Making Beautiful Lavender Sachets With Antique Linens - The Perfect Hostess Gift

I got to thinking about the round of parties and family events coming up with Thanksgiving and Christmas on the horizon.   Do you struggle with what to give the hostess who has everything?  Well, I do.  I don't drink so I am not going to pick out a bad bottle of wine.  I think that three of these tied in a bow is perfect for a hostess gift.

What could be better than antique beautiful pieces of lace made into lavender sachets.  Check out the beautiful ones I made below.

When you grow lavender, you must harvest this wonderful flower for sachets!  The scent is heavenly, and is supposed to help with moths and critters eating your clothes.   Of course you need to dry and screen the lavender to get rid of dirt and chaff.  Right now I am still seeing lots of lavender in the yard.

I grow a number of varieties.  Hidcote and Purple Ellagance.   I seem to ignore all advice on how to grow it.  I forget to cut it when I should, and then I'll whack it when I shouldn't.   I cut it way down into the woody stems, which is supposed to kill the plant, but it doesn't.

Anyway, I wound up with buckets of lavender.  I sometimes cheat and just put them in sachet bags like below.  They are handy to hang from hangers in the closet, so they are very useful.

Then I thought I would dress up the bags by sewing some antique scrap linen on it.  

I kept digging around and realized my box of "smalls", which is mostly antique coasters and doilies less than 4", is the perfect size for sachets.  Don't you just love the drawnwork square below?    The round wheel lace sachets are lovely too.

Below is a fabulous tape lace square I stitched to a sheer organdy "pillow".  I filled it with lavender and it looks wonderful beneath the lace.

Another trick is to make an organdy sachet for those little linen envelopes used for gloves, lingerie, etc.  Don't you just love the Victorian era-- they had so many pretty things for every purpose.   Now we can add beauty to our lives to a sachet by using them.  The one below is monogrammed, very charming!

I especially love these because you can refresh the lavender easily.

Below is a fingertip towel wrapped around an organdy pillow filled with lavender.  I really thought the embroidery was amazing and it makes a wonderful pillow.

Below is a sampling of fabulous coasters I've collected.  At first I was selling them on eBay, but you get almost nothing for these round coasters, so I decided to keep them once I got this idea.  So this is a good tip for you-- They are very inexpensive to pick up on ebay, especially if you can get a lot multiple types.
Look for the lacy if you like seeing the lavender.  Or you can buy the sacks and put scrap on the front like I did.

Any vintage scrap that catches your eye can be turned into a beautiful sachet.  I also recommend using hankies with damage on them.  looks at this lovely small doily I found for $.50 at a garage sale, they had 2.

The one below was a punchwork coaster.  I should have embroidered an initial on it.  OK, next time.

I'll end on my favorite.   Yes, they make great gifts, but don't forget to give yourself some!.