Hand embroidery flower stitches are super popular and really fun to do. They might seem tricky at first, but they’re actually pretty easy once you get the hang of it. In this tutorial, we’ll go over three basic flower stitches that will have you creating beautiful designs in no time.
Free Pattern to Learn Floral Hand Embroidery
Before we start the tutorial I would like to let you know that I have made a free downloadable pattern to learn how to make beginner hand embroidery flowers. The pattern is a PDF download that comes with a picture tutorial and step-by-step instructions. If that is something you would be interested in you can get the pattern from the link below
Free PDF Embroidery Pattern ~ Beginner Floral Edition
Hand Embroidery Flower Tutorial: Wagon Wheel Rose Stitch
The wagon wheel stitch is a common embroidery stitch used to indicate roses. It is a very simple stitch to learn and do.
1. Start with a basic star shape outlined in chalk or a disappearing marker. There should be 5 lines. When making a wagon wheel rose there should always be an odd number of spokes/lines, if there is an even amount your rose won’t work out.
2. Bring the thread up from the bottom starting in the middle and use the thread to follow the outline.
3. Once the star shape is completed the thread and needle should be on the back of the fabric. bring up the needle to the front by putting it close to the middle but not exactly in the middle and just under one of the star branches.
4. Once that is complete weave the thread over and under the star, and keep wrapping it around until the star is fully covered by the weave.
5. When you can hardly see where the original star outline was, tuck the needle under all the weaves, push it through to the back, and tie it off.
6. You should now have a beautiful wagon wheel rose. Next, you can add a stem. For a tutorial on stem stitches see here this blog post The 5 Most Useful Basic Hand Embroidery Stitches to Learn for Beginners
Hand Embroidery Stitches: French Knot Rose Stitch
The French Knot stitch can be used for a variety of things in embroidery. My favorite way to use it, is to make a rose by doing a series of little French knots.
- Pull the thread through from the back side of the fabric. Wrap the thread around the needle 2 or 3 times.
- Make sure that the wrapped-around thread is nice and tight. Pull the needle through to the backside. Make sure you hold the excess thread tightly.
- You should now have a little French knot
- To make this look more like a rose. add more French knots in a cluster
- Then add a Stem. You can find a tutorial for hand embroidery stem stitches in this blog post The 5 Most Useful Basic Hand Embroidery Stitches to Learn for Beginners
This type of hand embroidery stitch can take a while to master, but once mastered it is one of the fastest and easiest stitches to do, and you can make beautiful designs with it.
Hand Embroidery Stitch: Lazy Daisy Stitch
- Draw a rough outline of a flower.
- Then pull the needle and thread up to the front of the fabric. Make sure to pull it up through the middle of the flower.
- For one of the flower petals, weave the needle through the fabric. Start in the middle and end where you want the singular petal to end.
- Then wrap the thread under the tip of the needle and pull the needle through. You should now have a petal shape. Do not pull it too tight.
- Next, pull the needle through by the tip for the petal and pull.
- Then start the process from the middle again. Continue until all petals are complete. Do as many or as less petals as you want. I made mine look over-crowded
- Add a stem
This one can be kind of confusing to learn and it might take you a couple of tries, so hopefully the picture tutorial will help you out.
The Finished Embroidery Flowers and Other Useful Hand Embroidery Resources
Those have been the main 3 basic embroidery flower stitches I would recommend learning first. They will take a little practice to master, but once mastered you can do almost anything with these stitches.
If you would like to try the free floral embroidery pattern to help master these stitches see this blog post
