Hand Illustrated Lavender Bags - Jane Foster and her daughter

Little hand illustrated lavender bags

I had such an overwhelming response on Instagram when I posted this photo that I wanted to share a bit more of the process.

It’s our routine to have a family trip out every Saturday for coffee and cake - time to spend away from social media to chat. I always have a pens and paper in my bag as my daughter and I often like to doodle together. This time I took some fabric for a change and we doodled little faces. It’s always fun as our daughter always draws me and my parter first and then our cats. I then usually do the same in my style. (And we all agree that her style is far the best!!)

My daughter’s illustrated fabric

I always use fine line Muji pens (0.5 or 0.38) as they don’t smudge and you can get a great fine line.

While our daughter sleeps, I stay up till late sewing making the fabric into little lavender bags - first I cut the little illustrated panels into little squares and rectangles, place them face down onto plain cotton and sew around three sides. The tricky part is turning them inside out. I then iron them (don’t use any spray as the ink will bleed!) folding the un-sewn edges under. I the stuff them with lavender and sew up the gap. (When I’m not wanting to surprise my daughter, she’ll usually love to stuff them too!)

Not only are these little treasures visually, they’re also special memories of happy family times when we have quality time together. The little chats we have when doodling are like no other. I can honestly say that these little creative moments spent with my family are amongst the best snippets of my week!