Handmade Sachet Gifts

Circumstances can add up to make gift giving a burden during the holiday season. Some reasons are financial, but by no means all. Many older people have more than 20 immediate family members, when you consider grandchildren, spouses of children, for example, and that is just the immediate family. If one buys all of them gifts, what then about friends and others when there is an expectation of a gift exchange?

This dilemma was on my mind when I opened a rarely used drawer the other day and found a lovely sachet tucked into some of the clothes. The sachet had been a handmade gift I received years ago and seeing it gave me a feeling of pleasure and gratitude. What a great solution for the gift burden challenge! Handmade herbal sachets filled with rose petals or lavender will give a thoughtful gift that will be enjoyed and be useful for the recipient for years to come.

Here’s how to make them:

Choose a lovely fabric, or a specific fabric that will be meaningful for the recipient.

Version One
Materials
Fabric
Dried lavender or rose petals (available in health food stores)

Make 4×4 squares of fabric. Taking two squares, sew three sides together, turn inside out, fill with the herbs, and then hand stitch the fourth side together.

Version Two
Materials
¼ yard lace
Dinner plate
Cereal bowl
Tapestry needle
2 yards ¼-inch-wide wired ribbon
2 ounces lavender, rose petals or natural potpourri (dried herbs can often be found in health food stores)
2 yards 1-inch-wide ribbon
Place the lace on a table and lay the dinner plate on top of it. Trace the edge of the plate with a pencil. Remove the plate and cut around marker to make a circle of lace. Turn the cereal bowl upside down in the center of the lace circle and trace the edge. Remove bowl.

Thread the tapestry needle with the think ribbon and stitch around the inner circle you have just created. (Size of the stitches doesn’t matter.) Tug gently on the ribbon so the lace gathers to make a pocket. When the opening is the size of a silver dollar, pour the lavender or potpourri in until full (about the size of a walnut). Tug the ribbon tight, tie on a knot, and cut the ends short.

Tie the wide ribbon into a beautiful bow. Repeat until the materials are gone.

Makes 5 sachets.