During the war, with lack of money and luxury goods and with many items and materials being in short supply, the home front family would have made many of their gifts for family and friends at Christmas.

I’ve decided that it’s never too early to start making gifts for Christmas and no better way to source free materials then from my own garden. I have a couple of lavender bushes and when I came across a picture of a Lavender wand on Etsy, and found out that these wands (or sometimes known as Lavender bottles) had been made by ladies since Elizabethan times, I knew these would make wonderful historical and fabulous gifts.

They are EASY to make!

To make one wand you will need

• 20 long stalks with a lavender flower/buds on the end
• some string
• ribbon to decorate

Method

1. Line up 20 stalks so the bottoms of the flowers all line up at the same level
2. Tie string tightly immediately below
3. Turn upside down and start pulling stalks downwards around the flowers to form a cage by joining stalks back together again and tying off again so the flowers are contained inside
4. Push any flowers popping out back in carefully and adjust the stalks so they are evenly spread around
5. Strip any leaves from the lower stalks (set aside and you can place these in muslin bags with any buds/flowers that have fallen off and scent your drawers!)
6. Trim the ends of the stalks so they are even and to the desired length
7. Tie off at bottom with string or ribbon
8. The cage and the stem of the wand can be decorated with ribbon threaded through it or you can go for the rustic wand look and just leave it undecorated

Here is what a Lavender wand will look like threaded with ribbon (photo from Etsy) I have ordered some purple ribbon for the ones I am making (several being made)

http://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/156442313/lavender-wands-purple-medium?utm_source=google&utm_medium=product_listing_promoted_en_gb&utm_campaign=weddings_low