Handmade weddings: lavender bag favours

I made little lavender bags as favours for all the girls at our wedding. I thought it would be nice for the guests to have something pretty and useful that they could take home as a reminder of the day. Everyone seemed to love them and although making fifty of them took a while they were suprisingly simple to make so I thought I'd share a little tutorial with you.

To start you need two pieces of fabric cut into rectangles - mine were approx 10x12cm but you could make these any size you like. You'll also need some ribbon cut into strips about 15cm long. If you're going to make lots of these I'd suggest cutting all your fabric and ribbon at the same time as it will save time later.

Next you need to pin the fabrics together - good side in and fold the length of ribbon in half and pin the ribbon so that it sits inside the layers of fabric and the ends poke out of the top (and yes my pin cushion is shaped like a mushroom).

Using a sewing machine, sew the pieces of fabric and ribbon together leaving a gap of about an inch so you have a gap to fill the bags with lavender. Once you've finished you can turn the bag right side out and they will look something like this.

I made lots of these little bags in differnt fabrics as I wanted a bit of a mix and match look to our favours. I used lavender grain bought from Shropshire Petals  - it was nice to know that the lavender was grown near by. 

Using a funnel made from paper you can simply fill the bags through the gap you left and once they are full enough tuck in the open edges of the bag. To seal the gap I ran a zig-zag stitch round the edges of the whole bag as I quite like the rustic look it created but you could handstitch the opening if you wanted to.

I still have a few of these left over and they still smell lovely two months after the wedding - I love getting a waft of lavender as I open my sewing box and it's a smell that will always remind me of our wedding.

What do youy think? I've just added these to my Etsy shop so if you'd like some made for your wedding then please do let me know - I can make them in any colour and fabric you would like.

H x