I hate to throw away scraps of fabric that remain after pattern cutting. Not to mention it’s that time of the year when you have to store away all your winter clothes and protect them from moth (at least when you live in Greece, it’s that time…). I wouldn’t buy any chemical moth repellents, and instead of buying the natural thing, why not do-it-myself, anyway? So I decided to make homemade moth repellent sachets to store with my clothes and yarn this year. I already had a big jar of homegrown lavender and lots of thyme my parents gave me last summer. It was harvested in the wild by them at the island of Kithira.
For filling your little pillows you can use: lavender, thyme, cloves, rosemary, mint, cedar, cassia bark to name just a few. I used about one cup of lavender, one cup of thyme and 3 tablespoons of cloves. You should use “fresh” dried herbs to take the best out of their aroma and lots of clove. Clove is good, insects hate it.
Step by step guide:
1. cut small 4×8 rectangle pieces. (or your choice of size)


2. Place good side on good, sew the three sides together. Use the narrowest stitch of your machine. This way no herb powder can escape from
your pillows.


3. Turn good side out using a chopstick.

4. Take some time to just smell the herbs. (unnecessary step but a delightful one)

5. Fill your pillow at 2/3 with a small teaspoon.


6. Fold the top inside at about 1cm, pushing the herbs backwards.


7. Top stitch twice (for leakage safety) from edge to edge taking care to hold back the herbs. You don’t want herb powder inside your lovely sewing machine, don’t you. If you feel uncomfortable with this, hand stitch the pillows first and then go on with the sewing.

8. Ready.

Variations: You could make other forms, like triangles, circles, little moth-fighting monsters or stay with the form of your fabric stash. Yeah, you could do that if you haven’t spend the last three hours in front of your sewing machine finishing that pajamas set. Oh, and be sure to have lots of herbs stashed, so that you don’t run out of filling, when you’ll start getting all the good ideas…