Weaving lavender wands - for moth repellent and fun

It was a perfect summer day but I just didn't want to do any chores.  So I wove some lavender wands.

These are super-cute and we use the stems and a length of ribbon to capture the lavender flowers inside the basket.



Click here to see the video of how I made these pretties.  

This year, I'm working on building my wardrobe from 5 pieces of clothing to 25, but I don't have enough room for all that yet.  So I'm trying something new: putting my winter clothes into storage for the summer.  Once the lavender is dry, each bag gets one wand and I don't know if they will help discourage moths or not, but they may be.

These last about two years, but when I was a kid I used to make a new one each year, but with the same length of ribbon because I didn't know where one goes to buy ribbon when I was 5 and at that age, allowance money was better spent on treats I could eat.  Why invest in more ribbon when I already have one?  Yes, I was frugal even then.  It was a lot of fun, but eventually the ribbon fell apart.  

These do sell quickly at market gardens and weaving one in the downtime between customers is a great way to attract more interest in the booth.  Awesome cottage industry item.

Anyone here use lavender in their wardrobe?  

Love this!  Here's was the moment I was like "Oh!  I see what's happening here.  This is beautiful!"



I'm teaching Kid Ag at our homeschool co-op, and I want to do this with them.  I can almost smell it . . .

The Essential Herbal sells these for $10@ (https://essentialherbal.com/products/26?_pos=2&_sid=5c6ae56d2&_ss=r), and I've often thought to buy one, since I can't seem to get my lavender to survive long enough to flower.... I think they're simply lovely!

I was told to plant RoseMary by the garden gate, sage, dill, oregano, thyme & nettles to ward of negative energy.

My little ones have discovered that lavender looks very much like rocket ships. You can even throw them and they fly like little spears (leave a long stern).

Lavender is supposed to repel and/or kill moths.  Other flowers that repel insects are Marigold, spearmint and Chrysanthemum.  This weaving of a stick filled with fragrant insect repelling flowers is really inventive.  Use of more than one herb that repels insects will provide a wider spectrum and can provide multiple scents to keep things interesting.

Beautiful, thank you for this! As a possible thought for why bruising the stems helps them bend without breaking... the bruising likely crushes the cell walls within the stem making them more flexible and less turgid.
The ribbon is lovely and I'm wondering if you or anyone have ideas for some plant leaf to easily weave in, instead of ribbon?

Here is a url indicating a plethora of native plants used to make baskets.  I expect they might work in some fashion in place of ribbons?  https://www.basketweaving.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/gathering-natural-materials-for-basket-weaving.html

Would sweet grass work instead of ribbon? Our Lavender produced a good crop this year so we've been trying different products, (wands, essential oils and hydrosol). Love the wands but you can only make them with fresh Lavender any suggestions to keep it fresh to extend the weaving period?

Neat idea to use plants in place of ribbon.  

I've been wondering if yarn thrums (leftover bits from other projects) would work too.  I think it would.  

Marielena Shaner wrote:... but you can only make them with fresh Lavender any suggestions to keep it fresh to extend the weaving period?

This is a great question.  

Most basketry is done with the materials dried and then remoistened so I've been wondering if lavender could be treated this way.  

For me, there is a lot of childhood memory in this craft and it's always done as something to do during the hottest days of the year.  But I don't think it has to be.  

Interesting question regarding sweetgrass.  Since my wife tends to use it for smudging along with white sage, she was a bit puzzled as to final strength.  This time of year is challenging in our area due to high growth rates.  Since garlic is recently harvested and that is traditionally braided to hold bunches, I would expect the leaves might be useful (not sure how much odor you would get, but I bet it repels some additional insects) as they can hold a decent weight after braiding and drying.  Not sure if you can grow it in your area, but hemp would likely be a slam dunk for strength.  Hemp and linen were two of the most ancient grass-like fiber sources for weaving.  An infant wrapped in cloth made of hemp and linen was recently discovered at a 9,000 year-old site in southeastern Turkey near Gobeke Tepe.

I would consider experimenting with leaves from cattail as that plant has been researched for making construction materials.  Check out any material with a fibrous nature to see how long they hold tensile strength.  Strands of wool or yarn are strong even in smaller diameters and, if raw, wool would contain lanolin that is a protective substance and also water resistent.

For keeping your lavender fresh, my wife counsels to hang the plants upside down to allow the sap to drain downward toward the flower heads.  If you can use very fresh lavender stalks, then use a longevity mix to keep them growing.  Add the recipe from this url:  https://www.food.com/recipe/cut-flower-preservative-3-391779 This keeps all cut flowers fresher and nourishes them.  If you have oxygen eaters for food preservation, it might work to place the lavender in a tall air-tight jar with an oxygen eater to remove the oxygen.  Seems a bit technical for this site, but introducing nitrogen used to keep wine fresh would also displace oxygen and slow deterioration.

Baskets are aggregate - in that the final combination (aka, the basket) has more strength than the individual parts.  The lavender stems can be quite brittle but once they are woven in a basket, they hold together nicely.  

Sweetgrass doesn't grow here, but there are some grasses that would be strong enough.

I noticed that the lavender is almost ready in the garden. I think I'll make some more like this and dry the rest for little bags to give as Christmas gifts.

The lavender here is ready. I already harvested some of it.
I know about those woven things, but I don't really like them. Most of the time I hang lavender in small bundles tied together with a string. Hanging upside-down near doors and in closets, to prevent all kind of insects to come in.

For this year my plan is to sew small 'sachets' and fill them with only the dried lavender flowers. I want to use some of my fabric stash, that's the reason why.

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:The lavender here is ready. I already harvested some of it.
I know about those woven things, but I don't really like them. Most of the time I hang lavender in small bundles tied together with a string. Hanging upside-down near doors and in closets, to prevent all kind of insects to come in.

How do you stop the flowers from crumbling and making a mess after they are dry?  This is the part I always have trouble with.

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:The lavender here is ready. I already harvested some of it.
I know about those woven things, but I don't really like them. Most of the time I hang lavender in small bundles tied together with a string. Hanging upside-down near doors and in closets, to prevent all kind of insects to come in.

For this year my plan is to sew small 'sachets' and fill them with only the dried lavender flowers. I want to use some of my fabric stash, that's the reason why.

I was gifted with roughly a pound (about .5kilo) of dried Lavender flowers that a friend gave me when she discovered she is allergic to it. My plan for them is to make a few infusions (some oils, some tinctures) and some sachets. I'm curious a to what sizes you'd recommend, for which purposes. It seems obvious to do a smaller one for a drawer, and a bigger one for a closer - but... where to start?

R. Ranson, I have a similar question for you - if you were to do them for whole rooms if guess it would essentially be in bouquets? If so, do you have any idea(roughly, if course) how many it would take for a bathroom that was say, 9m x 4m vs one that was closer to 2m x 4m?

I realize that in both the dried flowers and the ends much would be preference, but I'm just looking for starting points, please?

r ranson wrote:

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:The lavender here is ready. I already harvested some of it.
I know about those woven things, but I don't really like them. Most of the time I hang lavender in small bundles tied together with a string. Hanging upside-down near doors and in closets, to prevent all kind of insects to come in.

How do you stop the flowers from crumbling and making a mess after they are dry?  This is the part I always have trouble with.

Which leads me to another question for both of you! When the scent fade do you simply compost them? Or do you refresh them with Lavender essential oil?

Carla Burke wrote:

r ranson wrote:

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:The lavender here is ready. I already harvested some of it.
I know about those woven things, but I don't really like them. Most of the time I hang lavender in small bundles tied together with a string. Hanging upside-down near doors and in closets, to prevent all kind of insects to come in.

How do you stop the flowers from crumbling and making a mess after they are dry?  This is the part I always have trouble with.

Which leads me to another question for both of you! When the scent fade do you simply compost them? Or do you refresh them with Lavender essential oil?

I take them apart after a year or two and reuse the ribbon to make more.  

Cool, thank you, r!

r ranson wrote:

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:The lavender here is ready. I already harvested some of it.
I know about those woven things, but I don't really like them. Most of the time I hang lavender in small bundles tied together with a string. Hanging upside-down near doors and in closets, to prevent all kind of insects to come in.

How do you stop the flowers from crumbling and making a mess after they are dry?  This is the part I always have trouble with.

Hi R. My dry lavender flowers do not crumble when they hang in a quiet spot. When they hang in a closet between clothes and they move a lot, yes, then they can make a mess. But I don't have trouble with that. I vacuum that 'mess' away
When the flowers (without stems) are in sachets, that 'mess' is no problem. It's inside the sachet and it smells nice.

Carla Burke wrote:

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:The lavender here is ready. I already harvested some of it.
I know about those woven things, but I don't really like them. Most of the time I hang lavender in small bundles tied together with a string. Hanging upside-down near doors and in closets, to prevent all kind of insects to come in.

For this year my plan is to sew small 'sachets' and fill them with only the dried lavender flowers. I want to use some of my fabric stash, that's the reason why.

I was gifted with roughly a pound (about .5kilo) of dried Lavender flowers that a friend gave me when she discovered she is allergic to it. My plan for them is to make a few infusions (some oils, some tinctures) and some sachets. I'm curious a to what sizes you'd recommend, for which purposes. It seems obvious to do a smaller one for a drawer, and a bigger one for a closer - but... where to start?

R. Ranson, I have a similar question for you - if you were to do them for whole rooms if guess it would essentially be in bouquets? If so, do you have any idea(roughly, if course) how many it would take for a bathroom that was say, 9m x 4m vs one that was closer to 2m x 4m?

I realize that in both the dried flowers and the ends much would be preference, but I'm just looking for starting points, please?

Probably the size of my sachets will depends on the pieces of fabric I will use to make them. There are flower prints on the fabric and I want to cut between those flowers.
Maybe a nice size is 10x10 cm (10 cm = 4 inches).