Wednesday 27 September 2017

Little House Lavender Bags

Use an old sweater and a little embroidery to make pretty little house lavender bags.
felt 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.
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 some thing 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 making some little house shaped scented sachets filled with lavender.

To make your own you will need:

Felt, an old felted jumper/cardigan or shop bought
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

First you need to make a house shaped pattern and a roof pattern.
felt house lavender bag 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.
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.
embroidery on a felt house lavender bags
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.
making felt house lavender bags
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.
filling felt house lavender bags
Stitch the bottom of your house closed.
felt house lavender bags
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. you could just risk it a snip them off. 
felt house lavender bags
felt house lavender bags
Now make loads more!! 
felt house lavender bags
felt house lavender bags
If you don't want to make your own, these little lavender bag houses are now listed in my brand new Etsy shop.
Sum of their Stories
Sum of their Stories

Hello, I'm Julie. I love making things and this is where I share my enthusiasm.

32 comments:

  1. These are adorable, Julie. I could see these attached to a gift or on the Christmas tree!

    ReplyDelete
  2. These are so lovely Julie. They will make great Christmas gifts for family and friends!

    ReplyDelete
  3. They are lovely. I must wash some sweaters too hot. Oh, I do that any way

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a great way to use an old jumper! Very pretty and cute, and I'm sure, very sweet smelling!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love this!! And you've stitched such beautiful plants and flowers! A very great idea and well worked out, thank you for the inspiration!

    ReplyDelete
  6. So pretty. I have a thing about little houses and beach huts, not sure why but love them x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are cute aren't they?! Little houses are lovely unless you try to live in them with loads of stuff!!

      Delete
  7. What a great idea! Good for Christmas presents too! xx
    www.vanityandmestyle.com

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a great way to use felted jumpers. I have a few I accidentally felted a few years ago. I really must get around to drying my lavender - they're in flower at the moment.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's easy to make those jumpers a little smaller than you intended in the washing machine isn't it!
      our lavender is all done here now but of course yours will be just getting started over on the other side of the world!

      Delete
  9. Oh my these are beautiful, and woud be so much fun to create. Pinning and sharing. Love this.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wow, they are adorable! Love, love them :).

    ReplyDelete
  11. These are so sweet and would make a lovely gift. I love that you made them from scraps and an old sweater too!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I love these cute lavender bags you made. They wood make cute Christmas ornaments too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oo yes, Christmas themed ones would be super cute. I'm used all this jumper now but I'll keep my eyes peeled for something similar in a Charity shop to make some more. Thanks for the great idea.

      Delete
  13. I am in love with these gorgeous houses and I have some Lavender picked and dried from the garden that would be perfectly at home in them Julie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Amber, lavender from the garden is the best!

      Delete
  14. Julie, These are so very pretty! Amazed that you made these from an old sweater. Pinned and shared.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Truly unique gifts. I love how these turned out.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Your little lavender houses are simply precious. They make me smile and feel good. Smiles, Linda at Paper Seedlings

    ReplyDelete
  17. These are so adorable. I'm bringing back my Monday link party @ DIY Home Sweet Home (first one will be Oct. 16th) and I would love for you to stop by and link up Your lavender bags or any new projects your working on! http://diyhshp.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  18. What a lovely gift! These sweet little house bags are perfect for any time of year, but I'm thinking that they would make lovely little holiday gifts! Love that you are using recycled materials too. I'm featuring this post at the Hearth and Soul Link Party this week. Thank you so much for sharing it!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Julie, these are absolutely adorable and I love the hand embroidery detail. Thank you for sharing at Create, Bake, Grow & Gather this week. I'm delighted to be featuring this project at tonight's party and pinning too!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Oh these are the cutest!! Before I started reading, I thought they were made from quilt batting scraps. Do you suppose batting would work for these? I have loads of Warm and Natural and Warm and White cotton batting scraps. But no wool. And I love how these use the tiniest bits of fabric, because I do save tiny bits! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Love your little houses, guess I will have to get to the goodwill store. Thank you for sharing.
    Carol O

    ReplyDelete
  22. Your lavender bags are beautiful! I think they'd be an amazing project for kids to sew!!

    ReplyDelete
  23. These sweet little houses are so very cute and clever! They would make perfect bridal shower favors. Thank you for the tutorial.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Oh! Wonderful! I always like such ideas of "Best out of Waste". I have shared the idea of making Door Mat with the waste sari (Indian dress). I will also share one flower arrangement with same type of small squares from the stuff remained after sewing the dress.

    ReplyDelete

I love to hear your thoughts/comments, thank you for taking the time.