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The Midori Traveler's Notebook captured my interest several years ago. But, being a single piece of leather with some cords, I figured I could do it for next to nothing and have a story to go with it. What followed was a reconstruction and appreciation for their Passport size which has become my wallet for the better part of two years.

Recreation of the Traveler's Notebook, Passport size, with money clip and card holder.
Final form.

I've learned a bit since originally making this. The leather I used is not ideal for this application due to its thin profile which makes it floppy. I eventually would like to try various leather hardening techniques, but I've found that laminating a thick paper to the piece with white glue provides enough stiffness. This is a recent addition, though. I experimented with it on another book, but never bothered to update this one until yesterday.

Though the base material isn't ideal, how I acquired it was a formative experience. In school, there are plenty of cliches and tropes about various majors. Many an accusation have been lobbed at mine, not all unfounded. In our little group at the time, we saw fashion majors as "too good" for the rest of us and a bit stuck up. That said, I figured they would have some spare, scrap fabric I could scrounge, so I ventured to their floor with some friends. While timidly walking into the sewing area, one of the faculty in conversation noticed our obviously out-of-place presence. He asked what I was looking for, and I said, "fabric scraps." He motioned to a bin. As I started to poke and prod at the collection of offcuts, he asked, "what is it for?" I gave him a quick description of the project and he said, "oh, follow me," and proceeded to bring us to the fabric room. I had told him what I was hoping to find, and he pulled out a role of leather and handed it to me. "Does this work?" I looked it over, and it was about as good as I could have hoped for in terms of color and look. Expecting him to cut a piece off, I stood there stupidly idle. "What, do you need more?" He was actually giving me the whole role... I couldn't believe what was happening. "Oh,,, no, thank you!" and we walked out in shock to discuss the implications of what had happened. Needless to say, I gained a lot more appreciation for the various departments. If I walked into our clay studio as another major and asked for a brick of clay, I'd probably have been denied.

Moving on, the money clip is from my mom who had it passed down from her grandfather. It has an Irish penny embedded in it. It's fallen out once so far and is starting to come loose again, but it's easy enough to re-secure. I like the tie to family, and her side were known for being crafty. Some of them were harp builders, and we had a couple of them for a while.

Filled with goodies.

My day-to-day usage consists of pulling out my credit or debit card or the occasional pen use to sign a bill. Inside, I have a Fisher Bullet Space Pen with a bold refill held in by a pen holder grasped by a money clip, cash (not pictured), a cardboard covered set of pocket notebooks that were gifted to me, and a card holding band glued to the back with my ID and various cards. Originally I had my own cut paper as the insert. I filled them up and before bothering to cut new ones I figured I'd try a couple of the pocket notebooks I'd been given as they were the right size. So far, they're doing the job. I added the cardboard in order to provide some stiffness to make it easier to write, as it was difficult to write without it. I'll probably go back to my own cut paper or custom notebook inserts once I fill these up, though. These aren't very high-capacity in terms of page count, and I nested two of them to have enough pages to be useful.

Bullet pen and notebooks.

The card holder is a strap of leather with four lateral cuts in order to act as a loop for a card-sized item to fit. It's been glued to the back with white glue. It's stretched a bit now that there are about four cards per strap, but as long as I don't have less, it still holds just fine. If I want to downsized for any reason, it does make things loose, and cards will fall out. I like the practicality of being able to access them without opening the notebook, though. I think I'd like it a lot less if I had to continually remove the elastic band just to use a credit card.

ID and other cards.

In a world of Ridge wallets and billfolds, this notebook brings a bit of whimsy to my wallet usage. Most people think it's just a notebook, but it's fun explaining that it's actually my wallet. When I finally stop dragging my feet on getting a passport, it will fit perfectly as an insert, and it'll have even more utility. Though I enjoy the Bullet pen, I think I went too large on the refill. Something with a finer point would be nice and a likely upgrade after the ink runs out. I occasionally carry my Kaweco Liliput with a similar sizing issue, but have never used it for that reason.

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