3 Eye-Catching Ways To Embroider A Sun
Add a little bit of sunshine to your day with this tutorial that will teach you 3 easy and unique ways to embroider a sun.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you choose to purchase an item.
Supplies
- Appleton’s Crewel Wool – Etsy
- DMC Soft Matte Cotton Thread – Etsy
- DMC Etoile – Amazon
- DMC cotton embroidery floss
- Chenille Needle
- Cotton or linen fabric
- Slate frame or embroidery hoop
- Circle templates – optional but very helpful to draw the sun designs
- Frixion heat erasable pen – Amazon
This tutorial was the perfect excuse to use some of my tapestry and crewel yarns. I went for a more chunky, textured look for these examples, but you can certainly use another kind of embroidery floss such as pearl or stranded cotton.
How To Embroider A Sun
Using a pen or marker, trace a circle with lines radiating off of it for each sun. If you have a template, this will make it super easy to draw a perfect circle.
Padded Satin Stitch
Why not make the sun a little more 3-d? The padded satin stitch is a variation off one of the most popular embroidery stitches out there, the satin stitch.
Paired with a thicker tapestry thread, it really pops off the fabric. I used DMC Soft Matte Cotton for this example.
- Start by making a few satin stitches in the center of the circle, leaving the outer area of the circle unstitched.
- Then make more satin stitches, overlapping them on top of the first group of stitches you made. These should run perpendicular to the stitches underneath and begin to cover more of the area.
- Keep working these layers, overlapping the stitches and alternating which direction you make them until the entire shape is filled in.
- Finally, make back stitches along the rays of sunshine.
Couching Stitch
Grab your favorite chunky embroidery thread for this example. Couching adds a good amount of interesting texture.
Couching uses a laid thread and another thread to anchor the laid thread. For the laid thread, I doubled up a strand of Etoile and for the anchoring thread I used 3 strands of cotton embroidery floss.
- Bring the laid thread up through the middle of the circle.
- Thread the anchoring thread. Begin laying the laid thread around in a spiral fashion, making small stitches over top of the laid thread to secure it.
- Work your way around until the entire area is fill in.
- Thread the end of the laid thread and pull it through to the back of the fabric.
- Make straight stitches for the rays. You can also couch these threads if you want to.
Reverse Chain Stitch
A regular old chain stitch works just fine, but one of my secrets to getting nice and even stitches around curves is the reverse chain stitch.
- Make a small straight stitch along the outline of the circle.
- Come up with needle and thread a stitch length ahead.
- Place your needle underneath the straight stitch and gently pull the thread through.
- Go back down with needle and thread through the same hole the working thread is emerging from.
- Skip a stitch length ahead and repeat steps 3 and 4.
- Work your way inward in a spiral fashion until the entire circle is filled in.
- Work more chain stitches along the rays.
Even More Ideas
These are just a few of endless combinations of fill and outline stitches you can use for suns.
For more ideas, learn about even more fill stitches and outlining stitches. If you’re working on a bigger project, take a look at some of these examples of stitches that work well for filling in larger areas.
Not feeling up to stitching your own designs? Check out some of these wonderful sun embroidery patterns.
Amanda is a hand embroidery teacher and artist. With over 15 years of experience in the craft industry and embroidery, she owns and runs Crewel Ghoul, sharing accessible tutorials and patterns to help inspire fellow crafters to get creative. In addition to running this website, she teaches on Skillshare and Youtube.
