Make Scents with Sachets

Make Scents with Sachets

Nature offers an amazing array of floral, herbal, and spicy fragrances, and you can bring them indoors to scent a drawer or linen closet with sewn sachet bags filled with aromatic mixtures.

This bag measures 4-by-6 inches, and it holds one cup of sachet filling. Besides a sewing machine (or needle and thread), a pair of scissors, and an iron, here’s what you’ll need:

• 9-by-9-inch square of soft, tightly woven fabric (cotton, silk, rayon, or blends work well)
• 12 inches of 1/2-inch-wide ribbon
• 9-inch piece of lace trim (optional)

Sewing the bag

1. Stitch the bag: With the finished sides of the fabric facing each other, fold the fabric in half. Stitch down the long edge of the fabric, 1/2-inch from the raw edges. Turn the corner and stitch across the bottom.
2. Make the hem: Fold down 2 1/2 inches along the top (open) edge, toward the wrong side (inside) of the fabric. Iron the top edge to create a clean fold. (Optional extra step: Edge stitch or attach lace trim 1/8 inch in from the top, folded edge.)
3. Turn the bag: Clip off the bottom corners, just outside the stitch line, to make it easier to achieve nicely angled corners as you turn the bag. Turn the bag right side out. Press it flat.
4. Fill the bag: Fill the bag with one cup of sachet mixture, push it in tightly, and tie the bag closed.

Fragrant fillings

To make your own scented filling, use a single, strongly scented ingredient such as lavender, or blend several scents to produce a more intriguing mixture. A wide variety of herbs and spices can be purchased in bulk in natural foods stores. Use only dried materials for sachet fillings.

Flowers to perfume your blend include lavender blossoms, rose petals, carnations, and chamomile flowers. Leaves of aromatic herbs—rosemary, thyme, lemon verbena, sweet woodruff, and mint—add earthiness to your mixture. Spicy cloves, cinnamon bark, cardamom seeds, vanilla bean, and citrus peels add depth.

Let your nose be your guide, and use the scents you love. Make a batch large enough to fill at least a dozen sachets—they make great gifts!

Betty Oppenheimer, of Sequim, Wash., is the author of three craft books.

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