How To Make The Best Duct Tape Wallet - Part 1

Welcome! This is my step-by-step guide with complete instructions for how to make a duct tape wallet (and it includes pictures!). These instructions will be for a bi-fold wallet, but you can add a third fold if you want. We are going to start with the "core" of the wallet, and then I will show you how to make various cool and awesome expansions.

Step 1

Get your tools ready. You should have an Xacto knife, a clean cutting mat, and a metal-edged ruler.

Tools at the ready. My cutting board has seen its share of battle.

Step 2

Choose your duct tape. Pick a good-quality tape; avoid the cheap, thin tapes you find at dollar stores and the like. They have weak adhesives and your wallet might fall apart after some use. I like to use two colors of duct tape just to make things more interesting--one as the main color and the other as an accent. Some color combinations I like are:

• classic silver duct tape with a black or blue accent;
• black with a silver or blue accent;
• yellow with a black accent;
• or whatever else you can think of that's not ugly.

You could also do mono-color or even tri-color if you want; I'm just trying to give you some ideas.

For this tutorial I'm going to make a black wallet with a navy blue accent.

Step 3

Determine the size of the wallet. Your wallet needs to be big enough to hold paper money (of course), and likely you'll want it to hold plastic money as well.

Hello, George.

A gift card for bookin'. Wallets tend to hold these plastic things as well.

This wallet will have 6 pockets for cards; three on each side. As you can see in the picture, a normal card is slightly less than 3.5 inches wide, so we can make each of our pockets 3.5 inches. Therefore, the wallet needs to be at least 7 inches wide, which is also enough to cover the bills.

However, there also needs to be some room between each side for the wallet to fold. How much room you give it is up to you, but it's better to be on the generous side. Half an inch would be the bare minimum, I would say. If you are planning on having a lot of cards (I have well over six), then it should be wider. If you plan on adding an ID slot (instructions soon), then it should be wider. For this wallet, I am going to use an inch of fold width, making the total width 8 inches.

The height of the wallet will be 3.5 inches. I chose this rather arbitrarily, but the wallet needs to be tall enough to hold the bills and the three card slots on each side. 3.5 inches can do this comfortably.

For clarity: the basic design of the wallet. It's a very fancy image, I know.

Step 4

Make the sheet. When making wallets, as in almost all duct tape craft, the basic unit is what I like to call a "sheet." This is a piece where no part of the sticky-side is showing; it's like holding a piece of leather in your hands. Except that it's duct tape.

This first sheet will be the main part of the wallet. I decided my wallet will be 8 in. by 3.5 in., so therefore the sheet will be 8 in. by 7 in. Why? Because we are going to fold it in half to make the billfold.
Question: Could I make two 8 in. by 3.5 in. sheets and stick them together? Yes, but don't. That adds an extra seam to your wallet which is not necessary. It also adds a slight amount of thickness. It's really easier just to make one big sheet, although it may not seem it at first.

To make the sheet, rip off some long strips of duct tape (over 8 inches long) and lay them on your cutting board. They should partially overlap each other. Use as many strips as it takes to make it 7 or more inches tall--I managed it in four. A ruled cutting board is really handy here. Make sure to smooth out any air bubbles after laying each strip.

Note that I made the strips longer than necessary on both sides. This is because we are going to cut the sides using the Xacto knife. Why? Because they're hideous, and if you used a "ripped" edge in your wallet it will bring the quality way, way down.

Ripped edge vs cut edge. Note that the Xacto-cut edge is much straighter, smoother, and all around better. You want those in your wallet, not the messy ripped one on the left.

Use your Xacto knife and your ruler to cut the duct tape into an 8 in. x 7 in. rectangle. Remember: measure twice, cut once. Be sure to hold your ruler firmly, and be VERY CAREFUL with the knife so as to not cut yourself.

After cutting, peel away the edges leaving just your beautiful rectangle.

Look at that clean edge. Gorgeous.

Now, carefully peel your rectangle off of the cutting board, and flip it over, laying it down with the sticky side up. 

Duct tape, sticky-side-up.

We are now going to cover the other side with duct tape, leaving no stickiness exposed. Be careful at this step--once duct tape sticks to itself, it can be very hard to peel apart without ruining it. If you want, you can hold down the corners of your sheet with masking tape to make sure it doesn't move. Now, very carefully, lay down a long strip over this sheet, with at least half an inch of the strip on the cutting board. Also, make sure it is longer than 8 inches, with a good margin on both sides. Press it flat against the cutting board, smoothing out any air bubbles, so that you can see the outline of the duct tape below. Here's a picture:

That first one is the toughest, but now the tape is affixed to the board and won't move. Cover the entire sheet in this fashion, being sure to leave a good margin around all sides.

Once it is covered, use your knife to cut clean, straight edges all around. I usually do 0.75 in. - 1 in. margins. Then, cut each corner at an angle, like this:

Here you can see the long straight margin cut, as well as the corner cut.

Do this for all corners. When you are finished, peel away the excess and you should have something like this:

Try to get those corners as close to the real corners as possible.

If you haven't guessed it yet, we are going to fold those margins over to make a sheet with nice, smooth edges. These sides are kinda long, though, so if you want to make the folding easier, you can cut each margin in half.

Makes folding easier.

Peel your sheet off the board and flip it over. Carefully fold the edges over. You want the fold to be straight and smooth. I recommend starting in the center of each edge and working your way outward.

If a wrinkle or some other bad thing happens, try to peel it back and start again.

Once you've done all the edges, you have a completed sheet! By this same process, you can make sheets of any size. And we will be making more sheets.

Phew! That was a long step. Maybe I should break it down into substeps.

Step 5

Fold it. Now we turn this sheet into a billfold. Fold the sheet in half, but not exactly in half; one side should be higher than the other, and the corners pressed slightly inward on both sides. This makes something of a pocket, which gives us easier access to the billfold when the wallet is opened. Take a look at the pictures to see what I mean:

The top half of the sheet is slightly higher than the bottom and more towards the middle of the sheet.  To make later steps easier, you can hold the sides in this position with a small piece of tape.

The back side is straight, but the closer side is popped out, making a convenient pocket.

Get a nice crease on that fold. Then fold the wallet down the center, putting a nice crease there too.

Hey! Want to add a double billfold to your duct tape wallet? Now's the time to do it. Click here for instructions.

Step 6

Make the sides. Lay your folded-in-half sheet on the cutting board, and rip a good-sized strip from your roll. Holding your soon-to-be-wallet in place, lay the strip on top of it, with about half the strip on the wallet and half on the board. Press it down firmly, smoothing it as always.

Note that the corner is still the way we put it in Step 5.

Next, cut off the ugly rip-edge, and cut out a triangle at each corner. This makes four "triangle flaps."

Lift your wallet off the board, and flip it over. Make sure your triangle points are touching the corner of the wallet. If necessary, make a few small correction-cuts.

The point of the incision should be a bit more to the left, touching the corner of the wallet. If it is not fixed, it will make a weird little nub after we fold it.

Fold the inner two triangle flaps over. Be sure to fold the top one into the wallet, so as to not cover your billfold.

Makin' progress.

Now, fold the strip over to the other side.

Once again, check your triangle flaps. Cut them if necessary. Once they're OK, fold them over too.

This needs to be trimmed. You can see how if it was folded as is, a little point would be sticking out.

Now, repeat that for the other side, and voila! You have a completed billfold! And it's made of duct tape! Awesome!

In part 2, I'll show you how to add the credit card slots. Hope to see you next time, and I welcome your comments!

Click here to continue to Part 2 of my guide.