Upcycled Education: {Upcycled} Juice Pouch Wallets

Because we all need a break from work......

Here's an easy weekend craft to give yourself a break from studying or if you are a teacher, grading papers. Mr. UpCyclist and I both carry a juice pouch wallet and get compliments all the time on how fun & unique they are.

You need:

Two clean juice pouches (like Honest Kids, Capri Sun, etc.)
Goo-Be-Gone (explained below)
Velcro (see photo below)
Sewing machine
Scissors

Step #1: Get all the kids in your neighborhood or in your classroom to drink juice from a pouch.

Step #2: Using scissors, cut a small slit on the bottom of each pouch, so you can easily wash out the inside of the pouches.

Step #3: Give the pouches a bath. Ahhh....the life of an {upcycled} pouch.

Step #4: Let the pouches dry overnight. The next day, I like to place a small paper towel inside the bottom slit to collect any excess water. That's a Martha Stewart tip, by the way. She does that in her vases, reportedly. Now, for the Goo-Be-Gone: Sometimes the glue used to adhere the straw to the outside of the pouch leaves a sticky residue. The Goo-Be-Gone gets rid of that residue from the outside of the pouch lickety-split. I found my small bottle of Goo-Be-Gone at the Dollar Store. Home Depot has Goo-Be-Gone, too.

Step #5: You are about to start sewing. You are going to line-up two pouches like I have below. One pouch should overlap the other pouch about 2 inches.

Step #6: You will then sew two zig-zag lines across the two juice pouches while they are nice and aligned with each other. Two zig-zag lines is adequate to hold the pouches together.

Step #7: Now, begin folding your pouch into a wallet. Notice how I rounded my bottom corners. That way, the bottom corners aren't sharp.

Step #8: Sew a straight stitch up one side of the pouch and sew another straight stitch up the other side. It is very pouch-like now.

Here's a close-up of the rounded corners all sewn......Notice I use a straight-stitch for the sides - not a zig-zag stitch.

Step #9: Time to round the corners of the top flap. Then, sew a straight stitch around the edge of the top flap to keep all the layers of the juice pouch together.

Here's a close-up of the top flap....

This is the Velcro I like to use. I'm all about a Sticky Back in the little square shape. I have found this Velcro at Joann Fabrics & Crafts, Home Depot (or was that Lowe's?) and Walmart.

Step #10: Take the soft side of the Velcro and adhere it to the main pouch.

Step #11: Now, line-up the rough side of Velcro and adhere it to the flap. The directions say to let the Velcro adhere overnight before using. I generally follow this advice for maximum adherence.