Making some hanging lavender sachets, finally

Way back in 2014 I shared a link and a tutorial to some gorgeous hanging lavender sachets I’d seen and fallen in love with, and clearly had intentions to make some for myself. Well fast forward to our house move and I rediscovered the pieces of material I’d cut in preparation and two sachets which I’d mostly sewn.

THE TWO THAT WERE MOSTLY SEWN, NOW FINISHED

Thankfully I’d left myself enough clues about my original plans, and so with my ever increasing supply of ‘magpied’ ribbons (from clothes, Christmas crackers, chocolates and no doubt many more places) I went through and laid out items to decorate each of the sachets.

They were a great way to get back to being familiar with my sewing machine, after a longer than intended break. They were small, creative enough but not overly challenging, as the majority of sewing was in straight lines. I realised though after completing the two above that adding the hanging ribbon afterwards could be time consuming, and therefore likely to not happen - so I made a change, and pinned the hanging ribbon so it could be part of the seam at the top of the sachet.

And then I motored through them, until it came to finishing them off.

I’d filled them with lavender and pinned the gaps at the bottom closed and they were ready to be hand sewn, and hung. But it was always the job I never quite got to, putting it off - you know the sort. Until I realised that I could sew the gaps closed across the bottom by machine, and then at least they’d be done and no one would be none the wiser (that is until I just told you!)

And so my mini production line was off again.

It was simple really, and I don’t think look any worse for the adjustments I’ve made. Though I’d had my fill of sewing lavender sachets (for the time being anyway) and so I packed the remaining future sachets back into the box, but I know my future self will be pleased that I’ve added yoyos, buttons and ribbons for decorating and hanging so when I’m in need of a simple sewing project, I have one that’s ready made.

I’m really pleased with how the lavender sachets turned out, and have found plenty of wardrobes and cupboards here to hang them in, in fact you may have spotted one of them hanging in the bathroom cupboard with the new shelves.

I love that how each of them are different, and how they all use remnants of material either from old clothes that I’ve cut up, or from previous projects alongside the ribbon and buttons I’ve also saved. Plus they smell lovely, and thankfully not too overpowering!

And had you spotted that there are eleven finished sachets? Well it’s totally a coincidence that I finished these in the week leading up to my blog’s eleventh birthday, I picked up this project towards the end of January and while I’d like to say I plan ahead, well that would be a total fabrication! Spooky though hey?

Eleven

Today I’ve been blogging for eleven years - and I’m not quite sure where the time has gone.

As you’ll know this space has changed name in the past year, but I’m still keeping my original starting date as my ‘blog birthday’ as that’s when it all started for me back in 2013. I’m sure lots of things have changed since then too, more than I can probably remember!

Photo by Marcel Eberle on Unsplash

But as part of my blog birthday tradition, I thought I’d give it a go - so here’s eleven things that have changed for me since I started blogging:

1. Where I blog: I started off using a free Blogger blog with one of the inbuilt templates. I soon outgrew the inbuilt template though, and learnt enough html to make changes to its look and feel and feel a bit more like the Life at 139a home that I changed from back in the summer. I relatively quickly decided to move away from the Blogger platform, and to move to my own url, which I did with Squarespace. Then last summer following our house move I updated that url to the one I’m using today, so quite a journey.

2. Where I live: that’s the other big change you’ll know about already. After growing up and living in London we’ve escaped to the country. We left our house of twenty one years - 139a - and moved to Nottinghamshire. I’ve still plenty to share about our new house, and our move!

3. Where I work: again a big change, as I am no longer working having taken early retirement in 2022. But even before that I left my job of nearly thirty years in the City in 2014 taking some time out before working locally in Greenwich for six years.

4. My name! While I was working I continued to use my maiden name, but used my married name for non-work related things. That was the plan anyway, and quite often I’d forget which led to MOH regularly asking what name I was using that day! Since I’m no longer working I’m using my married name more and more, though it’s still taking some getting used to - even after sixteen years of marriage (seventeen this year) I feel I’m always surprised when I answer to my married name in the doctors!

5. What I blog about: one of the reasons for starting my blog was to share updates on the work to update our house in London, once that completed though I still found plenty to share especially visits to gardens and our own garden, again starting with the work we undertook shaping the grass and then to monthly updates. It’s almost as if it’s come a full circle now though, with a new house and plenty of projects to come.

6. Getting my craft on: back in 2013 I was a lapsed crafter having tried many crafts over the years. Life was busy and there was little time to craft back then, but now crafting is a much bigger part of time and more regularly, especially as I’ve now got a dedicated space for crafting - so different to having my craft materials across several rooms of the house (though MOH might legitimately comment that that hasn’t really changed!)

7. Blogging: it’s changed quite a lot, or perhaps I don’t have the same time or energy for blogging groups, blogging circles or blogging events - though I suspect the latter may have been scuppered initially by Covid, and then more recently by reduced budgets. However, I think that’s ok, things move on. Quite a few bloggers I got to know back in those early days have stopped writing their blog, but it’s great to still keep up with many of them. I do a lot less brand work and when I do I’m even more choosy than I was before!

8. How I use my social channels: this also relates to how blogging has changed, but also to how social media has also changed. I now rarely use X and my blog’s Facebook page has lapsed (even though I renamed it back in the summer) and I share fewer and fewer of my blog posts on my social channels. Where I previously resisted using Instagram stories, these are probably now the social channel I use the most - I think that also reflects how life, and how we use technology has also changed.

9. PoCoLo, the weekly linky I co-host: I started to co-host the linky back in 2016, and since 2019 I’ve co-hosted PoCoLo with Suzanne from Chicken Ruby. The linky itself has changed as we no longer include the Blogger Showcase element, as quite honestly we didn’t have people wanting to share information this way. As I said, things change but there is still a community of people who join in each week, and we both love to host each week.
   
   Ermm… now I’m struggling.
   
   Clearly so many things in the world around us have changed and I’d need a much longer list to cover off those. So instead I’m finishing my list with two things that haven’t changed quite so much, if at all.
   

10. Clearly MOH has been here all along, and I’m grateful for that obviously - though occasionally he still finds things out when people we know in real life ask him about posts on my blog. He really should read here more often, but he’s not much of one for things online!

11. And you, I’m grateful for everyone that reads my blog - whether you dip in every now and again, or more regularly. It really wouldn’t be the same place without you!

Thank you for being here, and for being part of my online space and community.

Post Comment Love 16 - 18 February

Hello there, and welcome back to this week’s #PoCoLo - a friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any blog post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked, comment and share some of that love.

Please don’t link up posts which are older as they will be removed from the linky, and if older posts are linked then please don’t feel that it’s necessary to comment on those. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here this week we’re pleased you’ve joined us.

We’ve had a busy and productive week here, and one that’s been blessed with peculiar weather and some glorious sunsets. We definitely notice the sunsets more here than when we were in London, and I think that’s partly how our house is positioned but also because there’s a lot more space around us. It’s definitely not a complaint though!

This week’s photo is one of those glorious sunset days. It had been raining on and off, but mostly on for a couple of days, and we nipped out for a brief walk during a break in the rain. That thankfully lasted for the whole of our walk and I was able to snap this photo on our way home - it has a look of the Old Masters painted quality about it, doesn’t it?

Have a great week!

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