Bring your garden indoors!
A wand sachet made from the lavender from your garden will scent an entire drawer. Or try hanging one from a cabinet knob to scent your kitchen or bathroom. To add a fragrant special touch, tie one into the bow of a wedding gift (lavender wands were originally made for brides for their trousseau). They are not particularly difficult to make, and the only cost is the price of a thin ribbon, several stems of lavender from your garden, and a little practice on your part.
Here's how:
Cut an odd number of fresh lavender flower stems from your garden.Try starting with just 7 or 11 for your first wand. You can work your way up to more stems, and fatter/larger wands after you have practiced a bit. Stems need to be fresh so they can be bent without breaking, and they should be long. Remove the leaves from the stem, leaving only the stems and flowers. Trim the stems so that they are all the same length.
(Here I used 14 stems, grouped 2-together, to make 7 "stems.")
Tie the bunch of lavender with a piece of ribbon (5mm wide and about 16" long), just beneath the flowers. If desired, just leave the end of the ribbon on the spool and cut it after you are done weaving.
Hold the bunch where you tied it, and bend each long stem down over the flowers, so the stems form a "cage" around the flowers.
Making sure that the stems do not overlap themselves, start weaving the ribbon over and then under each stem, which will then encase the flowers under the ribbon and inside their cage. This is the part that requires a little practice. If you find yourself saying "over, under, over, under...," you are in good company! If a flower tries to escape the cage, a toothpick can easily push it back inside the cage.
Once you weave your ribbon around all the flowers, stop weaving and and start just wrapping the ribbon around the stems, until you reach the bottom of the stems. Tie a knot in the ribbon, making a loop in the ribbon (for hanging) or a bow. You can also use a second piece of ribbon to add a nice bow.
As you gain experience, try adding more stems to your bunch (always using an odd number of stems). Or, you can place 2 stems together to form 1 "stem" (for instance, 14 stems, used as doubles, will form 7 stems). Have fun weaving lavender wands -- I think I can smell your fragrant lavender wand sachet even now!
Thread Title | Last Reply | Replies |
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Lavender going to seed... by DogsNDaylilies | Jul 19, 2016 5:15 AM | 3 |
Nice Instructions by blue23rose | Jul 16, 2016 5:44 AM | 0 |