Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Sewing Sachets

Today my girls are beginning to make their Christmas presents -- sachets. We have a variety of Christmas fabrics and a large bag of wool stuffing, plus an assortment of spices to go inside (cinnamon sticks, dried lemon and orange peel, whole cloves, etc.) and the girls have divided up the list of people we need to give gifts to and they have begun to work on the people on their list. I'm roasting a chicken over a bed of quince pieces so the house smells lovely and I have an hour which I can devote to helping them. The two oldest have been through the sewing unit in my class so they can pin fabric, thread a needle, and tie a french knot. Boy is it easier to do craft projects now that these girls are older! The youngest needs her fabric pinned, her needle threaded, and her knots tied, and I also put dots along the fabric with a Sharpie so that she has something to follow. It is sweet to see them all sitting in a row on the couch, sewing peacefully.

1 comment:

Renee said...

The fabric bags are sewn; we are now stuffing them. The girls have a long row of herbs and spices to choose from: orange peel, lemon peel, stick cinnamon, anise seed, whole cloves, coriander seed, fennel seed, and crushed rosemary. Each girl sniffs the jars, chooses her combination, pours out a little into a small dish, smells them together to be sure she likes the scent, then puts wool stuffing into half the sachet, adds the spice combination, and fills the remainder, then sews across the final edge. The girls are having much more fun choosing the scents than I expected, so I'm glad I gave them such a variety of smells.