Make the bags of silk, organdy, nylon, or any other pretty fabric and leave a ribbon loop so that they can be hung in closets or pinned to curtains or chairs. They may be any shape you wish, as simple or as elaborate as your fancy and ability direct. If you are of the minimum-work school, you can use small chiffon handkerchiefs or squares of chiffon, silk or organdy. Put a handful of dried flowers or herbs in the center, tie with a pretty ribbon and there you are—you don’t even have to know how to sew to make a lovely sachet!

Here are some especially fragrant sachet mixtures:

Lavender flowers, rose geranium leaves, roses, lemon verbena.

Any fragrant leaved geranium with rosemary.

Equal parts of peppermint, lemon verbena, lemon balm, rose geranium and rose petals.

Lemon thyme with verbena.

Costmary and fragrant-leaved geranium.

Lavender, rosemary, a few cloves and a bit of lemon or orange zest. (Zest is the outer layer of citrus fruit, with no white attached, pared from the fruit and dried.)

Experiment with mixtures. Add spices—ground cloves, cinnamon, allspice, ginger—alone or in combinations to the flowers and herbs. A few crushed anise or coriander seeds give an elusive fragrance.

Here are a few mixtures which are particularly nice for the linen closet:

4 parts lavender, 2 parts rose petals, 1 part southernwood. 3 parts lavender, 1 part bergamot, 1 part lemon balm.

Equal parts of sweet fern, bergamot, lemon balm.

Equal parts of rose geranium leaves, lemon thyme and lemon verbena.

For the clothes closet, pomander balls are nice, as are padded clothes hangers filled with sachet mixtures. Or you may want to make small bags to place on each hanger.

A fragrant mix is made of:
2 parts rose petals, 1 part rose geranium, 2 parts lavender, 1 part thyme.

Don’t neglect the men – Whether or not they will admit it, they, too, like a bit of not-too-sweet fragrance. Sniff their hair oils and shaving lotions if you don’t believe it.

For men, make sachets containing one of the following blends and slip a bag into your husband’s dresser drawer or hang it in his clothes closet.

Equal parts of:

Pine and lavender.

Lavender, verbena, nutmeg and geranium.

Lemon balm, thyme and lavender.

A tablespoon of mixed spices may be added to each quart of any of the above mixtures.

Drawer Pillows

These are lovely gifts for anyone, including yourself. Make flat “pillows” of any thin but nonporous material. A bride would be thrilled to receive several in her favorite shades: pink for her lingerie drawer, green for the handkerchief box, mauve for the linen closet. Fill these pillows with rose petals, lavender, carnation petals, or a mixture of rose geranium and lemon verbena. Costmary with rose geranium is another good mixture.

It is wise to quilt or tie the pads in several places. You may prefer to place the scented leaves between thin layers of cotton or cheesecloth before adding the fancy outer fabric.

For the Linen Closet

Scented flat pads are wonderful to put between piles of linens. Make them about 7×9 inches in size, fill them with enough mix to make a rather plump pad and tuft in several places. You will need to crush or shake the pads every week or so to release their fresh fragrance.

Godey’s Lady’s Book in 1864 gave these directions for a mixture to keep away moths:

Cloves, in coarse powder, one ounce;
cassia, one ounce;
lavender flowers, one ounce;
lemon peel, one ounce.

Mix and put into little bags; place them where the clothes are kept.

Listed among the old-fashioned moth preventatives were lavender, peppermint, rosemary, spearmint, tansy, sweet woodruff, any or all blended with spices.

How much more pleasant these fragrances than the over-powering odor of moth balls!

Herb Pillows

In Biblical days, women filled pillows with mandrake to keep evil spirits from harming the family while they slept. You may make pillows of any pretty cotton or silk, cut so they will be about 4×6 inches when finished. Fill them with any sachet mixture of your choice.

You can make an especially soothing mixture from equal parts of rosemary blossoms, rosemary leaves and pine needles, dried thoroughly and slightly crushed.

Rose geranium and lemon verbena or lemon balm also combine well with pine needles.

When you have worked your way up to more elaborate mixtures, try this one:

2 tablespoons whole cloves (crushed)
1 tablespoon allspice
1 teaspoon cardamon seed
2 sticks cinnamon
dried rind of a medium orange
1 teaspoon caraway seed

In a separate bowl, mix 1 cup each of dried rose geranium leaves, lavender flowers, lemon thyme and rosemary; 2 cups sweet marjoram; 1/2 cup spearmint and lemon or orange mint, mixed.

Fixative: 2 tablespoons crushed orrisroot, 2 tablespoons gum benzoin, 10 drops bergamot oil.

Make a layer of herbs, sprinkle with spices, then fixatives. Repeat until all ingredients are used. Let stand in airtight containers about two months. Use to fill small bags to put under pillows.

If it tires you even to think of all this work, don’t give up. You can make nice pillows of rose petals, lavender or pine needles alone!

Gift Idea -Seed Packets

Package small envelopes of seeds. On each one letter the name of the herb or, better still, paste its picture on the appropriate envelope. With the mounting popularity of herbs, you will not find it difficult to get pictures.

You may want to tie an assortment of seed packets into a package. The gift will be even more appreciated if you include directions for planting the seeds.

Gift Idea – Corsages

Make five-petaled flowers, perhaps wild roses, out of nylon, organdy or any other pretty, fairly thin but nonporous cloth. Each petal should be made double, like a tiny envelope, and filled with dried rose petals and herbs or with one of the rose jar mixtures described later. Sew the petals together in the form of a flower and add a couple of artificial leaves. These fragrant corsages will not only be good money raisers for your church or for other organizations, but will also make lovely place cards.

Gift Idea – Kittens’ Delight

Cat owners will gratefully accept gifts for their pets, or troop to a booth at a bazaar when you sell catnip bags and cushions. Have the artist of your group draw a simple outline of a mouse, or trace one from a nursery rhyme book. Sew two of these outlines together, leaving a small opening, fill with dried catnip and sew up the remaining opening. If this involves too much work, you can make small squares or rectangles and outline a mouse with embroidery floss or textile paint. I don’t suppose that a cat will object to an undecorated bag, but her mistress will be more likely to buy a fancier one.

For the pillows, which bring a good price, mix a goodly amount of catnip in with whatever filling you use.

An herb garden is twice blessed, for you can give as much as you receive from it.

Here are some suggestions for using your herbs in many delightful and unusual ways. Remember that many flowers, too, are herbs; so do not be surprised to find roses, violets and other blossoms among the suggested ingredients.

Gift Idea - Potted Plants

You probably will want to pot some herbs for gifts. Be as generous as you can, for you will be delighted at the pleasure they will bring. House plants make cherished prizes and imaginative gifts at any time.

A friend in the hospital will enjoy a plant that is not only lovely to look at, but also fragrant to smell and delicious to nibble. Potted herbs are among the best sellers at bazaars and benefits. Get small plastic pots and use some of the smaller plants for this purpose. As the giver you, too, will profit from this project, for you can enjoy the herbs lined up on the window sill as they await gift days.

Gift Idea - Bookmarks

Many years ago costmary was known as “Bible leaf” because of the custom of using it as a bookmark in Bibles and prayer books.

Costmary, or any large fragrant leaves such as those of rose geranium, tansy, lemon verbena, or borage, still make charming bookmarks. If, like the women of olden days, you wish them chiefly for fragrance, then press and mount them on cards. Done this way, however, the herbs will soon crumble, so when making bookmarks for gifts, it is better to press them between blotters or tissues between the pages of a heavy book.

When the leaves are dry, place them between two pieces of heavy transparent plastic cut to the size and shape you wish. It is safest to anchor the herb with a bit of glue before putting the second piece of plastic in place. Either seal with glue or punch holes around the edges and lace with yarn or embroidery floss. I prefer the bookmarks which are laced together, so that some of the fragrance can escape. This is a project which your children will enjoy.

Gift Idea - Place Cards and Tallies

For a dinner, luncheon or card party you can make attrac-tive place cards and tallies decorated with herbs. Cut plain cards twice the size you wish them to be when finished and fold in the center. On the outside cut a slit and insert a sprig of fresh or dried herb; you can attach the spray to the card with transparent tape of you prefer.

You can make a place card which doubles as a favor by attaching a sachet to a card. For benefits or bazaars, package these in sets of eight or twelve.

Gift Idea - Herb Bouquets

A quaint name for these bouquets is “tussie-mussies.” For centuries they have been carried by those participating in the coronation ceremonies in England. Elizabeth II was handed a tussie-mussie as she entered Westminster Abbey. Long ago they were no doubt carried to ward off germs and to counteract unpleasant smells resulting from lack of adequate ventilation and plumbing. Today, however, tussie-mussies are valued for the sentiment of the meaning attached to the various herbs and for their charm in appearance and fragrance.

In the 15th century a favorite tussie-mussie was made of marigold (for happiness) and heartsease (for remembrance). Others were often used also. For example:

A red rosebud surrounded by forget-me-nots and southern-wood signified undying devotion, remembrance and constancy.

A spray of bee balm, southernwood and Bible leaf (costmary) was tucked into the bodice of the Sabbath gown to be sniffed during the long Sunday church service.

Sage with white and gold camomile flowers symbolized long life, wisdom and patience.

Lavender was thought to bring the wearer luck, and heartsease and lily of the valley surrounded by marjoram signified humility, purity and happiness.

These are only a few of the meanings associated with various herbs. When you present a tussie-mussie, write on your card the significance of the bouquet which you have assembled. Although 15th-century belles knew the meaning of each herb, the girls of today are likely to confuse the sincerity denoted by foxglove with the flattery of fennel!

To make the bouquets, choose small roses, forget-me-nots, clove pinks or violets—any small, delicate flowers. Around the center flower, group fragrant herbs such as sprigs of lavender, lemon verbena, rosemary, sweet-scented geranium, lemon balm or other sweet-smelling leaves. Basil, bergamot, marjoram or any of the mints are also good.

Cover the stems with a bit of dampened cotton, then with aluminum foil. Surround with a paper doily or stiffened lace, and tie with a ribbon.

Pomander balls—fruits studded with cloves—are natural air fresheners and moth repellents, yet they can be enjoyed simply for their beauty and scent. These fragrant globes of citrus and spice are thoughtful small gifts that can be made by anyone. They cost very little and last a long time.

Start with a perfect piece of fruit—a thick-skinned orange, a Delicious apple, a lemon or lime, even a grapefruit or pear. Discard any fruit that has a bad spot or an uneven shape. Plan a pattern for the cloves—stripes, circles, diamonds—or place them at random over the fruit. Traditionally, the fruit is studded closely all over (and this technique is still best for thin-skinned apples and pears), but open patterns on citrus fruits require less time and material to execute. There must be some space between the cloves since the fruit will shrink. If you use a pattern, first draw it on the fruit with a china marker or felt-tipped pen.

Keep the cloves in an aluminum foil tray, and work over this tray to keep the work surface clean. Use the best cloves you can find; poor cloves often contain many broken or misshapen pieces and they have a weaker scent- buying in bulk from an herb shop is best. If you do find broken cloves, they can be used in a potpourri.

Hold the fruit firmly in one hand but do not squeeze it. Pierce the fruit with a sewing bodkin, nail, poultry skewer, or tiny awl just deep enough to break the skin. Then press a clove all the way into the hole with your fingertip. Do one clove at a time; the work will go surprisingly quickly. Try to finish studding the pomander ball the same day you start it; otherwise, the unstudded part may be hard to work with later.

Many directions for pomander balls suggest rolling the fruit in a spicy mixture after it is studded, but that isn’t necessary if you keep the fruit in a dry place. You may prefer the look of the cloves without powdery spices. If high humidity makes it difficult to dry the pomander ball, roll it very lightly in orrisroot to help it dry.

After studding, let the pomander dry for several weeks until it is hard, brown, and shrunken. A sunny window is a good place or a shelf near the range. Turn the ball occasionally to help it dry evenly. Pomanders may be dried quickly by placing them on a cookie sheet in an oven with a pilot light. Leave the door open, and do not
turn the oven on. You want to dry the fruit, not bake it.

When the pomander ball is dry, you can wrap it in a piece of net, tie it with a ribbon or gilt cord, or heap several sizes of unadorned balls in a bowl or basket. This type of arrangement can substitute for flowers in the winter. Pomander balls can be mixed with fresh fruit, seashells, pomander buds (see the first post in this series), or dried flowers to make a table centerpiece.

Pomander balls can also be hung as decorations on a Christmas tree, in a closet, from a chandelier or mantel, or on a necklace or belt. Hanging is easier if you skewer a hole through the center of the fruit. Do this by pushing a metal knitting needle from one end of the fruit to the other, immediately after it is studded. This works best with citrus fruits without hard cores. Suspend the needle with the pomander ball on it between two objects so the air can circulate freely around it, and let it dry completely. Twist the pomander ball on the needle occasionally to keep it from sticking.

When the pomander ball is dry, pull out the knitting needle, and thread the ball on yarn, ribbon, a silken cord, or a narrow leather thong. Use a small metal crochet hook to reach through the hole in the fruit and grasp a doubled length of the yarn or other cord. The loop caught on the hook is the hanging loop; pull it
through to the desired length. Pull the loop through carefully to avoid catching the yarn or snagging the ribbon on the points of the cloves. Tie a bow in the yarn at the other end of the fruit, being sure the knot is large enough to keep the fruit from slipping down when the pomander is hung.

A few drops of essential oil or perfume extract will revive a fading scent.

This delicious-smelling herb potpourri, meant to be stuffed into a pillow, gives you a superb way to enjoy natural scent on a large scale in your home. Because many of the ingredients are left whole, the stuffing has enough bulk for plump toss pillows for a sofa. Smaller amounts can fill napping pillows for your bed (herbs have a calming, relaxing effect) or sachets for drawers or closets.

Ingredients for one pound of Stuffing Superb

3 ounces sage (cut and sifted)
3 ounces peppermint (whole leaves)
3 ounces hops (whole)
2 ounces lavender
2 ounces eucalyptus leaves (whole)
1 ounce dill seeds
1 ounce tarragon leaves (whole)
1 ounce rosemary

Pillow covers can be anything from denim to lace, decorated with embroidery or ribbon trim. If the cover is openwork, make an inner pillow of terry cloth or muslin to hold the stuffing.

Some interesting covers you can make: two large crocheted granny squares back-to-back with a terry inner pillow of a contrasting color; a patchwork of favorite fabrics; a fingertip towel (one that matches your sheets) folded in half and stitched; a zippered square of velvet (pack it tight for a fragrant pincushion); an old makeup bag (remove any plastic lining) to stuff and tuck in the bottom of your tote bag; a small chintz drawstring bag to hang from a hook in your closet.