Making a Kitchen Garland

Posted bySouthern Light NewsletterPosted inUncategorizedTags:,

This craft project is one of many articles in our Winter Solstice 2020 Newsletter, available here.

We’re going to run through a simple craft project in this post! One that emits a faint, but very pleasant smell, and adds an extremely homely ambiance when hung over your kitchen window. First, we need to make some dried orange slices.

Oven-Dried Orange Slices

Fairly simple to make, these are great for hanging on the Yule tree, or as part of decorative garlands. They smell good and look fantastic.

You will need:

  • Oranges
  • Sharp knife
  • Chopping board
  • Tea towel
  • Oven pre-heated to 100 degrees celcius (210 degrees fahrenheit)

Directions

  1. Cut oranges into thin slices – less than 1 cm (0.4 inch) thick. The thinner they are, the quicker they will dry.
  2. Blot excess juice from the slices with the tea towel.
  3. Place straight onto the rack (in the pre-heated oven) so that they will dry quicker.
  4. Turn frequently.
  5. Two to three hours later (depending on thickness) take them out and leave them to cool. They may be a little sticky, but that is okay.

To hang these straight onto a tree, use a needle to thread scrap yarn, string, or ribbon through the slices and tie the string into a loop.

Kitchen Garland

You will need:

  • Oven Dried Orange Slices
  • Cinnamon sticks
  • Pine cones, or small pine branches
  • Anything else you may want to use in your garland
  • Yarn or string
  • Thick needle

Figure out where you want to hand the garland, windows are good places as are mantles, stair rails and anywhere the garland can be an easy focal point. Once you know where you want to hang it cut the string to be slightly longer to allow for tying loops at the ends and the desired curve of the garland.

Directions:

  1. Thread the needle with the yarn and put the needle into the pith of the orange slice from the front, and then do the same from the back on the other side of the orange slice.
  2. Slide the slice to the far end.
  3. Push the needle through the cinnamon stick and slide along next to the orange, leave the amount of gap you desire.
  4. Repeat with orange slices and other items you want on your garland, including thin softwood branches.
  5. With pine cones wrap yarn around the open gap just below where it was once attached to the tree, this will secure it and hide the yarn.

Once at the end of your string tie loops at each end, ensure you are happy with the spacing and hang in desired location.

Hang in a window or over a mantle, it smells good and the light behind it looks fantastic!

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