The Craftiest Workshop

As we age, both our fine and gross motor skills become less strong. We have difficulty moving quickly and have trouble with balance. Jars are more difficult to open and we cannot hold smaller items as easily as we used to. As I see these changes in my parents, I want to offer strategies to make things easier. One of the things I have come up with is these playing card holders.

My parents love to play cards and have for as long as I can remember. My dad hasn’t been playing cards as much these last few months and I am not sure if it is motivation or that he is maybe having trouble holding the cards. I know last year when I visited he complained when we tried games that required him to hold too many cards.

I have material that my mom has given me over the years so I thought I would give making some holders a try. I used a Corelle dinner plate with an 8.5 inch diameter as the size of the circle of material and cut out two of each. I just traced it in black pen on the wrong side then cut it out.

Next was some batting. I only had enough quilt batting for one card holder so I decided to use some packing foam for the rest. It is that thin sheet of packing material often found in electronics boxes. I traced the disc onto the foam, two for each holder. I also cut out two “discs” out of thin corrugated cardboard to see how it would hold up instead of the metal disc.

Place the batting or foam in the center of the wrong side of the material and place the disc onto top of the batting or foam. You then have to sew around the material between the edge of the material and the disc and batting using a running stitch.

When you have sewn all the way around, you can pull on the thread to cinch it around the disc or cardboard. I doubled my thread as I was afraid of breaking it when I pulled. Keep it tight when you tie it off or knot it. There is something so satisfying in watching the material bunch up around the disc when you pull on the thread.

The next step was to hot glue down the fabric and try to get the folds as flat as possible.

Lastly, you sew the two covered discs together by sewing a button on either side. I recommend a larger button than smaller. Start from the inside of one disc so the knot will be on the inside. When you have gone back and forth a number of times, you will have to knot it on the outside as there is no way to hide it.

Of course I had to try the four that I made, each with their own suit of 13 cards.
All of them hold the cards well and I could rest the bottom of the holder on the table.

The flowery one had the batting so the outside is plumper and feels more cushiony. The one with the pink button had the cardboard instead of the disc and just foam instead of batting. It held up just as well as the rest and ended up lighter weight wise.

I like the way this blue one turned out the best. Aside from the fold in the material that you can see (could have ironed it first), the larger button and better gluing had this holding the cards a bit tighter than the rest.

All the material was quilting cotton but I think t-shirt material would also work. Anything else like fleece or flannel might be too bulky and wouldn’t flatten enough.
I plan to take these to my parent’s place on my next visit. Perhaps if we all use one then no one would feel like they stand out for needing to use one. These are also supposed to be great when teaching young children card games if they have difficulty holding a hand of cards.