Preparing the Material for a Homemade Wallet

Video Transcript

"Okay, now we need to prepare the material. Most people would recommend that you should wash and dry your material before you start, I say that's debatable. Some materials you have to, some depending on what you're making, not as necessary. This dress I made and I did not pre-wash any of the pieces just because my washer and dryer was in the basement, and it was to much work and I decided not to, and it shortened up on me a little bit, but I'm going to add another layer to the bottom, and I'm okay with that, but you have to be prepared for it to shrink. But it is important that you iron it if you want your piece to look uniform. And I always try to start from the middle, kind of work your way out towards the edges. Make sure that when you buy your material you pay attention to how to wash it, because otherwise you will get home and it does not have a wash care tag on it. So the only way you're going to know is if you look when you purchase it. If you have a material that you got second hand, say from goodwill or something like that, I definitely would recommend washing and drying it. But if you're going to be guessing, because there again you're not going to have a care tag, and then you want to start with the lowest iron, so that you don't scorch the material because it will ruin it. And once it's ironed, then you'll be ready to create a pattern."