Sewing with oilcloth

Months ago, I bought some oilcloth to cover an old card table and to make a tablecloth for the kitchen table.  I love both tables.  And I love that most everything that gets marked on the oilcloth comes off pretty easily.  I covered the backs of the chairs that match the card table, but haven't tackled covering the seats yet.  I need to get a little more cloth to do it. 

I did have some pieces leftover though.  And recently was inspired to sew up some cash wallets for the kids.

 Each one is a little larger than a dollar bill.  I've been reading a book - Cleaning House- a 12 month experiment to end entitlement in our kids. I think that's close to the title at least.  The author pays her kids a dollar a day for the month and expects certain chores to be done each day.  The first month she focussed on a tidy bedroom and made bed.  The next month she added in kitchen duty where one day a week each child was responsible for planning, cooking and cleaning up dinner.  Each month she added something new - laundry, house maintenance - but never increased the pay.

So we're trying her system out a little bit.  The kids' bedrooms have never looked so good for so long.

I have been really bad about forgetting allowance, and don't like the idea of tying it to certain chores.  But this way makes a lot of sense to me.  The author used some kind of plastic container on each child's dresser, but I decided the wallets would be better for us.  And I had been using a similar pencil pouch to hold my cash for awhile...

After I made the wallets for the kids I decided to try to improve on my own wallet.  I had a separate holder for my bank cards from the pouch for my cash.  I like to write down the amount I've spent - trying to keep track for budgeting purposes - and my register was also separate.  So sometimes I would pull out my cash wallet only to have to put it back and pull out my cards after my purchases were totalled.  And after the sale I rarely had my register in hand to write down the amount or to hold the receipt to write it down later.  So I made this:

One side for the cards I use most, and one side holds the register.  Zippered in the middle is my pouch for cash.  So far I like it.  I would probably tweak the design if I made another. 

I also made a couple other pouches with the zipper at the top of the front.  Julia wanted to use the first one I made like that to hold pencils and stuff in her backpack.  That always makes me feel good. 

I owe her some bigger projects - Halloween costume, other dress/skirt/clothes we talked about me making, and a few hats she found in a new book of hat patterns I recently bought.  Maybe if those projects use up fabric stash and scraps like these do I will soon be inspired to get working on them, too.