the pockets overlap, so be mindful of whether or not your sewing machine is struggling.

I sewed along each edge twice, for extra security.

Now, for the very last time, heat up your iron to the silk setting. (For the last time during this project, not the last time in your life, you dreamer.)

Carefully press straight down with the iron, to smooth out the seams and pockets so that your wallet looks fabulous. The Heat 'n Bond will try to keep the shape you give it while it's warm, so use this to your advantage! If it looks a little rumply, just press down again. Slide the iron over very gently and then lift it, so that the holes in your iron's sole plate don't leave any impressions on your material.

Now, while the wallet is still warm from the iron, bend the wallet over a ruler so that it folds nicely in the middle. Make sure everything is smooth, and weight the folded wallet down with a book so that it cools with the fold in place. Iron the folded edge, if necessary. You can also warm the wallet with a hairdryer, if you need to a more gentle way of shaping it.

You're done! Add some cash, your driver's license, and of course your American Express card so that you always have a form of payment that isn't accepted anywhere in the known universe.

Don't forget to check out some of my other upcycled sewing projects if you want to see me make stuff out of old jeans, placemats, vintage vinyl records, used produce bags, a bunch of clothing tags, a Mylar space blanket, and the worst pants I have ever seen.