Make a flower wall-hanging - Sania Pell craft project

PR make flower wall hanging by Sania Pell

Click here to see all of the craft projects for children in Country Living's May 2012 issue

Made from a combination of silk flowers and stylised leaves and flower petals cut from fabric, all sewn onto a linen background, this dramatic wall hanging will brighten up a child’s bedroom or playroom.

1 Cut out a piece of linen fabric to the desired size, if possible with the selvedge running down the sides. Fray the top and bottom edges by using a pin to tease out threads parallel to these edges.

2 Following the manufacturer’s instructions, iron fusible web to the back of scraps of print and solid-colour fabrics. Using small, sharp scissors, cut out a number of simple flower heads, leaves and stems from the fabrics illustration A). You don’t need a stem for every flower head, because some of the stems will be machine embroidered.) For more intricate leaf shapes, you could use leaves from silk flowers or even real leaves as patterns, pinning them to fabric and cutting around.

3 Take a number of silk flowers and remove their stems. Arrange the silk and fabric flower heads, fabric leaves and stems on the linen. The stems should all finish at the bottom edge of the linen. Pin all the fabric shapes in place. Mark with pencil or tailor’s chalk where the silk flowers will go.

4 Remove the backing paper from the fabric shapes and iron in place on the linen.

5 Machine embroider the remaining flower stems using a wide zigzag stitch.

6 Hand-embroider the leaf detail using running stitch and embroidery thread in a shade darker than the leaf colour.

7 Hand-sew each silk flower in place so the stitches won’t show.

8 Make ties to suspend the hanging by cutting two strips of print fabric or ribbon, fold them in half crosswise, and sew the folded end of each securely to the front of the linen at the top corners. Sew buttons on top as a decorative detail (B).