How To Embroider A Sunflower

Sunflowers are sure to brighten anyone’s day, and in this tutorial you’ll learn how to embroider a sunflower! This particular one is 3-dimensional: the petals actually pop off the fabric and the center is fluffy. Don’t let that intimidate you, though! With some practice you’ll be able to make perfectly shaped petals.

This post is one of many mini embroidery design tutorials on the blog, so go check out even more if you enjoy this one!

Disclaimer: This post has some affiliate links in it. I receive a small commission from purchases at no additional cost to the buyer. I only recommend products I would use and love and that are of good quality. All opinions are my own!

Supplies Needed

• A small embroidery hoop
• Embroidery Needle
• Tapestry Needle (blunt tip)
• A sewing pin or extra embroidery needle
• Embroidery Thread – I recommend DMC
• Embroidery Scissors
• Water soluble or heat erasable pen
• Linen or cotton fabric – My favorite is this hand dyed fabric by Stuart Moore’s Textiles

How to Embroider A Sunflower

This design uses a couple of basic stitches along with a stitch called the woven picot, which is used a lot in stumpwork embroidery due to it’s 3-dimensional appearance. This stitch can be a little challenging to get right if you’ve never done it before, so I have linked a tutorial that will walk you through how to do it and provides some tips. You may want to do a practice run before you get started!

Getting Started

Place your fabric in the hoop and draw a circle with 6 petals evenly spaced around it. You can leave some space between the petals because these are just for the back petals. We will be layering in some petals to the front of these as well.

Just a note before we get started: I used all 6 strands of thread for the entire embroidery so that the flower was extra fluffy.

Stitching The Petals

• Using a medium brown color, fill in each petal with satin stitches.
• Once you have filled in all 6, it’s time to stitch the 3-dimensional petals. Place your pin directly in the center between two of the satin stitch petals.
• Using lighter yellow thread, make woven picot stitches. (Make sure to check out this in depth tutorial for how to do this stitch.) Use your tapestry needle to weave under and over the thread so that you lessen the chances of snagging the surrounding stitches. The biggest thing to keep in mind when you are making these stitches: avoid pulling your stitches too tight. Really take your time with these!

Stitching The Center Of The Sunflower

• Work your way around creating the woven picot petals until you have made 6 of them.
• Fill in the center of the flower with French knots using dark brown floss. I wrapped the thread around the needle 3 times for these so they were nice and fluffy.

And that’s it! I love the way you can position the woven picots so that they lay more naturally like a flower petal would. If you wanted to take this design a step further you could even add some 3-dimensional leaves and a stem! Check out this tutorial to learn how to make wirework leaves.

3-Dimensional Embroidery Patterns

Sunflower Embroidery Patterns

This is just one of many different ways to embroider sunflowers. Here are a few more patterns that you may enjoy stitching.