Lavender sachets may have a Victorian connotation, but they really are still quite practical. Used with your clothes, they leave a soft scent instead of a stale stored-too-long smell, and they keep away bugs or other pests from your sheets and linens.

But lavender itself has a medicinal quality. Lavender oil is the only essential oil you can rub undiluted on your skin. The scent can relieve headaches and calm nerves. My sister-in-law uses it to calm down a hysterical infant by rubbing lavender oil on the baby's wrists. It works!

I keep a lavender sachet in my pillow, and it helps me to sleep when I am restless or have a slight headache. Though there are many elaborate sachets to make, here's an easy one that is wonderful for using in pillows because it's flat and can be refilled when needed.

Just use a gauze gift bag (jewelry often comes in them) of any small size – I decorated mine, but that's not necessary – and put 1/8 cup dried lavender flowers in it. The flowers are cheap to buy bulk and the scent lasts much longer than using cotton with lavender oil drops on it. It's flat enough to slide in a pillow without making lumps, the ties stay shut securely, and when the flowers don't smell much, just give it a pinch to refresh the scent. The mesh bag allows more scent to get through than a muslin or lace bag; but it's fine enough of a weave to keep the broken petals from sifting through.

My sachet lavender lasted for months before I changed them out for fresh dried flowers – and it even went through the laundry accidentally twice!

Makes a great gift idea, too!