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Collecting crosses is another hobby of mine so the cross shape for the new-old sachet case appealed to me. I made up some samples which sold on first try and now I am cashing in on lavender crosses. Perhaps this is just the easy-to-do inexpensive hobby you have been looking for.

For the first trial run I purchased one yard of thirty-six-inch-wide lavender colored organdy. From this one yard, which cost forty-seven cents, forty-nine cross cases can be cut. However, it is more economical to purchase a bolt of material if the trial run test proves the salability of the lavender crosses. A spool of matching sewing thread, (mercerized, size 50) will be needed. For each cross will be needed nineteen inches of ½-inch-wide white lace and twelve inches of ¼-inch ribbon. For the ribbon I select either darker shades of the lavender family such as purple, cerise, dubonnet, or sometimes gold.

THIS IS how to make the crosses:

Trace the cross shown in on a stiff piece of cardboard and cut out. Lay the organdy material out and fold over double.

Press with warm iron to get out any wrinkles, hold the double shape and lay flat for easy working surface.

Use a lead pencil and trace around cross following pattern outline. Use laying out plan.

1. Fold yardage in half.
2. Press.
3. Trace cross designs:
1. Place long arm down for first row.
2. Place long arm up for second row.
3. Continue to alternate cross for spacing the length of the cloth.

Draw crosses on about a yard of material at a time, clip yard from bolt for easier handling.

Making certain the cloth stays doubled, begin to machine sew the cross cases. Start with the cross on the lower right hand corner and begin with its top arm (right hand side) and carefully sew stitching down the center of the pencil marks around cross and up left hand side to top. Leave top open for lavender filling.

Pull sewing thread loose, do not waste time cutting it after each cross, and sew next cross. See figure for route to follow. Do two rows without cutting thread.

1. Start machine sewing with cross No. 1 at right top.
2. Follow broken lines for route of stitching. Jump between crosses by allowing loose thread.

Sew all crosses, then take a pair of pinking shears and cut out each cross, leaving about ¼ inch of cloth outside the machine sewing line. Cut out all the crosses before going to next procedure.

THE NEXT step is to fill the crosses with dried lavender. You will need four tablespoonfuls for each cross. This makes a nicely filled case but not fat and bumpy to topple linens when placed between stacks. To fill, I use an ordinary kitchen small funnel, the kind that all dime stores stock. Insert the funnel end into cross opening in top arm of cross and measure in two tablespoonfuls of lavender blossoms. After it runs into the cross case, use the end of the funnel to tamp it down and push the lavender into corners. If the lavender needs a little encouragement to run through your funnel, the funnel is too small but using the wooden end of a match as a tamper will push it through. Now add two more tablespoonfuls of lavender and shape out the arms of cross. This amount of lavender fills the cross nicely. Remove funnel and with finger push down lavender in top arm of cross.

Stand each cross as filled, upright in a box (I use a shoe box) until you have a dozen or more stuffed, then assembly line fashion carry the box to the sewing machine and sew all the tops shut one after the other. In sewing the cross tops do not waste time by cutting the thread after sewing a cross top but pull it out a little way and go on sewing the next cross top shut. When all the crosses are sewed shut, clip the adjoining machine thread between crosses.

Gently force stuffing up the top arm and smooth all arms of the cross. It takes me two minutes to fill one cross.

Next, clip off nineteen inches of white lace. Lay the right side of the lace facing the right side of the cross and hand whip to the machine sewing of the cross, beginning at the top center. Make the corners full so the lace will lie smoothly around the cross as a nice frothy ruffle.

For the finishing step cut a piece of ribbon six inches long. Stitch both ends of ribbon to top of cross behind the lace, making a three-inch loop to hang cross on hanger for clothes closet use. Make a bow of matching ribbon (six-inch piece of ribbon) and sew on front side of finished cross. This covers up the point where you joined the lace and adds to the attractiveness of the cross for those who will use the sachets in lingerie drawers, handkerchief boxes or in linen closets between sheets and pillow cases.

As a final stroke take a warm iron and press the lace and cross flat.

THERE ARE two ways to get the lavender to stuff the crosses. Grow it yourself, the way I do, or buy it. Whatever you do make sure your supply is available before promising too large orders.

The advantage of growing the lavender yourself is that not only do you have an assured supply cheap and of the very best fresh quality but the fun of growing it, too. Besides there is a profit in selling lavender cuttings and plants. Cuttings in Sherwood, Oregon, where I live bring ten cents each, and plants twenty-five cents and fifty cents, depending on the root system. Then, too, if you have any spare blossoms, they can be sold dried to those who like to make sweet bags or potpourri. So if you have a little land, plan on a row of lavender. By the way, it makes a nice border in the flower bed if you haven't anywhere else to put it. To give you an idea of how many plants you might want here is an example: One of my two-year-old average sized lavender bushes yielded two coffee cans full of stripped, dried ready-to-use blossoms. A pound size coffee can holds about three ounces of lavender. This amount will fill fifty cross cases, using four tablespoonfuls per cross.

If you have no ground or want to hurry the cross project before you can grow your own lavender supply, you can purchase the dried blossoms from herb houses. These people deal in the plants, too. Be careful to get English lavender (Lavandula Vera) and from a fresh gathered, properly dried crop. Three herb houses are: The Old Fashioned Herb Company, 580 North Lake Ave., Pasadena 4, California; Laurel Hill Herb Farm, Falls Village, Connecticut, and Garry-nee-Dule, Baraboo, Wisconsin. I do not have any dried blossoms to let go at this time and all plants are sold out but I will share slips if you cannot get them elsewhere. My address is: Route 4, Box 276, Sherwood, Oregon.

THERE ARE three varieties of lavender, Spike (Lavandula Spica), True or English (Lavandula Vera) and French (Lavandula Stoechas). True English lavender is far superior to the other two so by all means use it. Propagation by seed is much too slow. Get started plants or rooted cuttings or slips. If you get a few started plants you can easily increase your plantings by taking your own cuttings. These cuttings should be about six inches long and are best taken by ripping a branch down quickly, thus getting a heel from the parent stock. Set the slips in sand and keep damp. When roots have developed dig soil deeply and set plants well down.

Cultural requirements are: Light, sandy soil in a sunny spot. Lime the soil each season. Plants should be grown in ordinary garden soil to produce the most fragrance. Good drainage is essential or plants may winter kill. True lavender is not fully hardy in the northern gardens, where it must be protected over winter by mulching with straw. It is hardy in the south and on the Pacific Coast. At my home it is definitely hardy and prolific.

Once lavender is established you will have a good source for seven or eight years; then the plants get too woody and unthrifty and should be replaced. Besides harvesting the blossoms for your own use in sweet bags, you do have the cuttings and plants to sell, too. Take your cuttings after you have harvested your crop to keep from cutting down on your blossom yield.

To harvest the lavender blossoms, select a warm dry day when the sun has dried off the plants. Cut the lavender stems close to the plant. Cut until you get a comfortable handful. Lay by handful on a tray for easy handling. When tray is full, cut pieces of string in yard lengths and tie each end around a bundle of lavender. Hang up to dry by the string suspended over a nail or line in a cool, shady, dry place until brittle dry. When dry take to a clean dry worktable, kitchen table or card table and cut the string from bundles. Strip the blossoms off the stem.

To strip the blossoms from the stem quickly and cleanly hold blossom loosely over pan in one hand, fingers back of lavender head; with the other hand firmly hold the lavender stem and pull head through fingers with a firm quick jerk. The blossoms will shatter free of stem into pan. This can be done very quickly after a little practice. Store the blossoms in cans with tight lids. I use one-pound coffee cans. These cans stack to store conveniently and are a handy size to use when filling crosses; spoon lavender directly from can into cross case.

IN PREPARATION for selling my crosses I browsed through the telephone directory of the nearest city of reasonable size and selected a wide assortment of possible clients such as department stores, religious supply houses, book and card stores, and specialty gift shops. Armed with cross samples, I called on two book stores, one religious house, one gift shop, one card and specialty shop and received all the work orders I could use. And to prove their salability every shop has ordered more. I have not branched out to call on the rest of the list to try for orders because I have only a limited amount of time to devote to this project and that time is spent with orders now. The book and card stores are excellent sales sources for these lavender crosses, the religious house runs a close second. If I should run out of clients here, I would like to try distant gift shops via mail order. Mail order would be just fine for selling crosses since the postage would not eat all the profit as one dozen finished crosses weigh only five ounces and a gross of crosses, sixty ounces.

Each cross sells retail for $1.25. That gives me seventy-five cents and the store fifty cents.

Figuring my expenses is a bit difficult but the following will give you a rough idea. Organdy material cost around one cent per cross, lace cost 2½ cents and ribbon also 2½ cents per cross. A spool of thread goes a very long way and the sewing machine has been in the family for twenty years. The lavender for stuffing is even more difficult to compute as the selling of plants and cuttings from the plants covered the initial cost long ago and brings a profit besides. And anyway I would grow lavender for my own use.