Esther’s Holland Pouch
As someone who is passionate about dressmaking, I find it interesting how much I enjoy making accessories. There is just something about knowing your bust, waist and hip measurements will not affect the outcome of your finished project.
As soon as I received this month’s fabric, I was certain that I wanted to make an accessory. The more I thought about it, the more I realised that I wanted to make a purse of some sort. I recently came back from a trip and realised that I needed a larger makeup purse, so I opened myself up to finding the perfect purse for my makeup items but I was also open to finding something else.
Although, I had a purse in mind, I still decided to weigh all my options, for good measure. Option one, was an apron, but I quickly realised that I wasn’t excited about making an apron so I moved on to the next. The next idea being oven mitts, I found the Bombazine Mitt pattern and I really considered going for it but still I realised that I was sold on the idea of a make up bag.
I like when I eliminate other options because it gives me a focus. As I have made a number of purses in the past, thinking I’d use them for my makeup and finding them lacking, I knew my requirements. I wanted a good-sized purse, something that could fit all my makeup, brushes and possibly mini eyeshadow and blush palettes. The purse was going to be specifically for travel or overnight stays, so I wanted something with padding that could keep my precious cargo safe.
As I searched the streets of Instagram, I found the Holland Pouch by Centre Street Quilts. The pattern comes in three sizes – small, medium and large; it is a quilted pouch, made using either foam or batting. The pouch comes with two handles which makes it easy to transport and all the different sizes can be made using three fat quarters. There were a good number of finished makes on Instagram so I got a realistic view of what my finished product would look like. I had enough fabric to make the whole thing but liked the idea of a contrast fabric so I dug out some fat quarters from a box last year.
As expected, handling this fabric was very easy. The fabric pressed and sewed like a dream. The pattern suggested using two layers of batting if one did not have foam stabiliser and that’s exactly what I did. I enjoyed the visual appeal that quilting gave this pouch, I decided to quilt it diagonally and it was easy enough to do, I made sure to use a longer stitch length. The instructions were nice and easy to follow. I liked that the pattern includes binding to cover the raw edges, I previously made a pouch that didn’t have this, so the raw edges were exposed, albeit, inside the pouch. The pattern comes with two handles but I thought that was an overkill so I just attached one handle.
It was an enjoyable make; I found the written instructions clear and discovered that there’s a sewalong on YouTube. The pouch matched my exact specification, it is large enough to fit the makeup I like to travel with. I loved making this so much I think I’ll make the other sizes to complete the set.