I’ve had the crocus oil pouch pdf pattern sitting in my computer for a few years now but I hadn’t made it. What a shame! See, I don’t use essential oils so I didn’t really look at it, but I discovered that it has so many more uses than that!
The pouch is lovely curved shape that opens up nearly flat when unzipped. It caught my daughter’s eye so we decided to include one in her set.
The crocus oil pouch is specifically designed to hold oil or even nail polish bottles. The pouch comes in two sizes, one that holds 6 oil bottles and one that holds 14 oil bottles. The loops of elastics that line the interior hold the bottles in place. The instructions say that it is made to accommodate 5ml sized bottles, but I found 10ml ones I had for testing fit perfectly too. I only had 3 bottles to put in so possibly the spacing may be too tight for all 14 at once. (Let me know if you can verify that). At the time of writing, I have finished 5 versions: 3 small and 2 large but I may just make a few more in the near future.
Supplies
For the size, it takes a lot of medium weight woven interfacing (e.g., SF101 or equivalent) as ALL the pieces, lining and exterior, are interfaced with it. In addition, the pattern calls for fusible fleece for the exterior pieces. This gives a nice firm shape to the bag which I think makes it so versatile for other uses. I used #5 zipper tape and pulls.
For my first one, I didn’t put in the elastics that line the inside of the bag. I eventually made one for oils and followed the instructions for adding the elastic. (I still have rolls and rolls of black and white 1/4″ elastic from my mask making days during the early CoVid period).
The fabric required is two fat quarters, one for lining and one for exterior. For the blue pouches, I used a fabric in my stash that I had purchased from Our Social Fabric . It had a main design and a border in the pattern so I used the border for the lining. It was nice with the patterned lines making it easier to line up the elastic. I liked the results so much, I used the same combo for my sewing pouch. For the vinyl version, I did not interface the exterior.
For my first pouch, I used just one zipper pull instead of the recommended two. In the end, I found I liked the double pulls so much better. I think it makes the little pouch just that much more cute!
Zipper Pulls
Speaking of zipper pulls, I had a bit of fun choosing the pulls. First, I used the nice chunky ones from Blue Calla. I moved to another pull that has an additional joint so it bends over flat at the top. Awwww, much better.
When I decided that I wanted to use the pouch as part of my mobile sewing / embroidery kit, I finally had a reason to use the sewing machine pull I have been hoarding. Bonus was that it also had the jointed design so it draped nicely too!
Construction
It is quite straight forward in construction. After interfacing your pieces, you sew in the elastics following the very detailed and clear instructions. Then the usual bag construction procedure: securing the lining and exterior pieces to the zipper, boxing the corners and flipping right side out. I used a slightly longer zipper tape than instructed so I could drop the pulls out of the way altogether when sewing. Be careful to add some stitches to stop the pulls flying off though! The gentle curves at the top corners are a good intro to curves in bags. I found the first corner the trickiest and the others just seemed to go much smoother. I used my awl to help guide the zipper tape and lining under the needle and it worked well going slowly.
Boxing the Bottom
Boxing the bottom stumped me at first.
The directions were a bit confusing to me and the diagram was awful! I eventually figured it out by first lining up the bottom centre seam to the zipper and then I realized I already knew how to box corners and the light came on with a “ding”. With the zipper and centre bottom seam flat together, I pulled out the four corners (2 lining, 2 exterior) like wings. I found that using the slightly longer zipper tape here helped with the boxing step too. Just chop it off after sewing.
So, turn the bag and its basically done. Very fast, very satisfying. I like that I got to practice a bit of top stitching curves.
So now I have a new sewing pouch for my kit, one person is getting an oil bottle pouch and daughter has another piece for her set.
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