frankie exclusive diy: embroidered lavender sachets

Keep your clothes and linens fresh with these adorable little lavender sachets. Hand embroidered with tiny daisies, this set of three would make a sweet gift!MATERIALS
15cm x 30cm quilting weight fabric in pale yellow
15cm x 30cm quilting weight fabric in pale mint green
15cm x 30cm quilting weight fabric in pale pink (or whatever colours your like!)
Stranded embroidery cottons in white, mustard yellow, magenta and lilac (or, again, whatever you like!)
Small embroidery ring (I used a 10cm ring)
Thread to match fabric
20g dried lavender
Pencil (to mark out your designs)
Pinking shears
Standard sewing kit and sewing machine

METHOD
1. Cut a 15cm square from each of your fabrics. At the centre of each draw out a 10cm square.

2. Let’s start with the simplest design – a single daisy! We’re going to use a stitch called lazy daisy and finish it off with a French knot (if you’re not familiar with the stitches used here you can find YouTube tutorials on these here and here).

Mark a point at the centre of the square you drew on your green fabric. Stretch your fabric on to your embroidery hoop and thread your needle with three strands of your stranded cotton in white. Tie a knot at the end of your thread and, about 1mm above the dot you marked, bring your needle through from the back to the front, pulling your thread through as far as it will go. Take your needle back through your fabric at exactly the same point, then (without pulling the thread all the way back through) bring your needle back through to the front, 1cm above that point (towards the top of your hoop). Bring the needle through the loop of thread you’ve created and pull gently, until the loop is flat against the fabric. Take your needle back through to the back, making a tiny stitch over the tip of the loop, holding it in place. Repeat this stitch directly below and to the left and right of the dot, so you have four little loops (petals) in a cross.3. Next, stitch a petal in between each of the four, so you end up with eight radiating petals. When you’re done, make a few stitches through the thread on the back of your embroidery, to hold your thread in place, then snip away the excess.To finish your flower, add a magenta French knot in the little space in the centre. To do this, thread your needle as before, but with magenta thread. Bring your needle up at the centre of your daisy. Wrap your thread around the needle 6 times, holding the thread taut. Bring your needle back through to the back, just next to where you brought it through, to form the knot. Secure your thread as before.

4. On your yellow fabric, draw out a 4.5cm wide circle at the centre of your square. Mark a point roughly every 1.2cm around the circle (you should have 12 evenly spaced points as shown in the diagram below).Stretch your fabric on to your embroidery ring. Use each of the points you marked as the centre for an individual daisy. These will be smaller than the previous one, so make the little petal loops roughly 5mm long. Add a mustard yellow French knot at the centre of each daisy.5. For your last embroidery pattern, let’s mark out a dot 4.5cm in (diagonally) from each corner of the square on your pink fabric. Stretch your fabric on to your embroidery hoop. At each point sew a daisy as before but with roughly 6mm petals. Finish these with a lilac French knot at the centre of each.

6. Cut out your squares and cut a matching 10cm square from your remaining fabric in each colour. Lay out your plain squares and lay your matching embroidered square on top of each, right-side up. Pin together and then sew around the edges 1cm in, leaving a roughly 4-5cm gap on one edge.7. Fill each sachet with dried lavender (I find this easiest to do using a teaspoon). Once filled, sew up the gap.

8. Finally, trim the edges with your pinking shears, to stop them fraying. (If you don’t have pinking shears you could just sew around the edges with a zigzag stitch).Tie in a bundle as a cute gift or tuck them away in your drawers!See more cool stuff from Anna Alicia over here.