Felt Daisy Chain

Easy (884) Christmas (155) Sewing (44) School holidays (2) Felt daisy chain (1)

This simple creative activity is a fun way to introduce children to sewing. Felt pieces are cut into flower shapes, and then sewn together to create a colourful garland that they can wear.

Although the activity itself is quite simple, younger children should always be assisted by an adult as scissors will be needed to cut out the flower shapes and needles are used to sew the pieces together. However, older children who have a little bit of experience with sewing should be able to complete the activity independently.

As with all creative activities, various kinds of exciting variations can be tried on this daisy chain. Older children and adults may want to give their creations some extra bling, so be sure to have plenty of colourful, shiny buttons and craft jewels on hand.

If you’d like to give this activity a Christmassy twist, make your chain out of holly shaped pieces and use red buttons or craft jewels as the berries. Another variation is to use this technique to create a colourful festive bunting.

Time: 90 minutes

Age: 5-10's, Over 10's

Level: Medium

Materials

Felt pieces in different colours

Pen

Scissors - some good quality children's craft scissors are alright for cutting felt. Otherwise, adult's sewing scissors may be necessary

A large sharp needle

Knitting yarn or embroidery cotton

Craft jewels / rhinestones or buttons

Craft glue

Optional: - flower-shaped cookie cutter, pinking shears, glitter glue, sparkly thread, ribbons, crepe paper, pipe cleaners or anything else you'd like to add

Method

Take your coloured felt pieces and, using a pen, draw enough flower shapes to create a garland of the desired length. Although there is no set size for the flowers, I’d recommend anything from 5 centimetres (approximately 2 inches) to 9 centimetres (approximately 3 ½ inches). If the flowers are too small, they might be too difficult for children to cut, whereas if they’re overly large the final garland will look clumsy. If you’re not a confident drawer, you might want to search the internet for small flower templates. Alternatively, if you have a flower-shaped cookie-cutter perhaps this could be used as a stencil. Very little children might find circles of felt easier to work with than flower shapes.

Cut the flower shapes from the felt.

Thread a needle with yarn or embroidery cotton and start sewing the flowers together as shown in the photo below. Just one or stitches are all that will be needed to connect them to each other.

Continue sewing the flowers together (see below), while constantly checking that the garland is the right shape. Perhaps you'd also like to some green felt leaves to add some extra colour.

Keep sewing the flowers in this way until you reach the desired length. Then, sew the first and last flowers together, forming a wreath.

Once the basic daisy chain has been formed, you can start decorating it. Take some colourful buttons, glittery craft jewels, other pretty sewing embellishments or even twisted pipe cleaners, and sew or glue them onto the centre of each flower.