Make | a Jasmine Garland for your hair or your wall

Whether you’re going to San Francisco or not, now is the time of year to be wearing flowers in your hair for sure.

This easy make is just one of the ideas for things to do with Jasmine from our July Heart, Body and Soul feature. Once you’ve crowned yourself Queen of Summer, you might like to whip up the jasmine body butter and even use the flowers in some cookery to make jasmine tea and honey chicken or tofu skewers, or the dark chocolate and orange tart with jasmine cream. 

But first things first; let’s get that garland made.

Tendrils of jasmine, with their star shaped flowers, lend themselves for use in a garland that you can wear in your hair or hang on your wall.

You will need:

Several strands of flowering jasmine

Scissors or secateurs

Floral wire

1 Snip off any broken leaves or petals from your jasmine strands.

2 Find your most robust strand and wrap it around the crown of your head to get a rough size for your garland. Take it off your head and wrap some wire around the ends
to secure.

3 With the remaining strands, continue to wrap the garland in both directions covering up or tucking in the ends of the strands where you can, using a small twist of wire to fasten. Keep going until you have a garland that pleases you!

Maker’s note: The circle can be whatever size you like, but for a garland to wear it will need to be around 25cm diameter or go large for a jasmine wreath to hang on the wall.

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More from our July issue…

More edible flower ideas…

Make | Grown-up ice lollies

Give the classic lemonade lolly a refreshing twist, and add a cheeky shot of gin if you like, too

Make your own sophisticated lollies and you’ll never again need to wait for the cacophanous tinkle of the ice-cream van, and be disappointed by its saccharine-sweet, slightly melty offerings. Fill your freezer instead with raspberry, bee pollen and honey yoghurt or mango, ginger and lime lollies, chunky orange dark chocolate ice cream or spiced berries sorbet. All the recipes, by Cathy Pyle, are in our July issue, which is on sale now. And because we can’t bear to see any grown-up without a lolly, here’s a recipe from the feature to whet your appetite:

Cucumber, mint and lemonade lollies

Makes 6

350ml traditional lemonade (use a brand that contains real lemons if possible)
1 small cucumber, thinly sliced
25g fresh mint leaves

1 Pour the lemonade into the moulds until they are half full.
2 Drop in 3-4 cucumber slices per lolly and some torn mint leaves.
3 Top up the moulds with lemonade and freeze overnight.

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More from our July issue…

More summer recipes…

Make your own espadrilles

Put your best foot forward and make your own espadrilles in an afternoon

In our July Unwind issue we have a lovely how-to on making your very own pair of espadrilles. Below are the printables for the patterns you will need to make them and you can find all the instructions starting on page 39 of the July issue.

We only recently learned this nifty trick for drying espadrilles that get caught in a rain shower - stuff them with scrunched up newspaper to help them dry out without shrinking or wrinkling.

The printables

Espadrille heel

Espadrille toe

If you don’t have a copy of the issue, you can buy it from our online shop or in shops now. Here’s a list of the rest of the things you’ll need so you can start gathering them now:

What you will need:

Espadrille soles – we got ours from prym.com
Outer fabric – 1 fat quarter (approx. 55x50cm)
Lining fabric – 1 fat quarter (approx. 55x50cm)
Needle Embroidery thread (or strong thread)
Pins
Fabric
Scissors
Knitting needle
Iron
Sewing machine (optional – can be sewn by hand)
Pattern templates (above)

More makes for summer…

From our July issue…

Make | Rhubarb leaf stepping stones

Turn over a new leaf with this simple project for your garden

You will need:
One rhubarb leaf per stone
Chicken wire, cut to just under the size of each leaf
Plastic sheeting
Sunflower/olive oil spray
Ready-mix concrete Trowel

How to make
1 Put down your plastic sheeting and lay your leaves on top, with veins facing upwards. Spray on a layer of oil.
2 Prepare your concrete mix, and smooth on a layer of concrete, to around 3 cm. Tap carefully to get rid of air bubbles.
3 Lay a piece of chicken wire on top for strength, then cover with another concrete layer of about the same depth. Tap and smooth edges with your trowel.
4 Cover with plastic, and leave to dry out overnight.
5 Spray with water to remove the leaf. Over the next week, spray regularly until the concrete is hard enough to take a person’s weight.

You’ll find more ideas for intriguing things to make, do and just know in our regular Miscellany pages.
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More from our April issue…

More miscellaneous fun…

Make | Beer Can-dles

A fun make to entertain you all while camping (and make you look like Bear Grylls, too)

We loved these sweet candles made from beer cans from our August camping feature so much we had to share them here, too.

You will need:

Empty beer cans
Corrugated cardboard
Saved candle stubs and/or bunch of old candles
A barbecue or firepit
Old saucepan
Stirring stick
Chopping board
Knife
Scissors

How to make:

1 Using scissors, carefully cut beer cans to a height of 5cm. Keep the base of the can; recycle the top bit.

2 Cut 5cm strips of corrugated cardboard. Roll up the cardboard strips until they are roughly the same diameter as a can. Wedge the roll as tightly as possible inside the can base. Using scissors, prise a small hole in the centre of the cardboard roll. Poke a small piece of cardboard into the hole to create a ‘wick’.

3 Set a small fire in your firepit or barbecue. Chop your candles into small pieces and add them to an old saucepan. Melt the candles over a small fire until they are liquid wax, stirring regularly with a twig or stick.

4 Very carefully, pour the hot liquid wax over the cardboard rolls. Keep pouring slowly until the wax reaches the top of the beer can. Wait for a few minutes for the cardboard to soak up the hot wax and then top-up each beer can until it’s full to overflowing.

5 Allow the wax to cool completely and go solid before use. When it’s dark, light the ‘wick’ with a match. Beer can-dles burn for up to two hours and should only be used outdoors and attended.

Pick up the August issue for all the other ideas from our Under Canvas feature, from blueberry pancakes to shell garlands.

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More from our August issue…

More ingenious camping ideas…