Freya shows us how to make lavender bags this week!
By: Freya Liddell
This week I will be attempting to explain how to make lavender bags. This may seem incredibly dull, and evoke chilling reminders of bloodied fingers and the miserable attempts at that elusive endeavour of threading your needle while at primary school, I’m hoping that these cute designs will chirp their the way right into your heart. Plus with Christmas approaching rapidly, and now that hopefully most of your pesky essays are out of the way, you can devote all your time to making gifts. These promise to be a hit not only with elderly relations, but to all ages with a careful choice of vibrant fabrics and appealing designs. And although these lavender bags may appear exclusively decorative, through my extensive research (Wikipedia), I have discovered a multitude of uses for them including: to ward off moths and insects, as an air freshener, to chuck in the dryer to make your clothes smell nice, and also to induce sweet and peaceful dreams. So have fewer sleepless nights, and instead get crafty.
You will need:
Bright and colourful Fabric
A print off of either of the Stencils below
Needle and Thread/sewing machine
Lavender (you can find this easily online)
Scissors
Pencil
For the birds:
Two buttons
Ribbon
Wadding
Firstly choose whether you would like to make a heart or a bird
Cut out the attached stencil and with a pencil proceed to draw around the stencil on the ‘back’ side of your chosen fabric. Repeat the process and roughly cut around 1cm away from your pencil markings so that you end up with two pieces of fabric like the example below.
If making the heart lavender bag, skip to the next step. If not, at this point sew on the wing to the front side of the two bird outlines, and if desired add a little wadding for a more three dimensional effect. Also sew on the buttons as eyes for the birds, and try to ensure that they align.
The next stage is to pin the two ‘right sides’ together and then sew along the pencil lines. Don’t forget to leave a gap down either the edge of the heart or the back of the bird to insert the lavender.
After this, turn the fabric the correct way around and spoon in lavender in the gap.
Once filled with lavender sew up the remaining gap, and enjoy a better night’s sleep. If you are making a lavender bird, you can sew a loop of ribbon into the gap before sewing along it.
The designs are courtesy of Cath Kidston, Sew!