Women on a Mission: Mom Edition: New Coupon Holder

Posted by Ethne~

Lori and Steve stayed over at our house this Saturday night on their way through town from a wedding. Fun! We loved having someone new to cook for, we stayed up late catching up on gymnastics Olympics US Team Trials, we talked Girls Trip 2012 and, of course, talked Wom-Mom! Oh, and I had to try out some new make-up skills on Lori so she would be the foxiest lady buying shelving at Ikea today (I’m practicing make-up for GT)!!

We also managed to give Lori a hard time about her couponing. She’s been slacking. Feel free to comment on this post and give her a hassle, or better yet, encouragement. Shaun, on the other hand, has been awesome. The Bellatoria brand breakfast pizzas we had for breakfast – dalish – he got for FREE with coupons and in-store specials combined.

Steve said maybe he’d just stop mowing the lawn till Lori gets back to couponing. A stand-off?!

Meantime, I’ve been a faithful couponer. I can save 15% on couponing trips. That’s not awesome, but it always amounts to cash off of my purchases. Shaun can get up to 25% off of his trips.

I made a really cute coupon portfolio a while back. It fit into my purse really well; had two slots which I divided between food and non-food coupons; and it tied shut to keep things all nice an orderly. The problem is that it wasn’t wide enough for coupons these days. I had to fold most coupons in half which meant that my holder got really fat and the papers got ratty.

So I started using a large manila folder. Size-wise, great. Fit in my purse, yes; held together, nope.

I decided to make a new coupon holder out of fabric, which will hold up well – and free since I have my fabric stash – in the size of my ratty manila folder.

It needed to have some strength, so I used colorful pink canvas that I paired with bright green lining fabric. I wanted it to have a little flair, so I use some Wonder-Under and bit of yellow and purple fabric. I used a 5” piece of elastic from my elastic stash to make a loop for a button to keep the envelope closed when not in use. If you don’t have stray elastic in your stash, use an elastic hair tie.

I estimated the size going off of the page of a piece of newspaper. My pattern measured 11”x11.5”. I cut one of the canvas and one of the lining.

Pin the fabrics, right sides together. The 11.5” sides will make the long open top of the envelope, so on one of those sides, stick the elastic loop into the center. The loop will be INSIDE. Pinch the ends of the loop together where the elastic sticks out of the seam so the pieces will be close together where they stick out of the edge of the finished envelope.

Sew the piece all the way around, using a ¼” seam allowance, and leaving a 3” hole open on one side for turning the piece right side out.


I put double pins where my turning hole needs to be so I don't forget and sew it shut by accident

Snip the ends of each corner before turning the fabric right sides out. This will make the corners nice and crisp. Be careful not to cut your stitching.

Turn the piece right side out and push the corners out with the tip of your scissors or a chopstick. Iron nice and flat.

Go back and topstitch, close to the edge, all the way around. This will close up the turning hole and reinforce the elastic for the button.

If you choose, now would be the time to appliqué fabric accents onto the front of your envelope (the side the elastic loop is on).

Fold the envelope in half along the 11” lengths. As I said before, the envelope will be 11.5” wide, so it is the 11” that gets folded to form the envelope. Pin and sew down each side, following the same sewing line as the topstitching.

Now all that’s left to do is sew on your button! I picked a large button to hold the elastic really well. I played around with positioning it with what I thought would be where the elastic would hold the edges of the envelope folded over just slightly. It ended up being just about center of the back of my envelope.