DIY Grain Sack Lavender Heart Sachets
Easy directions and tips for making sweet DIY grain sack lavender heart sachets. Perfect for Valentine’s Day or Sweetest Day. Also use them for Valentine’s Day decor.
With Valentine’s Day less than a month away, it’s the perfect time to make these DIY Grain Sack Lavender Heart Sachets. They make a lovely gift…for someone else or for yourself. They do require a little bit of sewing, but if you don’t have a machine, hand-stitching will work just as well.
For this project, I used part of one antique grain sack, and two different antique tea towels. If you are wondering about the “AD,” the vintage tea towels came with the initials already embroidered. Sometimes, if you are patient and incredibly lucky, you can find vintage linens with embroidered initials that match your own. These tea towels were gifted to me by a friend who owns an Etsy shop, and they are treasures for sure.
The Method
My method for making heart sachets uses one cut-out heart, and one bigger piece of backing fabric. It took me a few years to perfect this method, and it’s definitely much easier than trying to sew together two hearts that are exactly the same size. It eliminates the need to line the front and back up perfectly, and makes the job go so much faster.
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Supplies Needed
- Grain sack fabric for the top of the heart
- Backing fabric (scrap fabric or the plain part of the grain sack)
- Heart template: SMALL or LARGE
- Fresh lavender buds
- Cording or ribbon for hangers: 3 – 4 inches long
- Scissors
- Marking pen
Tip: Sometimes, antique grain sacks can be found with the ties still attached. More often than not, the ties are missing or too worn to use. If the ties are there, and still in good condition, they make perfect hanger loops for the heart sachets. I was fresh out of antique ties, so the hangers shown in these photos were made from tiny braided cording.
Fabric Variations
These directions are for one sachet made from grain sack. You can, of course, use any sort of fabric you like or have on hand. Some good choices in addition to the authentic grain sack are tea towels, drop cloth, cloth napkins, etc. If you plan to make more than one, use the assembly-line method. For example, trace all your hearts at once…then cut them all out…etc.
How to Make a Heart Sachet
- Iron your grain sack fabric.
- Make a heart template out of heavy cardstock or cardboard. Using cardboard makes it much easier to trace.
- Being mindful of the grain sack stripes, trace a heart on your fabric, and cut it out. Cut inside the marking line so it doesn’t show on the finished heart.
- Cut a piece of backing fabric. The shape doesn’t matter, it just needs to be bigger than the heart.
- With WRONG sides together, sew the heart to the backing fabric. You can sew the heart by hand or use a sewing machine. If desired, insert a piece of cording into the “V” of the heart to use as a hanger. Leave an unstitched space on the side of the heart. This space should be about the width of a spoon.
- Using a spoon, fill the heart with lavender buds. (The big hearts take about 2 cups of lavender and the small hearts take about 3/4 cup.)
- After filling the heart sachets, sew up the unstitched space.
- Carefully cut out the back side of the heart.
Years ago, when I was sewing for my now-closed Etsy shop, I made hundreds of grain sack hearts. Some were sachets filled were lavender, some were Christmas tree ornaments filled with stuffing. Some had blue stripes and some had red. I wish I knew exactly how many I made, but I didn’t keep track. Of all those hundreds of hearts, I didn’t save even one for myself. How that happened, I will never know!
I have wanted to share this project for a long time, but more than that, I wanted to make some hearts that I could keep. I love the way they look in the basket on my blanket ladder, and the light scent of lavender is so wonderful.
Update
This post was originally published in 2018. When I don’t have these hearts on display in our home, they are stored in a plastic container with a tight lid. They look as perfect today as they did the day I made them. To refresh the lavender scent, simply add a drop of lavender essential oil to the back of a few hearts. In addition to using these hearts for Valentine’s Day decor, they can be used as Christmas tree ornaments.
Sources
Blanket basket ladder | Vintage-style scissors
The Price of Grain Sacks 2023
When I first started collecting and sewing with antique grain sacks, I was able to find sacks that were in good condition, for a reasonable price. The price range was anywhere between $45 and $65. I recently looked around online and found that, like everything else, the price has gone up. Authentic vintage fabric is getting harder to come by, but it’s still available, and very much worth the time and effort it takes to find it.
I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed writing it. I loved the sewing, the photography, and writing the tutorial. These heart sachets take a little time to make, but it’s definitely time well spent, and the end result is totally worth it. If stored properly, these heart sachets can be used for many years. Hearts are classic, and always easy to add to your decor, no matter what the style.
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