Sabie Sews: Passport Cover Tutorial

Hello! I woke up this morning and decided to make up a passport cover to celebrate the fact that I bought tickets for myself and 2 of my favorite people to go to Ireland this summer. I started hunting everywhere for a tutorial that only held one passport and could not find anything I was happy with. So I had to make one.

I apologize for the photo quality on some of these pictures because my sewing room is dimly lit.

To start with, you need a passport to measure, 2 strips of fabric (2" x 12"), 2 pieces of fabric (8" x 12"), embroidery thread in the color of your choosing, and a passport to measure from.

If you want to, you could use one fabric and skip the strip insertion section on the inside, outside, or both. Eventually you need two pieces of fabric measuring 6.5" x 12.

I just love these red polka dots.

I used linen for the main fabric, which means I had to iron a lot during this process.

Then you are going to cut the 8" x 12" pieces in halfish leaving you with four 4" x 12" strips. They are oversized at this point so you can have more freedom when you select your final layout later.

Now you are going to sew the contrast strips to the main fabric. I pin like crazy to avoid fabric slipping.

Sew this all using a 1/4" seam. Make sure you take out the pins as you go to avoid running over them.

Once this is done, you are going to press the seam while it is closed to set the seam.

Then open it up and press to one side. Since I used linen, I pressed away from that to avoid a bulky mess.

Now you have this!

Next you need to add the second linen half with right sides facing.

Make sure you pin, pin, pin!

After you stitch it together with a 1/4" seam and press, you end up with this:

Now comes decision time. You need to decide what you want the cover to look like. You can center the passport on the stripe:

Or your might want to go for an asymmetrical look and have the passport not centered. This is why we made this a little oversized.

Once you make a decision, trim the strips to 6.5" x 12" and place these with right sides facing.

Don't forget to pin! I didn't pin on one side (left) because you need to leave one unstitched so you can turn it right side out.

Stitch this with a 1/4" seam too.

Then you are going to clip the corners and turn it right side out.

Fold in the open edge and edge stitch 1/4" from the edge.

Next is the part that I should have done before I put the layers together: The decorative stitching! I put a pencil line 1/4" from the edge of the stripe. I have never had an issue with pencil marks showing up after.

Like I said before, you might want to do this before you sew the inside and outside together, but it isn't the end of the world if you forget like I did.

Start the needle from the inside so that the knot will be hidden.

Then just do your best to keep a consistent stitch size as you work your way across the top and bottom. You could also add some cute embroidery, maybe the first letter of the name on the passport so you can keep them organized. Or an airplane! Or your favorite country! Or an adorable animal! Or you can just do lines like me.

Finish it off and hide the knot inside by pushing it in. This picture also shows the edge stitching from before.

Now we are almost there! Go ahead and fold everything in half and press it to make the fold more defined. Trust me, it helps!

I folded the sides over 1.75" and ironed the folds. Before you iron though, stick your passport in to make sure it fits. You might need to fold a little less or more over. Also, DO NOT IRON YOUR PASSPORT. I don't know if it would hurt it, but still, don't risk it!