Fannypacks and Finlandia: Graduation Lei

My good friend Erika graduated with her Master's Degree back in December - BUT she walked at commencement over this last weekend. Her best friend, Jessica, wanted to do something fun and special for Erika's ceremony. Jessica is from Hawaii so what better way to congratulate her friend than to "get her leid"?

Jessica ordered flowers to be shipped over from Hawaii (website here) and Friday night she recruited several of our friends to put together about 15 leis. It was super fun!

Here's what we had to work with. Lots of beautiful flowers and they smelled sooooo good! We used four different blooms; 2 different kinds of orchids, purple carnations and white tuberose.

The flowers came with 2 lei needles - basically just a really long sewing needle but instead of an eye at the end there was a little, tiny hook. We used dental floss to string the flowers. I was nervous at first because flowers are so delicate but I found out that they were stronger than I thought. Also there were PLENTY of flowers if I screwed up - these flowers here were advertised as enough to make 10 leis but we made about 15 and had tons of flowers left over.

Measure the length around you'll need on yourself. Loop your dental floss through the eye of the needle. Double your floss for strength. Then knot the two ends to stop your flowers from sliding off the end. Now you're ready to string your flowers: Just stab the needle through the very center of the flower and slide it down to the end of the needle. Once your needle is full you can slide your flowers down to knot at the end of your string. Repeat this process until your string is full. Then tie the loop end and the tied ends together (make several knots so they don't come apart) and voila! You've made a lei! Make sure to refrigerate your leis if you are not going to use them immediately - they are flowers and they WILL wilt!