Quick and Dirty Deodorizing Sachets

 Last night I was sitting on my brand-new leather couch watching TV when I realized that I kept getting a whiff of dirty socks. Since practically no-one in the house wears socks but me, and mine were clean, this was quite the stumper. Finally I figured out that the family shoe bin had been recently replaced on top of a small table just behind the couch. And my son has been stealing my fuzzy Crocs - sockless! - routinely. 

Clearly, something had to be done. 

So Lucy (age 7) and I took a break in the middle of the school day to make deodorizing sachets. The project was unique in that it took hardly any longer than I had anticipated. It has a very short supply list, and if you have a sewing machine sitting around ready to go, you could literally have 1/2 a dozen finished in 30 minutes. It is also an ideal project for a beginning sewer: the consequences for crooked seams, imperfectly cut pieces, and the like are very low. My daughter was able to do large portions of the project with minimal supervision. 

 

Materials

 

• 1/4 yard (or whatever you have on hand) of basic cotton fabric. * 
• Baking soda (if you are making more than 2, your tiny box won't be enough!) 
• Favorite essential oils (optional.) We used tea tree oil and cornmint. 

Tools

• Sewing machine
• Scissors 
• Small bowl and spoon for mixing EOs and Baking Soda
• Sheet of paper for an improvised funnel
  

* I came across the Perfect fabric in my stash: the print consisted of a 1/3 inch grid with cute little animals in scattered squares. It was perfect because the strong straight lines gave my daughter something to follow both when cutting and sewing. If you are shopping for fabric, definitely keep this in mind. But you could also use basic plain muslin. No need for an expensive, heavy, tight weave here. Really, you want something that breathes pretty well because you want to absorb odors. 

Procedure 

1. Cut fabric into rectangles approximately 4x6 inches.
   The size is anything but critical: just make sure your top and bottom pieces match.
   The size and shape of our fabric permitted us to cut 4 sets on the fold, which saved us one seam on those pieces. The other 4 were fully cut apart. Both worked fine: there's just more sewing on the second sort. 
2. Head for your sewing machine. Take each set of rectangles and align them with right sides facing. If you have cut on the fold, sew along two sides, leaving the last open. If you have separate rectangles, sew along three sides leaving the last open.
   You may be tempted, as we were, to turn the corner on the last open edge and leave only a small hole for filling. I would not do that again. It was hard to fill the bags, and it did not save time or improve the appearance.
   
   
   
   
   
3. You should now have a small pile of sacks open on one end. Now head for the kitchen or dining room table, and scoop at least a cup of baking soda into a small bowl. Add essential oils to the soda and stir well.  (We used a whole cap-full of Trader Joe's Tea Tree Oil per cup, and at least 10 drops of corn mint / peppermint.)
   
4. Take a piece of standard printer paper and roll, starting from a corner, to form a rough funnel. (Your kitchen funnel won't work if it, like ours, has a tiny spout meant for liquids.)
   Fill each bag about 1/2 full of baking soda.
   
   
   
   
   
5. Once each bag is filled, take them back to the sewing machine. Fold the edges of the open end in to make a neat looking edge with no exposed raw edge. Then top-stitch all the way across.

That's it: you're done! All that's left is to strategically place your deodorizers into your stinky shoes, dance or martial arts bags, or other odoriferous places. Congratulations!