How to Make Marigold Garlands

Richard and I got married on 10/11/12 at the Gandhi statue so I thought it would be fun to make a marigold garland to leave as a tribute on the Mahatma.

The garlands were super easy to make and Richard really rocks those flowers, doesn't he? Folks have been asking how to make them, so here goes.

All you need are marigolds, strong thread, and a large needle. I raided my friend Judy's garden because I didn't think of the idea in time to plant them in the spring. 

Cut the marigolds close to the bottom of the bloom (you don't want to leave too much stem but you also don't want them to fall apart). Measure how long you want your garland, keeping in mind that the flowers take up some of the length. Add 10" for tying (Richard's was about 50" of thread, Bandit's was 30" )

Then start stringing the marigolds. Put the needle right through the area under the petals where it's fairly thick and sturdy. Then push the flowers close together so they're nice and tight. If you alternate the direction of the stems as you put them on, you'll hardly see them.

You can randomly mix the different types of marigolds throughout the garland, as I did on Bandit's, or have a couple of accent spots like I did with the dark red and the large yellow ones on Richard's. 

I had a lot of flowers left over so I made a few small wristlets. They turned out really well, too!

Here's what the project looked like in-progress. Once made, I spritzed each garland with a little water, put it in its own plastic bag and stored it in the fridge until needed. They'll even stay fresh overnight if you want to make them ahead of time. The most important thing is not to stack them on top of each other because the weight of all those flowers will smoosh them down a bit.

A wristlet garland works great as a cake topper, too!

Hope you give garland making a try. Enjoy!