Arty Lavender Sachets

Time is still short for me at the moment, so I hope you won’t mind if this week I use a project that I originally created as a guest post last year. I very rarely do guest posts – not because I’m unwilling to do any, but just because I’m far too shy about putting myself forward for them!

These lavender sachets  are a simple idea for creating a small gift with your children. I think they would look especially good presented as a set of 3 or 4 in a box, and they are another gift which is both unashamedly sentimental yet also useful – my favourite kind.

All you need is the following:

• Plain white cotton – I recycled an old cotton kitbag we weren’t using, but you could equally use an old white pillowcase or sheet.

• Fabric crayons or markers.  I used the wax style fabric crayons, because I like the texture and slightly naive feel that they give, but you could use markers if you prefer. In fact, given the fact that the lavender bags will not  be washed, you might get away with using ordinary felt-tip pens or crayons, but I haven’t tried that!

• Cotton thread

• Dried Lavender

• Thin ribbon (optional)

Ask the kids to draw a character, design or picture upon a square of cotton.  Sometimes it is easier for them if you pin the cotton down onto a sheet of corrugated cardboard first so that the fabric doesn’t move about.

Following the instructions for the kind of crayons or markers you are using, fix the image using an iron.

Pin the image to another plain sheet of calico, and cut the 2 out together, leaving enough of a border around it for stitching (approx 0.75 cms).  Separate the 2 pieces and place right sides together. If using a ribbon, cut a length (approx 20cms, but the length is entirely up to you) and pin or tack the ends between the 2 pieces with the loop inside.

Stitch around the image, catching in the ends of the ribbon and leaving a gap at the bottom for stuffing.  Trim seam, clipping the curves or corners if necessary, and turn the right side out.

Stuff with lavender so that it is firm but not hard.

Stitch up the gap to secure the lavender in  place and finish the raw edges.

This is the basic technique, but there are lots of variations you can introduce here.  My 2 boys decided to draw Ben10 characters but I also did a couple of more ‘girly’ shapes with hearts and flowers. For these I used pinking shears so that the seam would be left visible and create a decorative border around the shape. If you want to do this, of course you would stitch the shape with the wrong sides together, catching the ends of any hanging ribbon in at the top as you go.

I also saved a few of the Ben10 characters the boys had drawn to create finger puppets for them – the size and shape lent themselves to the purpose, so after cutting and stitching, instead of stuffing with lavender, I hemmed the bottom to finish the raw edges.