Well call me old-fashioned, but I have found a very practical use for the fat stuffed fabric fobs I’ve felt compelled to sew – pomanders! For those of you too young to remember wardrobes which bore coathangers with sewn covers (to protect your delicate clothes), and small scented sachets hanging on them to ward off moths… This is the definition from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary.
1: a mixture of aromatic substances enclosed in a perforated bag or box and used to scent clothes and linens or formerly carried as a guard against infection; also : a clove-studded orange or apple used for the same purposes
2: a box or hollow fruit-shaped ball for holding pomander
I used small samples from upholstery swatches to make them, embellished with my own fabric inchies and on the back I stitched a quilted inchy. The paper roses are from a pen box I was tired of looking at!
There’s a red one too, a little blurry, but then I am using my phone for the pics…
The reverse has 3 recycled fabric leaves and a paper rose stitched to the back. These are my entry to Take a Word – “old fashioned” – this week. I do have more stuff waiting to be blogged, but my foot’s protesting too much so I’m off to elevate it for a while. 😉
Altered Art & Stuff... 
johanna
/ August 22, 2011i´m your age so i know them… but they were not as beautifully bright then, fantastic, rosie!
take good care of your foot!
Bev
/ August 22, 2011What bright little bits of goodness! ….and what a good idea. Thanks for sharing with us, Rosie!
june yarham
/ August 23, 2011I used to make lavender sachets to hang among my clothes way back when Rosie. Yours are fantastic. A lovely old fashioned idea! xx
Lizbeth
/ August 23, 2011Pomanders are a lovely idea and a great entry for this old fashioned challenge. Hope your foot feels better soon.
Marit
/ August 23, 2011Ah… I knew their name and then yet not… we call the fabric bags ‘reukzakjes’ (scent-bags) and oranges with cloves a ‘pommander’ … My grandmom had bags with lavender and I can still ‘smell it’ in my mind (btw. I put my empty parfume bottles in the linen drawer! It works a bit the same…!)
Barbara Hagerty
/ August 23, 2011Brilliant, Rosie! I love your updated version, especially the one on top! I still have sachet bags in some drawers and a couple in my closet, and you can still find them in shops if you look in the right places, so they’re not entirely outdated. But I haven’t heard the word “pomanders” in years! I think the last time I ran across it was in a 19th C. English novel when I was in high school. I love your innovative ideas for making old things new!