Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Lavender Sachets and Pincushions

I've been making lavender sachets; this is one of the projects I promised to show you that requires baker's twine.  Two readers have told me that after seeing my post about baker's twine, they placed orders from Talking Twine and Trim--the etsy store where I got mine.  That's awesome, fiddlegirl8 and Lime Riot--I hope you like yours as much as I like mine!


I made these lavender sachets for two reasons:  first, I was trying to come up with new heart-shaped things for my other blog, 365 Sewn Hearts (I need a heart for every day of this year!); and I need stock for my little booth in a local shop.  This project was so perfect for both!  I've made lavender sachets before, but in a different style, so it was nice to make something new.  I had lavender on hand, so I jumped right in!


Sixteen lavender sachets:


The picture below shows how I started.  I printed out words and phrases on the computer, then traced them onto white fabric using my light box and a micron marker. I have an assortment of the micron pens, each with a different sized writing tip, so for different projects I can use whatever size works best with the font size I've chosen for my letters.



I cut out a bunch of hearts from various fabrics, and ironed interfacing onto the back of each to give the finished heart a more "solid" feel.  Then I cut out the words and phrases, and machine sewed them to the front of each heart.  I took all the hearts to my sewing chair in the family room and watched TV while I hand-sewed a running stitch with embroidery thread around the edge of each phrase, using the machine stitching as my guide.  (I always try to have some kind of handwork ready near my sewing chair--I don't like to watch TV without it!)


Then I chose two buttons to accent the front of each heart, and sewed those on.


Back at the sewing machine, I sewed the heart fronts to matching backs, stopping at the top to add two 12" lengths of baker's twine.  Then I turned them right-side-out, stuffed them with lavender, and sewed the openings shut. 



I packaged each heart in a ziplock baggie with my business card, and put them in a basket to take to Country Treasures.


I thought I had an endless supply of lavender in my closet, so I was surprised when it ran out before I had finished filling all the hearts!  I decided to turn the remaining hearts into pincushions.  To keep pins from poking through the back, I cut plastic food-container lids into heart shapes and put them inside the hearts before filling them with polyester fiberfill. 



The front and back of un-stuffed pincushions:



Eleven pincushions, all finished!



This is my favorite one, because I love the the print and colors of this fabric.  I think I will keep this for myself!



4 comments:

Alexandra Abarca said...

Leslie all your hearts looks really nice, eather for lavender sachets and pincuschions, I like so much the fabric you have used for it.

Have a nice day.

Ale
Costa Rica

fiddlegirl8 said...

Loving these hearts, Leslie!! My favorites are the ones with red -
Love the baker's twine on all these too.

I am so inspired by your use of baker's twine - I should get my order by Thursday!! I'm in the process of getting some of those sugar jars to display and dispense my twine spools - I already had one that I wasn't using for sugar, and now I'm scouring the local dollar stores and Walmarts for four more!

I just really enjoy checking out your blog - I don't always leave a comment, but I check it almost every day for your new stuff!

diane - fiddlegirl8

Kay said...

These all look great. I like the way you do the wording on them, a foolproof way to good handwriting. I made some heart shaped pincushions recently by cutting up old embroidered tray cloths and dressing table mats (not sure if you call them the same thing)which were beyond their best and having the embroidery as the centre of the heart. Another friend had done it so I had a try and found it really easy to get a pretty, one off heart.

Leslie Andersen said...

Diane--I love the idea of using sugar jars for your twine!

Kay--thanks for your comment; it reminds me that I have a damaged embroidered tablecloth that might be great for pincushions or sachets!