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Things to sew for travel... |
In today's third post on things to sew for travel (first post here, second post here), I'm going to be looking at
passport and travel documents organizers.
This was a topic close to my heart right from the early days of this blog.
About six and a half years ago, I featured a bunch of passport organizers in
this post, concluding at the end that none of them had what I really wanted.
What I wanted was the ability to carry two of them — i.e., for a couple
— as one unit, because whenever we travel, I tend to be the keeper of the
important things. However, a passport being what it is, it needs to be
carried by the person to whom it belongs at various junctures.
Therefore, it's convenient for an organizer to have the ability to be
separated into individual "pieces".
In the end, my personal solution to the problem that I had with all of the
other passport organizer designs was to add the utilitarian element that you
see pictured above to the one that I made.
What is that, you ask? It's a couple of hook and loop tape adhesive dots
that allow two of my
Passport & Travel Document Keepers
to stay together.
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| A keeper for important travel documents... |
Each unit — there are two shown above — has two clear vinyl pockets edged
with ribbon, a secure zippered pocket, and a full length slip pocket.
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| Full length slip pocket for paper documents... |
For times when you need to show your open passport, a ribbon "book mark"
keeps it at the right page while allowing the passport to be held securely
in place.
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| Handy bookmark to keep your passport open to the right page... |
When the passport is not needed to be shown again and again, it can be kept
closed in the angled pocket on the back.
Another thing that a traveller is repeatedly asked to show these days is a boarding pass. Here is the clear boarding pass pocket.
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| Boarding pass pocket and zippered pocket... |
Here's how I positioned the hook and loop adhesive dots to ensure that my
two organizers stay affixed to one another when not needed.
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| A simple solution to a significant problem... |
While the velcro dots work for me, for those who need to keep more than two of these together, a commenter had the idea to add a loop of ribbon to each.
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| Add a ribbon loop at the top if you want to keep several of these together... |
You can then "lanyard clip" them to a tote bag or just use a basic carabiner
clip to keep them all together.
Another recommendation I have is that if you are making these for members of
your family, make them in different fabrics. That way you can easily tell
whose is whose when you're on the go. (Mine aren't totally identical, by the way; the thread used to secure the book mark is a different colour.)
Alternatives to my great idea? (-‿◦)
I did not speak favourably about those "family style" passport wallets
in my original post, and I'm still not a fan. I remain firm in my opinion
that they are no more useful than a ziplock bag. Sure, if you make them out
of designer fabric, they look nicer, but that's the extent of it.
Once you distribute each passport to each family member, then what? You tuck
everyone's boarding pass between the pages of his/her passport — and
potentially risk it falling out — and you're no more organized than if you
didn't have that fancy wallet.
BUT... for anyone intent on having something like that, here's a good video tutorial to make one from one
of my favourite YouTube channels, Tendersmile Handmade.
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| image courtesy of Tendersmile Handmade... |
It holds up to six passports, has a couple of slip pockets behind them for documents and the whole thing zips up securely. There is also a small zippered pocket handy for SIM cards or memory cards. (It actually reminds me of the bright pink travel wallet that I got on eBay years ago.)
Finally, for couples on the go who are not as picky as I am, here is my
previous attempt at solving the passport problem: the
Travel Document Folder.
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| A simple travel document folder.... |
This is a simple organizer with five slip pockets, two of which are for passports. Made out of ribbon, vinyl, and some cardboard in the middle to give it shape, it's definitely functional for those who aren't too particular.
And still better than a fancy wallet. (-‿◦)
'Til next...
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