Lavender, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways! Do you grow lavender in your garden? Have you ever wondered what else you can do with it besides dry it and use it in sachets? If you are blessed with a bounty of lavender you can make these beautiful lavender wands in about 30 minutes for just a few pennies.
I grow a French lavender variety and it’s perfect for making these wands.
Not only does it have really nice long stalks, but French lavender is known for it’s tantalizing fragrance.
English lavender will also work to make these wands, you just need stalks that are at least 10-12 inches long for the best results.
TIP: You only have about a 2-3 week window to harvest lavender for making wands. You want soft, supple stems that won’t snap and break when you bend them. After the first couple weeks the stems will probably become too brittle to use for making wands.
If your lavender stems are too brittle to make wands, all is not lost, dry those flowers instead. Learn how easy it is to Properly Harvest & Preserve Lavender so you can enjoy its lovely fragrance for the next several months. Place sachets in your dresser drawers, tuck them between the sheets and pillow cases in your linen closet, or under your pillow, or hang them on the hangers in your closet. Not only will they make everything smell amazingly beautiful, but they will help keep moths away from your clothes. The fragrance under your pillow will relax you and help you get a good nights sleep.
Supplies needed for each wand:
- (22) 12 inch long stalks of freshly cut lavender
- 2-3 feet of 3/8 inch wide satin ribbon in the color of your choice
- scissors
- rubberband
Start by cutting 22 individual stalks of lavender for each wand you want to make. You will end up with 11 double stalks for weaving under and over. It’s important to have an uneven number of double stalks for weaving. I know it probably doesn’t make sense yet, but you will understand as you go. Keep reading and you’ll see what I mean.
Strip off any leaves along the length of each stem, leaving the flower buds along the top of the stem.
Gather together the stems and tie them together with a ribbon just below the flowers at the top.
I used a white, 3/8 inch wide satin ribbon to make these wands.
Leave enough length of ribbon to use for tying a bow, about 8-10 inches. Do not cut the other end of the ribbon yet.
Now gently bend each stalk back over the flowers on the ends of the stalks where you tied the ribbon.
This is what the top looks like where you bend the stems back down over the flowers.
Start weaving the ribbon under and over two stalks of lavender at a time, using the long length of ribbon that isn’t cut off the spool. The first row is the trickiest one. Once you have the first row done it gets much easier!
Take your time and make sure the ribbon is smooth and flat and isn’t bunching up. Pull it fairly tight as you go, you don’t want any slack in the ribbon. After the first row, alternate weaving the ribbon over and under so it alternates with the row above it. This is where you will see why you wanted an uneven number of double stalks.
Keep weaving the ribbon over and under, under and over the stalks until you have enclosed all the flowers with the ribbon weave. Then use the shorter length of ribbon and tie a knot to finish off the woven part.
Save them to dry and use in sachets.
You can either just leave the wand tied with a simple knot or you can tie a simple bow to embellish the wand. Now you can cut off the ribbon from the spool.
Use a pair of sharp scissors to trim the ends of the stems so they are all one length.
TIP: to keep the stalks together wrap a rubber band around the ends until the stalks dry. After they have dried (in about a week) you can remove the rubber band and the stalks will stay together on their own.
These wands sell for $5 to $10 on Etsy, but now you know how to easily make them on your own for just the cost of a few feet of inexpensive satin ribbon. These make such a lovely little hostess gift too. Instead of a bottle of wine bring the hostess a lavender wand instead. It’s a unique gift that she will be able to enjoy long after the party is over.
Did You Try Making These?
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Ephesians 2:8-9
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