How to make a Hand Embroidery Rose, Beginner Friendly

When I first learned hand embroidery, the hand embroidery rose was the first thing I learned! In fact, this wagon wheel embroidery rose technique is the first technique I learned too! So I thought I would share my knowledge and make a tutorial for you all. There are many different ways to embroider flowers in hand embroidery, I will be showing you one of my favorite techniques to make a hand-embroidered rose. This technique is beginner-friendly and very easy to learn.

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How to Make an Embroidery Rose

This tutorial is for how to make a hand embroidery rose using the wagon wheel technique. For this tutorial, I used the full 6 strands of embroidery floss, but how many strands of floss you use is completely up to you!

Step 1 – Draw a pattern for your hand embroidery rose

Draw your pattern (in pencil or an embroidery marker, I will link some good ones for beginners below at the end of this tutorial)

Draw a circle. This will roughly be the size the rose will end up being, so make sure you draw the right size.
Next, we are going to draw five lines coming out from the middle. Try to make the five parts as even as possible.
You should have a wagon wheel pattern.

Always have an odd number of spokes/wagon wheel lines. If you have an even number the rose won’t turn out!

Step 2 Make the Base

Make your base for the Embroidery Rose

Bring your needle up through the middle of the wagon wheel
Follow your five wagon wheel lines.
You should now have a wagon wheel with the spokes outlined.

You should always have an odd number of wagon wheel lines/ spokes. If you have an even number the rose won’t turn out! I can’t stress this enough!

Step 3 Start Weaving

Start your needle close to the center of the wagon wheel bringing your needle up from the back.
Next, we are going to weave the needle in and out of the wagon wheel spokes.
The pattern is over and under.

Weaving is repetitive but fills the space quickly. With 6 strands of floss the embroidery rose will be filled quicker than using 3 strands. I always suggest to beginner embroidery artists to use 6 strands of floss for this reason!

Step 4 Keep Weaving

Keep weaving your needle (over and under the spokes) until your wagon wheel is almost full.
If you miss a spoke/ wagon wheel line, just pull the needle back through the way you came and correct the over and under pattern

Step 5 – Complete Hand Embroidery Rose

To complete your wagon wheel

push the needle back through to the back of the fabric slightly under the weaved embroidery floss
tie it off

Well done on your hand embroidery rose!

What about the Embroidery Leaf to Match?!

You might see in the picture I have an embroidery leaf to match the rose. That particular embroidery leaf is also super simple and beginner friendly so if you are interested in learning that check out the tutorial below. The tutorial for the leaf is step-by-step and has photos to match, so very beginner friendly!

The Easiest way to make a Hand Embroidery Leaf

Tips and Tricks:

Do not pull the embroidery floss too tight, this will ruin the wagon wheel rose and make it look all warped. Let the floss be looser sitting compared to other embroidery stitches.
When starting the wagon wheel rose make sure you have a lot of thread on your needle
Try using two different colors or multi-colored embroidery floss for a different look.
Always have an odd number of spokes, even numbers don’t work!

Rose Embroidery Beginner Kit

This embroidery kit has everything you need to learn how to make this embroidery rose design, including step-by-step instructions. If you want to further your learning on how to make a rose embroidery design like this, then this beginner embroidery kit is great!

Amazon Beginner Hand Embroidery Items

Here are some hand embroidery Items I think would be beneficial for a beginner embroidery artist like yourself!

Water Soluble Marker!

When I was starting out I just used a pencil, but once I got a water-soluble marker it made things a lot easier, both for drawing the pattern and cleaning it away once I was finished!

Needles with a Large eye

Hand Embroidery using large eye needles will make your life a lot easier especially if your hands are shakey or your eyesight is bad like mine! Here is a good set with large eyes but are still sharp.

Embroidery Scissors

When I first brought myself embroidery scissors I bought them because they looked aesthetic ( I actually have this exact pair) but once I started using them on my projects I wish I had invested in a pair sooner. It makes cutting the back of your work a lot easier, since the scissors are small you won’t mess up cutting your design.

Embroidery Hoop

It is very common to start embroidery not using an embroidery hoop! If this is you I highly recommend you buy a basic wooden embroidery hoop! Don’t make the beginner mistake of hand embroidery without one.

That is all for now…

I hope this blog post was able to help you create a simple wagon wheel embroidery rose and leaf if you followed that blog post too! Remember embroidery is a craft and crafts take practice to perfect. So if yours didn’t turn out as you hoped or imagined don’t be discouraged. Pick up your needle and floss and give it another crack!

Happy Embroidering!

If you enjoyed this embroidery blog post, why not check out some of my other embroidery blog posts?

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