Have you ever seen a teacher without a teacher bag? I haven’t. In my case, I have a giant teacher bag with a reinforced bottom. It can hold a grade book, file folders, sets of papers, and a binder or two. My big ‘ol teacher bag does not have room for my purse, and I do not want to lug around an extra piece of luggage to school every day. Instead, I keep my debit card, driver’s license, and maybe a few dollars in a small wallet that can be moved easily from my teacher bag to my regular purse as needed. Most teachers I know have a similar “mini wallet” system.
I needed a small birthday gift for a co-teacher at my school, so I decided to fill a mini wallet with a gift card. My birthday buddy can use this little sirsee as her “teacher bag wallet” after spending the gift card. If you are planning on giving a gift card to a teacher this year, step it up a little and enclose the gift card in a cute little wallet-y coin purse type bag. It will be the gift that keeps on giving! Plus, it meets the generic but personal criteria for teacher gifts.
The Wallet: I found these sewing cards by Valori Wells that have easy patterns. I used the Little Wallet pattern card. If you have two fat squares of coordinating fabric, you can make two to three wallets. I sewed a snap to the inside, but a button or other embellishment can be added to the outside of the flap for looks. The finished wallet has three pockets.
Uses:
- Gift card holder
- “Go” wallet that transfers between purses and work bags
- Grocery (and all other stores) loyalty card holder
- Sandwich and frozen yogurt shop punch card holder
Gift Card Ideas: Some gift cards work better in $5 or $10Â increments. Here are my suggestions. What am I missing?
- Starbuck’s (or other local coffee shop)
- Barnes and Noble (or other book store)
- Nail salon
- Gas station or grocery store (not very sexy but useful)
- Sandwich shop (particularly one that is close to the school)
- Movie theatre (include enough $ to buy 2 tickets)
Cute! I have my laptop bag which fits a few files that are usually double the size for the space, then I stuff in the small but not fitting purse in the top. And then there’s the lunch, the rest of the files, and a million other things barfing out the top. I prefer to not have a grandma bag, but it’s gotten to the point where I’ll pull a beach bag or something. Too much!
I don’t even bother with the laptop bag any more. I can’t carry it all. I use my home computer, e-mail myself any docs I create at home, and transfer to my school computer from the e-mail.
Yeah, but my computer is so darned old at work that I find that I get very annoyed. Otherwise, I would leave the laptop most days.
LOVE it!!! What a great idea, and pretty too! My teaching bag is horribly full at all times, but I could totally make room for this!
They are a good little size. They sort of remind me of these little wallets I had in college that would fit on your key chain. Did you (or anyone) have one of those?
I did, but not as nice as this one! 🙂
I love this idea! I would like to have my 12 year old make them for her birthday gifts. . . Maybe Christmas too. Where did you get the pattern from?
You can order them from the Valeri Wells/Stitchin Post website (click the link in the post above). The sewing cards are $3. I’ll bring the card to school Monday and show you.
Definitely good birthday gift idea for young people to make for their friends. My girls (8th grade, 5th grade and 2nd grade) could all handle the sewing on these. They would need help with the cutting and the pattern piecing, but could otherwise sew them on their own, more or less. And gift cards are huge among the middle-school set.