How To Embroider Flowers
Flowers are by far my favorite thing to embroider by hand, and the opportunities are endless when you know how to do a few embroidery stitches. I’ve compiled some of my favorite stitches that I use. The stitches I’m about to list are my most frequently used stitches for embroidering flowers, but they are definitely not the only ones you can use! I recommend getting a book for reference on embroidery stitches and finding ones that you’d like to try! Get creative and use them in different parts of the flowers. If you’re not familiar with some of the embroidery stitches that I list below, I also have step by step instructions for all of them in this post all about some of the most common types embroidery stitches.
Embroidery Stitches For Flowers
For Flower Petals
- French Knots
- Short and Long Stitches
- Satin Stitch
- Lazy Daisy Stitch
- Chain Stitch
Satin Stitch
This makes for a great filler stitch for flower petals.
French Knots
These are great for little flower buds, to fill in the center of flowers, and to fit into small spaces where you’d like to add some more color.
Short and Long Stitches
After I’ve laid down some satin stitches, I like to blend colors together with this stitch to add contrast to the flower petals.
Pinwheel Rose
This rose is super fun to stitch and it gives the flower a more 3-dimensional effect!
Lazy Daisy Stitch
This is also called a “detached chain stitch”. These make the cutest little flowers that do indeed look like daisies. Or, you can use them for leaves like I did for the rose pictured below.
Chain Stitch
Similar to the detached chain stitch, except you’re forming a chain of these stitches. I like to fill in petals with chain stitches to give the petals some more texture.
For Leaves and Greenery
- Fishbone Stitch
- Satin Stitch
- Stem Stitch
Fishbone Stitch
Stem Stitch
As the name of the stitch says, this stitch is great for stems!
Satin Stitch
I like using this stitch not just for flower petals! I think leaves look really cute with a satin stitch and then an outline stitch with a different color right down the center.
Want to Learn More?
If you’d like to know more of the process I go through when I create an embroidery, and also how I utilize these stitches to make floral hand embroidery, I’ve created a class over at Skillshare that I think you’d love! Skillshare is great because it’s a learning platform not just for embroidery, but pretty much any sort of skill you can imagine. If you’d like to give it a try with no strings attached, you can use my link for a free trial!
I’ve also got plenty of kits and patterns over in my shop! These are great because I include a stencil, photos and instructions for each stitch, and where each color and stitch needs to go. You can purchase my embroidery patterns as a digital PDF pattern or as a physical kit.
Basic Embroidery Stitches PDF
By signing up to my newsletter, you’ll recieve a free PDF of step by step pictures of some of the stitches mentioned above! It’s a great 2 page PDF to have on hand while you’re learning. You’ll also get access to my intro to embroidery mini course!
More Embroidery Tutorials:
