Last year, I finally turned a spare bedroom in our house into a proper sewing room. It has a sloped ceiling and just one full-height wall, but I knew one thing for sure: I wanted a design wall. It's just so nice to be able to have the work in progress up on a wall!
I kept it simple — and it turned out to be one of the most useful things in the room. Especially now that I’m finishing up the Knitty rose quilt! If you’re curious, here’s how I made it.
Materials and supplies
- Approx. 5 metres (5.5 yards) of white flannel, 1.10 m (43") wide
- Two wooden rods, each about 2.5 metres (8 feet) long
- Three wall hooks
- Sewing machine + basic sewing supplies (thread, scissors, ruler, pins)
How to make a DIY flannel design wall
I started by cutting the flannel in two, so I had two pieces that were each WOF x 2.5 metres (about 43" x 98"). I sewed them together lengthwise, right sides together, using a 1/2 inch seam allowance. This gave me one large piece of flannel that was roughly 2.10 metres (83") wide and 2.30 metres (90") high. I then folded in the long sides about 1/2 inch along the selvedge and sewed a seam to make it a little sturdier.
Then I folded down the top edge about 3 inches to the back side of the flannel and stitched it down to make a hanging sleeve — and repeated the same process at the bottom. I slid one long wooden rod into the top sleeve and one into the bottom.
How I hung it
I hadn’t really planned out a hanging method in advance, so I improvised. I simply screwed three hooks into the top of the wall, as close to the ceiling as possible.
Then I used scissors to cut small holes in the top hanging sleeve, lining them up with the hook positions so the top rod could hang directly on the hooks. It’s not fancy, but it works great — and it’s easy to take down and put back up again when needed.
How it works
The rods add weight and structure, which helps the flannel hang straighter and keeps it from bunching or sagging. The surface of the flannel naturally grips small fabric pieces and quilt blocks, so they’ll stay in place just from friction. Larger blocks or heavier units tend to slide off eventually, but they’re easy to secure with a few pins.
Why I love it
It’s simple, affordable, and incredibly useful — especially for quilts like Knitty rose, where it helps the design process to get a bit of an overview. I needed to lay out large sections of the quilt at once, and the design wall helped me stay organised and keep block placement in order while sewing.
It’s also perfect for web piecing, since I can move an entire column from the wall to the sewing machine without losing track of anything. (If you haven’t tried web piecing yet — stay tuned! I have a tutorial coming soon.)
If you’ve been thinking about making a design wall for your quilting space, I 100% recommend it. You don’t need anything fancy — just some flannel, two rods, and a few hooks can make a big difference in your sewing room.
