Peach Loop · Handmade Vintage Filet Crochet Drawstring Pouch
cotton · handmade filet crochet · 1950s-70s · 33cm x 32cm flat · excellent condition
A drawstring cord in the same bright peach as the border gathers this one closed, tied off in a bow rather than a knot, which tells you it was meant to be opened and closed more than once rather than sewn shut and forgotten.
No label survives, as expected of a small handmade piece like this. The filet crochet ground, worked in a fine mesh with a pattern picked out in solid stitches, is a technique that stayed popular across decades, so the dating here leans on the saturated peach yarn, a colour more typical of the synthetic-friendly dye ranges from the 1950s onward.
The body is worked in filet mesh with a subtle pattern built into the solid squares, bordered on all four sides by a solid band of the same peach, and finished with a matching looped scallop edge. What it was originally meant to hold is anyone's guess now, a hanky, a keepsake, a small gift, but the drawstring closure and the care in the trim suggest it was made to be looked at as much as used.
Material
Likely cotton or a cotton blend given the crisp stitch definition.
Care
Hand wash gently in cool water, do not wring, and dry flat, easing the mesh back into shape while damp. Avoid pulling on the drawstring cord while wet.
More on looking after vintage pieces in our care guide.
Size
Measured flat: 33cm by 32cm flat, essentially square.
Our size guide explains how vintage sizing is read here.
Condition
Excellent. The mesh is clean and even with no pulled threads, the border and scalloped trim are fully intact, and the drawstring is present and functional.
Our condition lexicon explains the grades we use.
Before it reaches you
Someone loved this before you did, and I try to honour that properly. Each piece is hand washed, or cleaned in the way that the fabric permits, then steamed until it softens and straightens and feels newly attended to. Wherever a button was missing, it has been replaced with a vintage one from my long-kept collection. Wherever a hem had given way, I fix it by hand. By the time it leaves this room it is genuinely clean, pressed, whole, and looked over one final time before I let myself believe it is ready. Not restored. Not made new. Just returned to a state where it can be loved again, by someone who was not there the first time.
A small mystery of an object, made with real care and no explanation of what it was for. Someone chose to line every edge in the same bright peach, loop it into a scalloped trim, and thread a drawstring through rather than just binding it off. That's a lot of extra decision-making for something whose original job has been lost to time.