Mom's Hankies

Mom was never far from one of her pretty hankerchiefs - in fact she became known for them and I was surprised to find that some of her close friends even asked for one of mom's hankies as a keepsake to remember her by.  Who would of thought? -  but seriously they did!  I guess maybe they're not so commom place in America - in fact she bought many of them over here as well as the many we sent her as gifts that were easy to post.

Because she had so many I decided we needed to find a purposeful use for them (other than blowing our noses on them of course) and surfed the internet.

I found this really neat idea from Cindy over at 'Skip to my Lou' and thought I'd quickly share it.

Her idea was to fold the hanky and stitch around leaving an opening and then fill them with lavender to create scented sachets.  How neat is this idea!

I grabbed them from mom's drawer and got to work pressing them.  Usually I hate ironing and I did get tired after the first 20 or so but there was something real comforting about ironing mom's hankerchiefs too so I didn't really mind doing it.

I had to use the machine at mom's house but it was really nice and these things took a matter of minutes to make.  In no time at all I easily had a dozen or more made up.  The hardest part was finding lavender to fill them with.  In fact I had to leave them empty for the girls to fill later cos I drew a blank and ran out of time.

These are just a few of the hankies I stitched - they're gonna make such pretty sented sachets once they're filled.  I brought a few home for me and the girls and even a couple for young Maddycakes to put in her undies drawer.  These ones on top were slightly smaller so I thought they were perfect for Maddy.

This is not only a lovely way to reclaim these hankies (some were gettin dreadfully threadbare) but it means we can each have AND USE something that was so close to mom.  She suffered from sinus trouble so like I say her hankies were never very far away from her.  Now they've been given a new lease of life so thanks Cindy for this fab idea - it was perfect for the job!