Herbal sachets filled with rose petals and lavender are coming into vogue again to repel moths, ever since the government identified those naphthalene moth balls as a suspected cause of cancer. Take a few minutes to make your mother or grandmother these healthier alternatives. Choose a lovely fabric for a beautifully scented sachet and you have a beautiful and thoughtful gift.

Here’s what you need:
¼ yard lace
Dinner plate
Disappearing ink marker
Scissors
Cereal bowl
Tapestry needle
2 yards ¼-inch-wide wired ribbon
2 ounces lavender, rose petals or natural potpourri (dried herbs can often be found in health food stores)
2 yards 1-inch-wide ribbon

Place the lace on a table and lay the dinner plate on top of it. Trace the edge of the plate with the disappearing ink marker. Remove the plate and cut around marker to make a circle of lace. Turn the cereal bowl upside down in the center of the lace circle and trace the edge. Remove bowl.

Thread the tapestry needle with the think ribbon and stitch around the inner circle you have just created. (Size of the stitches doesn’t matter.) Tug gently on the ribbon so the lace gathers to make a pocket. When the opening is the size of a silver dollar, pour the lavender or potpourri in until full (about the size of a walnut). Tug the ribbon tight, tie on a knot, and cut the ends short.

Tie the wide ribbon into a beautiful bow. Repeat until the materials are gone.

Makes 5 sachets.