Disclosure: *This post may include affiliate links. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Read the disclosures and terms for more information.
This year I grew an herbal garden for the first time. I wrote a while back about growing and using chamomile. Lavender has also been somewhat of a success, although I am going to plant more than one next year! I’ll write about growing lavender later.
For now, I am all excited about a craft that even the seriously craft-disabled such as myself can manage. Lavender wands! I saw a basket of them at a u-pick berry farm last week. I didn’t even know what they were, so I had to ask.
When I got home I looked them up and found that they are used just like herbal sachets and are so easy to make! Plus, they stay fragrant and last for months. So I harvested the last 11 stems I had left on my one well-used lavender plant and got to work.
You can use satin ribbon or basic cheap curling ribbon from your gift wrapping stash. It’s not as pretty or, I imagine, as easy to work with as satin, but it does the job. Here’s my first attempt.
It looks sad, partly because the lavender I use has short flowering sections and partly because I only used 11. And partly because I stumbled through it with my fat fingers. I ended up buying a bunch of lavender from that same berry farm and tried again.
They had a flowering head about twice as long as the plant I grew this year. I also used 15 stems instead of 11 this time. Here’s the finished product. Much better!
- Take 11 or more lavender stems and line the flowers up.
- Tie the stems together just below the flowers.
- Turn the bunch over so the flowers are facing down.
- Start bending the stems by twos over the flowers, weaving over and then under.
- After two or three times around the bunch, start weaving one at a time instead of by twos around the thicker part of the wand.
- When it starts to taper down again as you move down the wand, switch back to weaving by twos.
- When you get past the flowers altogether, wind the ribbon around the stems for a few inches and tie off.
- Cut the stems off evenly.
Done!
A few tips:
- Make these as soon after cutting the stems from the plant as possible, otherwise they’ll be too brittle to bend nicely.
- Try your best to keep the weave tight and the ribbon rows close together – no big gaps between rows. This is harder than I thought, so I’m still working on it.
They are so fun and beautiful and smell wonderful! They’ll make great gifts in the coming year. 🙂
You Might Also Like:
15 Easy Tips for a More Inviting Home
by Stephanie, The Multi Taskin' Mom
This Post Has 7 Comments
Pretty! I may have to try that: my lavender plant hasn’t died this year, either, so I could probably snag a few stems. 🙂
Were you impressed with the scent of the ones they had at Berry Barn, though? I didn’t feel like I smelled much.
It’s fairly easy to dry lavender (just tie in bunches and hang upside down. The messy part is gathering up the flowers and stripping the stems!) and I have made various sachets filled with the dried buds. However, they don’t last more than a year, max.
Yah they had a lot of life left in them! With sachets and dryer bags you have to crush them a bit every once a while by squeezing them an letting out the oils. I just gave the lavender wand a little squeeze and it smelled great!
You can even just put the stems in a vase and they’ll dry right side up too.
Hi! Stopping by from FBH. I am now following you, would appreciate you following me back. Have a wonderfully blessed day!
I love the smell of lavender alot! I have airwick plug ins all over the house with lavender in them. I am a new follower of your blog thru GFC and Facebook. I would really appreciate a follow back when you get some free time. Thanks so very much and have a great weekend!
Mary@http://www.mmbearcupoftea.com
Great idea! I have a small lavender plant (I don’t have much of a green thumb), and I’d like to try this!
Thanks for the visits everyone! Yah my thumb is only turning green because of persistence and the willingness to fail.. frequently. 🙂 Eventually I’ll get there! I’m having fun in the meantime.
Those are really gorgeous! I wish I could smell one now!