DIY Towelling Makeup Bag: How To Make This Cute Case At Home

My Pinterest feed has been FILLED with adorable makeup bags recently and it’s been such a challenge not to buy them all! After holding off for the longest time, I caved and bought a couple from Etsy. But I really wanted to have a go at making one of these myself. I found an amazing tutorial from Melanie Ham – I’ve linked her instructions here. If you try and make one of these cosmetic cases at home, I highly recommend you follow her video. It’s so clear and helpful, I couldn’t have made this DIY makeup bag without it!!

Of course, instead of making it easy for myself on my first try, I went for terry cloth which is pretty tricky to sew. The material has a tendency to get stuck in the machine and it can be quite difficult to find your stitches if you’re looking to unpick. I think in hindsight I should have picked a cotton fabric for the outer lining, especially on my first go, but luckily it all worked out in the end!

I deviated from the tutorial a couple of times – mostly to accommodate the towelling. But apart from a few small changes, I’ve stayed pretty true to Melanie’s original instructions. I found that if you keep rewinding the video and rewatching the tricky parts, you can can’t go far wrong!

NB: As this was my first time making this bag, I was pretty much learning as I went. If you’re looking for complete instructions please do visit Melanie’s blog – she provided the blueprint for this project! This post is simply a way to document my first attempt at making my own makeup bag and to provide some tips for those using towelling as their fabric of choice. Here’s how I got on with the tutorial and some of the adjustments I made…

Materials

To create a medium-sized DIY makeup bag you’ll need:

• 2 pieces of towelling / terry cloth (11″ x 8″)
• 2 pieces of lining fabric (11″ x 8″)
• 2 pieces of fusible fleece (11″ x 8″)
• 1 piece of lining fabric (8″ x 4″)
• 1 zip (14 inch)
• 1 reel of thread to match your towelling

Tools

• Sewing machine (including zipper foot)
• Ruler
• Wonder clips
• Pins
• Sewing chalk or water-soluble fabric pen
• Fabric scissors
• Iron and ironing board

Instructions / my experience following the tutorial

1. Cut out all your pieces. Instead of measuring with a ruler each time, I found it easier to cut out a template and draw around this. I’ve made my own which you can download here. Simply print on A4 and cut out the pink rectangles!
   
   Note: I made the width of the tabs slightly bigger than the tutorial (4″ rather than 2.5″) just because I wanted them to be a bit chunkier.

2. Iron the fusible fleece onto the unprinted side of the inner lining. Don’t glide the iron, but hold it onto the fabric in different spots (for no longer than 10 seconds at a time). This is going to help the glue from the fleece bind to your fabric. If you’re using polycotton, instead of pure cotton, I’d recommend holding the iron on each spot for around 3 seconds before you move it. Any longer than that and the fabric is going to start puckering.
   
   For this part, it’s also best to use a fabric offcut (preferably cotton) as a buffer between your inner lining and the iron. Avoid applying direct heat to the fabric if you can!
   
   The original tutorial irons the fleece to the outer lining, but I chose to iron the fleece to the inner lining as I wasn’t sure how well the towelling would stick to the fleece. You could definitely still do it this way, I think you’d just need to quilt the fleece and towelling to give it some extra stability.

3. Iron your pull tab – the 8″ by 4″ piece of fabric. Lie the fabric so that the short edges are at the top and bottom. Bring both long edges of the fabric together so they meet in the middle. Iron this, making sure to use your buffer fabric to avoid direct heat. Fold it lengthways in half again and iron.

4. Sew down both the long sides of your pull tab, then fold it in half and cut. You should now have two pull tabs that you can set aside and sew in later.

5. Lie the zip teeth side down on your outer fabric – with the towelling it doesn’t really matter which side of the fabric you place it on. Then take your inner lining and place it printed side down (so the fusible fleece is on top). Clip or pin this into place.

6. Measure half an inch from each side and mark it with your fabric pen. When you’re at the sewing machine you’re going to start at this half inch point and finish at the half inch point on the other side. Ensure you have your zipper foot attached to your sewing machine and sew across the clipped top edge of the fabric, making sure to leave those half inch gaps on either side.

7. Grab your other piece of fleece and lay it flat. Then take the semi-constructed piece and place it over the top of this with the zip lying teeth side down. Match the edges up at the bottom, then take your other inner lining and place it printed side down on the top of pieces you’ve stacked.
   
   Clip along the top again to keep everything in place, and then sew this together on your machine.

8. Open up the fabric and iron it flat. Then you’re going to topstitch along each side of the zip, leaving a half inch margin at the top and bottom (where each end of the zip is).

9. Sew both sides of the outer lining (the fleece) together. Do the same with the inner lining, but this time leave a four inch hole in the middle. This is how you’re going to be able to turn it right way out.

10. Iron the seams on both sides flat, then clip or pin your pull tabs in on both sides. Starting on the side that has the zip end, sew the pull tab, zip and outer lining together (avoiding the inner lining).
    
    I highly suggest watching the video for this part because it’s definitely something that’s better explained visually!

11. Do the same on the other side but make sure that the zip is pulled open! It helps to pin the two sides of the zip together so they’re not splayed when you sew it in.

12. Now it’s time to sew the inner lining. Sew down each short side, including the zip but avoiding the outer lining. Once this is done you can cut each end of the zip down to size.

13. Box out each corner of the inner and outer lining – you need to cut out eight squares in total. Melanie suggests 1 and 3/4 inches for each box, but says this can be adjusted to get the height you want.

14. Pull the cut sides together, match them up and sew them.

15. Now turn your makeup bag the right way out by pushing everything through the hole in the inner lining. All that’s left to do at this point is to sew this hole shut. If you don’t want the thread to show the best way to do it is by hand sewing it using a slip stitch. Once that’s done, your makeup bag is complete!!

Where can I buy the materials?

I bought my materials from a couple of different online stores – mainly Empress Mills and Hot Pink Haberdashery. I’ll link everything I used for this particular project down below:

• Towelling / terry cloth
• Gingham lining
• Fusible fleece
• Zip – 511 Pale Pink, 22″ Long (it’s too big but you can cut it down)
• Matching thread – Baby pink, 1000m

If you’re looking for some other cute fabrics and a bigger choice of zips, check out the links below:

• Ditsy floral fabrics – I like these.
• Zips
• Gingham polycotton

Can I make my own template?

If you don’t feel like measuring each time you need to cut out your pieces, I recommend making a template. You can either download my template (it’s free!) using the button below or create your own.

To make your own, you’ll just need to measure out two shapes on separate pieces of card. The first shape needs to be a rectangle that measures 11″ by 8″. The second shape is a smaller rectangle that measures 8″ by 4″. It’s really that simple!

Prefer to buy one? Here are my top Etsy picks…