Liberty Print Lavender Humbugs ~ A Simple Sewing Project

One of the things I fail to do every season when sorting out my wardrobe, is to care and store my handmade, vintage & thrifted items with the care they deserve. Simply throwing them into laundry bags and shoving them under beds and into cupboards will no longer do. Especially as some moth holes have appeared on my favourite cashmere cardigans!

Lavender is a time honoured moth repellent as it contains compounds Moths dislike including camphor, so I thought I'd make some lavender bags to pop in with stored clothes, especially my knitted items.

These Lavender Humbugs were so simple and so much fun, I thought I'd share the tutorial with you, in case you'd like to make some yourself!

You will need ~ Scraps of fabric, a postcard to draw around, your basic sewing kit, dried lavender {I bought mine from Grape Tree}, a cup of tea and a leisurely hour or two.

I had a lovely time selecting scraps from my treasured Liberty fabric stash. You don't have to match the postcard to the fabric, but it gave me pleasure to do so!

Use a postcard as a template {this includes a 1 cm seam allowance} and draw round it on the wrong side of your fabric. I just did this in pencil but use whatever you prefer.

Then cut out your little rectangle. I cut out a few as I wanted to make as many lavender humbugs in one sitting.

I chose 3 different Liberty prints ~ Honeymoon, Tom and this lovely one that I don't know the name of. It puts me in mind of 1920's cottage gardens and cucumber sandwiches! When I saw these fabrics together I thought a little set of these would make a lovely little gift for a dear one on a special occasion.

Fold your rectangle short sides together and pin as shown. The dotted lines on this calico guide indicate where you will sew with a 1 cm seam allowance. Leave a gap in the long edge so you can turn through once sewn.

Once you've sewn as shown on the calico example pictured above, snip the corner { so you get a neat corner once turned through!} and on the unsewn short edge, press right sides together at the opposite angle to the sewn short edge. This creates the 'twisted' humbug shape. Pin and then sew with the 1 cm seam allowance. snip the edges carefully and turn through to the right side.

Now it's time to fill your humbug! I used my old 'Make the World a Better Place' postcard to create a funnel but it may have been easier to use a spoon

Once each humbug is well filled ~ I filled mine about 2/3rds full, pin opening closed. The smell of lavender in my sewing room was divine as I worked on this soothing sewing project!

Slip stitch the opening closed with neat little stitches ~ this stops the lavender from falling out.

Your Lavender Humbugs are done! I used mine in my lingerie drawer and in my clothes storage and I'm hoping I won't have too many issues with moths this year!

I also popped one by my pillow and I can honestly say that I've had the loveliest nights sleep with the natural lavender scent sweetening my dreams.

Tara x