By Raeven Branch

This tutorial is great for a ‘last minute Christmas gift’ idea. It smells fab and adds to the Christmassy atmosphere. If you want to give a present with a homemade touch then this gift is perfect and looks great in any fabric, especially tartan. This tutorial was done using The Craft Cotton Company’s Poly Viscous Dress Stuart Tartan and Plain-dyed White Poly Cotton. PICTURE 1

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Paper Pencil Ruler Needle and thread/ sewing machine 33cm (thin) ribbon Buttons or decoration for the front Cinnamon scented potpourri or DIY potpourri (explained further down) The Craft Cotton Company Poly Viscous Dress Stuart Tartan and Plain-dyed White Cotton

The first template is to make the little sack to hold the scented cinnamon inside the bag. For this, draw a 15cm x 11cm rectangle on your paper. 1cm from each corner, make a small hole. PICTURE 2

The second template is to make a bag which holds the sack. For this, draw a 27cm x 12cm rectangle on your paper. 1cm from each corner, make a small hole.

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On the wrong-side of the white fabric, draw around your first template and make a dot on the fabric through each of the small holes. Join the dots together on the fabric, to make a smaller 13cm x 9cm rectangle. Cut out your fabric. On the wrong-side of the tartan fabric, draw around your second template and make a dot on the fabric through each of the small holes. Join the dots together on the fabric, to make a smaller 25cm x 10cm rectangle. If you can’t see the markings you’ve made on the tartan very well, use the tartan’s lines as cutting guides. Cut out your fabric. PICTURE 4

First, sew the white sack. Fold the fabric in half with right-sides together. Sew along the block lines, leaving the smallest side open. Turn your sack the right way out and fill your sack with the cinnamon scent. Fold in the raw edges of the open seam and pin in place to stop the cinnamon coming out and sew along the seam to close the sack. PICTURE 5

If you can’t find any cinnamon scented potpourri that’s suitable to fit in the bag, don’t worry- you can make your own! This is the way I made my DIY potpourri, but you can add anything to it to make it to make it a certain scent as long as it is dried and not a liquid. You will need (to make one cinnamon sack):    

9 cinnamon fruit-tea bags 2 tsp ground cinnamon 3 cloves 1 tsp dried rosemary or 1 sprig of fresh rosemary

Cut open the tea bags and pour them into the sack. Crush or break the cloves, cut up the rosemary if you are using fresh rosemary, and put all of the ingredients in the sack. The sack should be quite full but feel free to fill it as much as you want. Just make sure that the scent is strong enough to smell through both the cotton and the tartan.

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Next, sew the tartan bag. Get one of the 12cm sides of the fabric. Fold over the seam by 0.5cm and then fold it over again so that the wrong-sides are facing and so that the raw edge can’t be seen. Sew along this seam. Repeat the same for the other 12cm side. PICTURE 8

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Add buttons or some kind of embellishment to the front at this point if you want to add some decoration.

Fold the fabric in half so that the right-sides are facing each other and the edges match and pin in place. Sew along the two long sides of the bag along the marked line, leaving the top open. Turn the tartan bag right-side out and place the sack in the bottom of the bag.

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Get the ribbon and tie it around the in a bow at the front.

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© By Raeven Branch for The Craft Cotton Company 2015