Secret passport holder pseudo-tutorial

Guys I made a dress that I can actually wear! I'm so proud and I've been waiting to take a picture of it so I can post it, but the weather has suddenly decided to be cloudy and overcast after the hottest, longest stretch of over 30 degree Celcius days. I've put off making clothes from store bought patterns because I can never get the measurements right. I had a feeling I was not an American size 14 despite what my tape measure measurements told me, so I cut the smallest size (6) and it worked. Also the whole dress was made from a remnant piece I bought at 80% off so I paid $3.98 for a dress...score! Anyways now I've lured you in with the idea of a dress there is no photo alas, maybe tomorrow if the weather is good. But I've had this other pseudo tutorial lying around in my photos folder and thought it was about time to put it up. 

I was positive I took photos of this as I went, but it seems like I deleted them all when I was clearing my SD card so it would be nice empty to go overseas and fill up with more photos. 

So it is called a secret passport holder - the kind you take on holidays to secret away on your persons. The ones you can buy in stores and online market themselves as 'secret' or 'invisible' or both, but honestly? Not in a humid Asian country. Maybe if I was travelling to Europe in the middle of winter and hiding my neck pouch string under a scarf/ turtleneck, or hiding the fanny pack under layers of clothing. But in Asia where even one layer is enough to make you sweat, and some clever person will just cut the string of your pouch whilst it's on blatant display, I thought I better be craftier than them. 

 So can you see it?

 Nope? I'll give you a hint...

Found it?

Ta-dah. In your face fast fingered pick pockets. Ain't nobody going to get their hands on my passport. Lol.

So the basic premise of the secret passport holder is that it is a zip pouch with a looped elastic around the side and a fabric divider inside. The elastic loop is pulled through a belt loop and then the whole zip pouch is pulled through the elastic to form a closed loop.

The most important thing about this secret passport holder is that the lining is made from a waterproof fabric. Since the holder is kept nice and close to your body for security, in the nice hot countries it also absorbs all your lovely sweat, hence why I needed to launder it before photographing. I read somewhere that someone's passport became moldy from their sweat so I didn't want to take any chances. The divider compartment means that you can store your passport in one and spare cash, important jewellery and other valuables in the other side.

So my passport and ring were kept safely on my persons for the entire trip and the spare cash...well that was all used up.

The best part of the passport holder is that it just looks like you have something in your pocket (ha ha ha) and once you pop your phone in it is barely noticeable, even in fitted white pants.

If you want a rough idea of how to make it check out the wet bag tutorial as it uses the same fabrics and has tips on how to sew through the PUL. All you need to do is add in the elastic instead of the fabric handle, scale down the size to passport size and add in an extra rectangle of fabric as a divider if you want one. If you want a better idea of how to make one I can whip up a bad paint picture or a proper tutorial.

Happy Crafting!