Craft Camp: Hand-Stitched Lavender Sachets and Mason Jar Sewing Kits

For our last day of craft camp, I decided to give the girls a little sewing lesson. After making sweet little sewing kits in mason jars, we hand-sewed pouches out of linen and filled them with lavender buds and dried chamomile flowers. Sadly, the sachets were the only project of the entire week that not everyone finished. We had lots of embroidery needles coming off of the floss (we're talking two hours solid of re-threading) and a few tangles that were so bad even I couldn't get the knots out. But those sachets that did make it to the finish line were very sweet, both in appearance and in fragrance.

Here's how we did it:

• Cut two 6-inch squares of linen and line them up. If you want to pin them together in a few places, feel free, but I despise pinning!
• Thread an embroidery needle with embroidery floss and start sewing the two squares together about 1/2" from the edge. Smaller stitches mean less likelihood that anything will fall out once the sachet is done. You don't have to tie a knot in your floss at this point, but you do need to pull about 3 feet of floss through the fabric.
• Continue stitching around the edge of the sachet until you have about 3 inches left. Through the opening, carefully add dried lavender buds and chamomile flowers until the sachet is full. You should still be able to pinch the opening shut. If you've added too many flowers, just pour some out.
• Stitch the opening on your sachet shut. Make sure your last stitch ends right next to where your first stitch began and that the two loose ends of your floss are on the same side of the sachet. Trim both loose ends to about 6 inches. Tie in a double knot and trim again.
• If desired, trim the edges with pinking shears.
  

I put my sachet in my t-shirt drawer and have been enjoying beautifully perfumed tees and tanks for a few weeks now.

The mason jar sewing kits were very easy and very fun to make. We followed the directions from this tutorial from Martha Stewart. Inside the jar, the girls put several different sizes and types of needles, some sewing pins, and a measuring tape, in addition to the extra embroidery floss from their sachets.

And that brings us to the end of the first annual Crafty Girl's Summer Camp. Despite the frustrations of the last day, it was a fantastic experience overall, one that I would do again, and one that I would definitely encourage anyone toying with the idea to do. With careful planning and organization, it can run extremely smoothly and be loads of fun for you and the girls who attend.