Use an old sweater and a little embroidery to make pretty little house lavender bags.

With autumn well and truly on us, we've been looking out our warm cosy clothes. Several wool jumpers had got past the repair stage and so I've been experimenting doing a little felting.

How to make little house shaped lavender sachets with an old felted sweater

One cream coloured jumper was a pretty small size to start with but after a hot wash in the machine it shrunk up to next to nothing. This jumper needed to be made into something small!

I almost forgot to take a before photo, it did have 2 sleeves! The original jumper was quite fine so the felted material was not especially thick. I had so much fun using it to make some little house shaped scented sachets filled with lavender.

To make Little House Felt Lavender Bags you will need:

• Felt, an old felted jumper/cardigan or regular shop bought felt will work just fine too

• Scraps of fabric - something with small patterns work best

• A length of ribbon about 5.5"/14cm

• Embroidery thread and needle

• A sewing machine and thread

• Scrap paper

• Dried Lavender

First you need to make a house shaped pattern and a roof pattern.

Cut 2 houses from felt and 1 or 2 roofs from patterned fabric. Originally I wanted to have the patterned roof front and back, it's possible but it is tricky to stop the fabric on the back puckering and catching when you stitch. It's your choice, but having tried both ways I'd recommend only putting a fancy roof on the front.

Cut a tiny door from patterned fabric about 3cm x 2cm.

Pin the fabric pieces in place then machine stitch the roof onto one felt house piece just along the bottom, and stitch round the door on 3 sides as shown.

Embroidery the house details

Using 2 strands of embroidery thread, stitch a little window and some plant life. I used simple straight stitches, lazy daisy stitches and french knots. There is a guide to a few simple embroidery stitches here that you might find helpful if you are new to embroidery.

When you are happy with your embroidery, layer the 2 felt house pieces wrong sides facing and pop the ribbon in the top folded in half to form a hanging loop. Pin it all carefully as the felt has a tendency to move once you start stitching. Stitch round all the sides apart from the bottom. Go slow and take care as you sew through the fabric roof, I found it liked crease a little bit and catch on the stitches.

Make a funnel with a piece of scrap paper and use to fill the house with lavender. I found 3 good pinches was about right.

Stitch the bottom of your house closed.

Tidy up the threads. I am a bit obsessive and like to sew the top thread through to the back, knot them and then sew them into the bag to loose the ends.  

Now make loads more!! 

More lavender sachet ideas

I love lavender bags for hanging in the wardrobe, tucking into drawers etc. They make perfect gifts when you want to pop a little token present into a card. Here are a few more ideas to make lavender bags you might be interested in:

Have you shrunk a old sweater in a laundry incident recently? Maybe you could make it into pretty little house shaped lavender sachets?

Julie

If you enjoy simple embroidery ideas then you might like to check these out:

I’ll be sharing this project at these link ups