How To Make A Daisy Chain Banner

I take the childcare littles to the library every week or two, and a few weeks ago the 3 year old picked out Bear Wants More, by Karma Wilson. It's a cute little book, with adorable illustrations by Jane Chapman. In a few of the illustrations, there's a daisy chain strung along the wall of Bear's den that I kept staring at.

A couple of times I found myself opening the book just to look at the daisy chain again, and thinking about how I could make one for myself. Then, while making the Hope block for the Moments with Jesus QAL, I realized that one of the applique flower templates would work for a daisy chain, too.

I made a test flower, which I loved so much I immediately dove in to making enough flowers to string up in the sewing room. Now this colourful daisy chain makes me ridiculously happy every time I set foot in the sewing room, or even just glance in from the hallway.

Taking pictures of the whole side of a room is hard! How do home décor bloggers make their pictures look so nice?

As I made my daisy chain banner, I took pictures of my process so I could share a tutorial with you. While I adore mine in my sewing room, I picture it in little girl bedrooms or playrooms, too.

What you'll need

• A flower template. Enter your email address below to get the link to download mine or draw your own.

• Scraps of fabric in your chosen colours for the flowers. I used pink, purple, and teal. For my template, the scraps need to be about 4 1/2" square.
• Scraps for the flower centers. I used yellows for mine, and for my template, these scraps need to be about 1" square
• White fabric
• Fusible adhesive like Heat N Bond (what I used) or Lite Steam A Seam 2
• Thread to match your fabrics or to contrast with them. I chose black so the stitching would stand out on all the fabrics.
• Ribbon - mine is 1/8" wide
• Glue - I used a glue stick

Make your flowers

How many flowers you'll need will depend on how long you want the chain to be and how closely you position your flowers. I used 31 flowers to cover about 17' of wall, but I used more than 17' of ribbon to allow for the draping. I didn't think to measure how long the ribbon actually was before putting it up on the wall.

Trace your flowers and flower centers onto the paper side of your fusible adhesive, nesting them close together. Cut them out roughly.

Following the manufacturer's instructions, fuse the flowers and flower centers to the back of your chosen fabrics.

Here my new sewing room mascot is showing why I keep scraps as small as 1" square. Sometimes they're the perfect size for a flower center! Side note, this guy is still in need of a name...any suggestions?

He's a blue, sparkly dragon! How could I resist?

 Cut out the flowers and flower centers directly on the lines.

Position the flowers with the adhesive side down on the white fabric. I nested them pretty closely to conserve fabric, while leaving a little bit of space around each one so I could cut them out with margin of white. Position the flower centers in the center of each flower. Again following the manufacturer's instructions, fuse the flowers to the white fabric.

Stitch around the flowers and flower centers, just inside the edge. Do this before you cut the flowers apart, to make it easier to handle them. I used my free motion foot so I wouldn't have to turn the appliques as I stitched, but you can use a straight stitch if you prefer. If you're using a straight stitch, I recommend reducing the stitch length a bit, stitching slowly, and stopping often with the needle down to turn the flowers slightly to get smooth curves.

I stitched around each flower and flower center twice, purposely not trying to travel over the first stitched line perfectly as I went around the second time. I find when I only stitch around once all the wobbles are super noticeable, especially when I'm using such a high contrast thread colour. Stitching around a second time adds more wobbles, which somehow makes it all look intentional and gives it a charming sketched quality.

I'm always amazed how different applique looks before and after stitching!

After you've stitched around all the flowers, cut them apart, leaving about 1/8" of white fabric all the way around. I love how they look a bit like stickers!

After I made a bunch of flowers, I laid them out on the floor in a rough approximation of how I wanted them to look on the wall, so I could see how many more I needed to make. That also allowed me to get a feel for the balance of colours, and made me even more excited to get it finished and up on the wall.

Once all my flowers were finished, I clipped them to the ribbon and then taped the ribbon to the wall to check the fit.

Once I was happy with the positions, I glued the ribbon to the backs of the flowers. I only glued approximately the width of the flower center, not all the way across the flower.

I wasn't sure a glue stick would be strong enough, but it was all I had and I was too impatient to wait until I could buy something different. After the first couple dried, I did shake them a little to be sure they would hold through the manipulation required to get them on the wall. They've been up for a few days now, and none of the flowers have fallen, so I guess they're good. I also don't expect them to be handled much (if at all) now that they're in place.

I had my husband help me put them on the wall. Before we started, I stacked all the flowers neatly so they were easier to handle. I stood on the floor holding the stack of flowers while he stood on a stool to reach near the ceiling, and I stayed close to him so there were only a few flowers dangling at any given time. That way they weren't getting caught on anything or tangled around each other.

He used a thumbtack to poke a hole in the drywall, then used a short sewing pin to hold the ribbon. I could have just used the thumbtacks to hold it up, but I didn't have white ones and they're quite a bit larger than the heads of the pins we used, so the pins are less noticeable. 

And that's it! Once the daisy chain is up on the wall, you may find yourself tempted to stand and grin at it, or at least that's what I did! 

Linking up with Quilting Jetgirl's Favorite Finish