It's graduation season and this year I decided to try something new - making leis.
My oldest graduated from college. I wanted to make her a ribbon lei that she can keep as a memento and also a live floral lei in celebration of this moment. I searched online and there are tons of tutorials. And then I set off.
I decided to go with an open-end lei. I wanted it to hang long and straight to breakup the black graduation gown. Same method could easily be tied (hence the strings at the end).
TIP: I took two safety pins and secured the lei to the back of the robe, about 3" down. This kept it even in the front and took the flowers off the neck (which I knew would bother my daughter).
I bought my flowers at Trader Joes. It's not all that easy to find flowers in bulk for a reasonable price where I live. I did have to go to a local florist for the ferns. I bought 3 packs of small carnations, 1 pack of baby's breath and 1 pack of the small yellow flowers. You could get away with only 2 packs of carnations, but I wanted more colors. It held together nicely and she wore it a couple days later to church.
This is the video tutorial I followed (but viewed many).
Because I had some extra flowers - I also made corsages for myself and both grandmas. I really loved that we all wore this little token that tied us to our girl - first grandchild to graduate college on both sides of the family. The flower lei and 3 corsages cost around $35 and took me about 2.5 hrs.
The other lei I made was a 4 strand braided ribbon lei. These are incredibly easy to make. Again, I watched several videos - here is one Braided Ribbon Lei tutorial that was easy to follow.
This lei has 2 strands of white ribbon, and one black and one red strand - 5 yards each. These are 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon. The button was surprisingly difficult to find, so I had one custom made. When my grad is done with the lei she can remove the button and keep it.
I found these to be so easy and fun to make that I decided to make them for graduation gifts for the high school seniors I know. I did not do a 4 strand, but a 2 strand for these. It's all the exact same steps, but the ribbon is not doubled up. This is the ribbon I purchased in bulk - which will make around 20 leis if they are 2 strand leis. The 2 strand leis don't hold as tight of a weave. You can also use satin ribbon. It is said you can use 1/2" up to 1.5" ribbon. The 5/8" is my preferred width.
My sister used her Silhouette cutter to cut out the black circles and silver horseshoes for the medallion. These were done on cardstock. The circles are 2" and 3". The accordion paper (blue) is 7"x2.75" before folding and is standard colored paper - not cardstock. I used double-sided tape for the horseshoe, and hot glue to put the medallion together and to adhere it to the lei (covering up the knots).
One of my girls from church is homeschooled so I did a different lei for her - and it's my favorite ribbon lei. I love the classic ribbed edge with a soft velvet pop of color inside.
This is a 4 strand lei. 2 white 5/8" grosgrain ribbon and 2 grey-blue 3/8" velvet ribbon. This young women loves music and is kind of an old sole, so I printed some antique sheet music on both sides of standard paper and folded them into flowers. I ended up cutting the ribbon ends off this lei.
This ribbon lei also looks really cool from the other side - so you can totally flip things over. There really isn't a front or back to apply the medallions or flowers to.
TIP: I keep my pointer finger in the loop to apply tension and tighten things up. It's the perfect size to put the next loop through, at which point you'll use your other pointer finger. Back and forth.
Gift Ideas
I like to give gifts more than money. The last two years I have given beach towels, a rubber duck and a treat with a tag that encourages some fun! This year I adjusted the tag to include the lei.
Hope this motivates you to make a lei. There's a lot of ways to do it. The flower leis are my favorite. The ribbon lays are so practical and they look great on any graduate (especially if they aren't already decorated for their academics). Let's celebrate all those seniors!
More graduation gift ideas in my shop.
