Sewn Gift Idea: Christmas Sachets (and an Etsy shop shout out!)

I like to make some sewn ornaments for a few friends each year and I was looking around the web for a good idea a few months ago and came across the most adorable pattern! It’s by Charise Creates on Etsy and it’s called the Mini Cottages Paper Piecing Ornament/Sachet Pattern. I was immediately enamoured by the cuteness and I thought making ornaments into sachets was the genius idea I’ve been missing all these years, ha!

Look how cute my little houses turned out!!

Among people who think quilting is fun, there is a subset of people who think teeny tiny paper piecing is fun (the rest of the people think it’s a tedious waste of time). I’m one of those people who LOVES paper piecing. I’m a puzzle loving gal, so something about paper piecing appeals to my brain and feels both engaging and relaxing at the same time!

If you don’t know what paper piecing is, it’s a method of making quilt blocks by sewing them onto the actual paper the pattern is printed on … I guess it’s hard to explain, so I’ll direct you to this video. I learned with a video and I remember it being hard to find one that dumbed it down enough for me (it’s not hard, just abstract!), so maybe I should make my own video for paper piecing soon!

Anyway …

I had the best time digging through my drawers, picking out little fabrics for these cottages, especially for the scenes inside the windows. I happened to have a piece of Christmas fabric that was absolutely PERFECT for this project! I did my best to make sure all the windows had something cute in them.

Just look at those little scenes! This novelty print was called Christmas Windows. It was a Joann’s exclusive fabric, but I bought it many years ago.

Lots of other fabrics will work too, though! I pulled out all the fabrics that had small enough pictures on them and was surprised how many I had.

I put a ballerina in the window of this one and little baked treats from a different fabric in the windows.

It was equally fun picking out little buttons for the doorknobs and ribbons for the chimneys! After I’d pieced the houses, I went ahead and applied interfacing to the front and back before sewing them together. I did this because I wasn’t sure what I was going to fill them with (I’ll tell you what I decided in a minute!), so I wanted to make sure if I used some kind of potpourri, it wouldn’t make them have a weird texture. The interfacing was a good call, I’ll do that again, because it make them more substantial and they didn’t lose their shape when I stuffed them.

I toyed with a lot of ideas to make these sachets smell like Christmas, but I didn’t want them to be too heavy (rice was out), and the only potpourri that comes small enough is lavender. So I ended up using these Cinnamon scented sachets. I stuffed the houses halfway with stuffing, then opened the sachet and poured some of the filling into them. Then I stuffed them the rest of the way. It worked beautifully!

If you’re not into paper piecing, or want something faster, I have a post about all the ornaments I’ve made for friends in the past that might inspire you! You can really turn any stuffed ornament into a sachet in the same way. I usually write each friend a little card and tie the ornament onto it with a pretty ribbon.

Thank you to ChariseCreates for that wonderful pattern! I’ve recently become a tea person, so this pattern from her shop is next on my list!

Cheers!

Nikki