Heart Shaped Lavender Bags

The new craft yarns at the Fabric Warehouse have inspired me. So, I thought that I'd make some lavender bags for aunties and cousins for Christmas. I'd have  a good excuse for some crafting and they'd get a handmade gift.

 I began by trying to sew them but found it tricky to sew perfect heart shapes. Then I saw Kirstie's Handmade Christmas with Kirstie Allsopp on Channel 4 and decide to use a different method. Kirstie made a heart garland using iron-on fabric adhesive. So it was back to the Fabric Warehouse to buy some.

The iron on adhesive has a paper backing. I placed it  face down on the reverse side of the fabric and then ironed it. This binds the adhesive side to the fabric.

I could then draw out the hearts on the fabric and the cut them out. 

 I cut out 3 different sizes using 3 contrasting fabrics.

I trimmed the smaller 2 sizes with pinking sheers.

I peeled the paper from the back of the fabric of the middle size heart and positioned it in the center of the larger heart and then ironed again. This fused the 2 pieces of fabric together. 

I repeated this with the smallest heart.

A button was added to the center for decoration.

I removed the paper backing from the prepared heart and another large heart and ironed around the very edge to stick together - leaving a gap at the bottom of the heart for the stuffing. I ironed in some ribbon to make the hanger.

Inspired again by Kirstie I ran a running stitch of embroidery thread around the heart about 1cm in from the edge, leaving a gap again. I then lightly stuffed each heart with very  small pieces of wadding. 

Now for the fun part. I found some wonderful English Lavender on Ebay. I put 3 or 4 teaspoons of  lavender in each heart.

Once the hearts were stuffed &  filled with lavender I ironed the gap together and completed the decorative sewing. To finish off the edges were trimmed with pinking shears.

All ready to be wrapped up for Christmas.