How To Make Dried Flower and Herbal Sachets

By
Marie Iannotti
Garden Writer Marie Iannotti
Marie Iannotti
Marie Iannotti is a life-long gardener and a veteran Master Gardener with nearly three decades of experience. She's also an author of three gardening books, a plant photographer, public speaker, and a former Cornell Cooperative Extension Horticulture Educator. Marie's garden writing has been featured in newspapers and magazines nationwide and she has been interviewed for Martha Stewart Radio, National Public Radio, and numerous articles.
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Updated on 09/17/20
person making a sachet

The Spruce / Jorge Gamboa 

Your garden may be good enough to eat, but those wonderful fragrant flowers and aromatic herbs can be put to other uses. Dried flowers and herbs tucked into bags and pillows have a fragrance that will let you travel back to the glory days of your garden. Herbs, especially, hold on to their fragrance. Use your sachets to scent a drawer, the clothes in the dryer or tuck one under your pillow.

Difficulty

You don't have to know how to sew or be an experienced craftsman to make sachets. You can buy ready-made mesh bags very inexpensively, fill them with your dried flowers and herbs, and tie them up. You can dress them up as much or as little as you like. You can enjoy the scent no matter how fancy they are.

Time Required

On average, sachets take about 30 minutes to one hour to make. Once again, it all depends on how extravagant you choose to get. If you have all your materials together, you can make several in no time at all.

materials for making sachets
The Spruce / Jorge Gamboa 

How to Make Sachets

If you're new to drying flowers and herbs, have fun experimenting. Most plants will eventually dry themselves, but knowing when to harvest and drying your plants quickly will help preserve their fragrance. Here's some help on how to dry flowers and herbs not just for making sachets, but also for cooking:

  1. Select or make a small bag with a somewhat open weave. Be sure to leave one side open, if you are making bags.
  2. Mix enough dried herbs to fill the bag.
  3. If you’d like to enhance the scent, a few drops of essential oil can be added.
  4. Fill the bag with the flowers and herbs.
  5. Either sew or glue the bag closed or tie the end tightly with ribbon or string.
  6. Enjoy. Rubbing the bag gently will further crush the herbs and release their fragrance.
making your own sachets
The Spruce / Jorge Gamboa  

What Plants to Use

You can use just about any fragrant plant. Some plants, like many herbs, have more concentrated scent in their leaves than in their flowers.

Herbs:

Flowers:

flower and herb choices for a sachet
The Spruce / Jorge Gamboa 

Tips

  1. No matter how carefully you dry your plants, they will eventually lose their scent. Adding the essential oils will help, but if you want to make the fragrance last as long as possible, add some orris root to the mix. Orris root will pick up the scent of both the dried plants and the essential oils and release it slowly.
  2. You can enjoy your sachets in the bath too. Just let them float or tie a string long enough to anchor them under the faucet. Getting the sachets wet usually means the end of the scent, but if you want to try saving yours, be sure to let it dry thoroughly before storing it.
  3. Holiday and seasonal fabrics help turn this simple sachet into a thoughtful gift. This is a fun craft to do with kids, too. They love to do the mixing and decorating. If you use ready-made drawstring bags, there isn't even much mess to clean up.

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