A while ago, I blogged about my visit to the wonderful Britex Fabrics in San Francisco and their store-exclusive ‘souvenir’ fabric that I was at a bit of a loss what to do with.

The print is huge and I wanted to turn it into something that would preserve as much of the slightly cheesy, but really fun, design as possible. A moment of inspiration came when I was looking at a tutorial on perfecting corners and lavender bags. Maybe lavender bags or sachets are more typically associated with pastel, floral fabrics, but why not make them a little louder and bolder?

Rather than just stuffing the bag directly, I decided to make the sachet in the style of a little envelope pillow. Here’s a nice tutorial on making envelope pillows/cushion covers but they are really super simple to do. Making this as an envelope meant I didn’t have to overstuff the piece and keep a flat, smooth face on the fabric. It’s also possible to remove and replace the lavender if required, rather than soaking the pillow in oil when the scent has faded.

When people say ‘projects for less than 20 minutes’ I am usually sceptical. It’s the same as recipes that quote preparation times only achievable if you have a sharp enough glare the vegetables just dice themselves and a dishwasher at hand to combat the inevitable entropy of the cooking process. However, I think this mini-project probably took about that, apart from some slightly obsessive checking for adding the hanger to make sure I was sewing it into the ‘right’ side of the project.

To try and make the project a bit more practical, I added a hanging tag from the super thick ribbon I also bought at Britex, large enough to loop the project over a door handle. I love the airmail ribbon and the international postage stamp was a perfect addition for a project as a memento from a lovely trip to the other side of the pond.

For the envelope, I folded back quite a lot of fabric to give more volume to the back and used some white contrasting thread for the seams. I almost wish I’d used this as a chance to take the Bernina’s decorative stitches for a test ride but it might have been a bit much with all the colour and patterns. Trying to work out how to orient the pieces for the back (as I wanted the top part of the envelope to be upside down as I felt that worked best visually with the cuts of fabric I had) was a good brain test but some careful checking meant it all went fine first time.

As just a finishing touch to the project, I had a pin badge that I’d been given with my order at Britex that just nicely breaks up the front of the piece of me and gives a bit more weight for better hanging, as lavender isn’t that dense. I am a little smug about the corners on this project and the seams turned out nicely too. Sometimes simple can be the most effective and a nice way of going back at looking how much you’ve learnt.