Crafty Goodness...

I carry a checkbook (though I'm quite positive that in the next 10 years no one will.)  I don't have a check book cover.  Here's what I carry...

Gross, huh?  It's a bright lime green envelope (thanks Colleen!) that holds two smaller envelopes.  One of the smaller envelopes holds my checkbook and the other holds cash and receipts when we travel and take a larger sum of cash with us.  I pulled it out the other day in church to write a donation check and thought that I was pretty much crazy!  I thought "I should get a nice check book cover".  But I don't carry a register, just the checkbook, because I don't balance the checkbook.  We have duplicates (greatest thing ever!).  And, with a typical checkbook cover it can split if it gets caught in something else you've shoved in your purse (I'm a shover).

SO 


I decided to do something about my envelopes.  I had this laying around:

 and had recently read this blog by Colleen's friend, Jan about making cash envelopes for her Dave Ramsey-ness.  Today I thought, I should make a checkbook cover.  So I did.  But up until 2 seconds ago when I found the blog to link it in this post, I didn't go back to Jan's blog for her directions.  I just pulled out my checkbook for the measurements and guessed and by-gollied the rest.  And it worked!

I used a boring khaki fabric to put in the middle and the cute polka dots on the outside.  I knew I wanted it to be sturdy, but I didn't have interfacing like Jan mentioned, but what I did have was a white folder from Hudson Garden's that I was going to throw away.  So I cut a square out it to put it in between the dots and the khaki.  If a seamstress (or my mom [well probably anyone]) looked carefully at it they of course would see imperfections.  I ended up with too big of a square, but I already had such nice edges that I didn't want to do again, so I tucked them in a sewed them.  One side has two lines of stitching that almost look decorative, the other side, not so much.  But here's what it does...

 It will hold my checkbook in a less tacky way than my current lime green envelope does.  And I won't feel quite like a crazy lady with my envelope.  I will probably still carry an envelope of cash when we go on trips because it doubles as a receipt collector, but I never {Big SMILE} go on trips, so that won't be for a while.