A Small Pleasure Worth Reviving

There are few things more satisfying in a cottage home than opening a drawer and catching the clean, sweet scent of lavender. It costs almost nothing to make your own lavender bags, and the process uses up the flowers you have already grown, dried and brought indoors. A handful of dried buds, a few squares of leftover fabric and half an hour at the kitchen table will give you drawer fresheners for every room, plus a stock of small gifts that always seem to be appreciated far more than their modest appearance suggests.

The method is genuinely simple, but a little care at each stage makes the difference between a bag that smells wonderful for a fortnight and one that scents your linen for a year or more.

Which Lavender to Grow and When to Cut It

For scent, English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) is the one to choose. Reliable varieties such as 'Hidcote' and 'Munstead' are compact, hardy and intensely fragrant. The broad-leaved lavandins look magnificent in a border but their scent is sharper and fades faster in a bag.

Timing matters more than anything else. Cut your flower spikes in mid to late July, just as the buds begin to open but before the flowers are fully out. At this stage the oil content is at its peak. Choose a dry morning after the dew has lifted, and take the stems with sharp secateurs, cutting back to just above the leafy growth.

Gather the stems into loose bundles of about twenty, secure them with an elastic band rather than string, and hang them upside down somewhere dark, dry and airy — a shed, a spare room or an airing cupboard. A paper bag slipped over the heads will catch any buds that drop. Leave them for two to three weeks until the stems snap rather than bend.

Preparing the Dried Flowers

Once dry, rub the flower heads between your palms over a large bowl and the buds will fall away from the stalks. Pick out any stray leaves and bits of stem, then store the buds in a sealed jar in a dark cupboard. They will keep their scent for at least a year, which means you can sew bags whenever the mood takes you rather than all in one frantic afternoon.

• Keep a small bowl of buds beside you as you work — you will spill some.
• If the scent has dulled, add two or three drops of lavender essential oil to the jar, shake well and leave for a week before using.
• A tablespoon of dried rice added to the mix gives the bag a pleasing weight and helps release the scent when squeezed.

Choosing and Cutting Your Fabric

Almost any closely woven natural fabric works well: cotton, linen, lawn, or the offcuts of a worn shirt or pillowcase. The weave needs to be tight enough to stop fine buds escaping through the seams, so avoid loose hessian or coarse canvas unless you line it.

Cut two squares for each bag. For a drawer freshener, 12cm squares give a generous finished bag of about 10cm. For smaller gifts or shoe cupboards, 9cm squares are ideal. Add a 1cm seam allowance and cut with pinking shears if you can — it prevents fraying and saves tidying later. Press the squares before sewing; crisp fabric is far easier to stitch neatly than fabric that has been folded in a scrap basket for months.

Sewing the Bags Step by Step

Place the two squares right sides together and pin. Machine or hand stitch around three sides with a 1cm seam, taking a few backstitches at each end. Snip across the corners diagonally — close to the stitching but not through it — then turn the bag right side out and press, pushing the corners out gently with a blunt pencil.

Fill the bag about three-quarters full with dried lavender. Overfilling makes the seams strain and the bag feel hard and lumpy; underfilling and it will flop in the drawer. Fold the raw edges of the opening inward by 1cm and pin them together.

For a really neat finish, close the opening with a slip stitch: bring the needle up through the folded edge on one side, then directly across into the fold on the other, and work small, even stitches along the length. Pull gently every few stitches to draw the edges together invisibly, and finish with a knot buried inside the seam. If you prefer, a simple running stitch in matching thread looks charmingly homemade and takes half the time.

Using and Giving Your Lavender Bags

Tuck them between folded sheets, in the wardrobe among woolens, in the airing cupboard, in a shoe basket, or under a pillow to help you sleep. Squeeze the bag every few weeks to bruise the buds and release fresh scent, and top it up from your jar once a year.

• Tie a bag with narrow ribbon and a handwritten paper tag for a thoughtful, inexpensive gift.
• Pair one with a bar of homemade soap or a jar of jam for a housewarming present.
• Sew a set of three in co-ordinating fabrics and present them in a small basket lined with tissue paper.
• Make a simple felt heart or a fabric lavender wand to use up the last of the summer's harvest.

There is something quietly pleasing about a drawer that smells of your own garden in the middle of January, and it all began with a few squares of cloth and a bundle of stems hung in a shed.