Making a Sachet

Was it “Flora Belle?” It was one of those double names with “Belle” clinging to the end, demotic in the South in another day and rare everywhere else.

In memory she was a heavy woman wearing lace-up shoes; brown ones, black ones, low ones.

I was too young to form opinions but recall a comment about cat hair. That comment meant nothing to me but in reflection, it adds some texture to my memory of her.

There was a sour sweetness about her under a top note of bath powder. It was evident when she hobbled by parting the air with a wake of flowing, gauzy layers.

There was a pained expression when Miss Belle stayed too long in one place.

She wore little pouches around her wrist and on a ribbon around her neck.

They were sachets packed with dried flowers and other things.

These tidbits of memory roared back when the lilac bush bloomed. This was its first blooming season and I liked it. I clipped the blooms and hung them upside down in the garage to dry.

I didn’t think far enough ahead to plan what I’d do with the dried blooms, but it came to mind that they might make an interesting sachet just to preserve the aroma.

People don’t employ sachets at the former rate. They were found among sheets and pillow cases in the linen drawers and hanging among clothing in their off seasons.

Some sachets contained cedar shavings in the hope of preventing moths.

A sachet could be as simple as a cloth bag containing whole cloves or a ball of cotton dabbed with vanilla extract.

An herb garden could be a source of product. Some items that would work as a fragrance carrier include sage, lavender, rosemary, thyme, basil, parsley mint, catnip.

A bag of rice scented with essential oils found in craft stores creates an inorganic sachet.

The advantage of making your own sachet is that you can use any of the stock fragrances or combine a couple to meet your choice.

Cloth bags are easily made of fabric, but small, fine quality, fabric. Hardware parts bags are available on-line.

If I were making a sachet to please myself, it would smell of eucalyptus, lemon oil, cedar.

Sachets are a personal gift to remind someone of you by carrying your signature scent. Or it was a gift to yourself to remind you of someone by their favorite scent.

There was a time when letters carried subtle messages by being scented with perfume. When he was drafted into the Army during WWI, my grandfather’s brother carried a handkerchief scented with his fiance’s perfume.

I don’t know that the scent lasted all through his time in France, but at least he carried the same handkerchief.

Now that I think of it, catnip might not have been an ideal product for Miss Belle’s sachet.

joenphillips@yahoo.com