Long and Short Stitch Embroidery Flower Tutorial

The long and short stitch is a phenomenal stitch for flowers. It allows you to blend colors together subtly in a similar way to painting, which is why it’s the primary stitch used in the technique of thread painting!

In this tutorial, I’ll guide you step by step on how to embroider a forget me not flower using the long and short stitch technique. I chose this flower because it features vibrant colors, and the way its petals are arranged will allow us to explore how different stitch directions can help to create a beautiful, realistic looking flower.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you choose to purchase an item.

Long And Short Stitch Flower Tutorial

Supplies Needed

• Embroidery needle size 10 – Amazon
• DMC 6 stranded cotton floss
  • ECRU
  • 444
  • 798
  • 799
  • 869
• Embroidery fabric – Etsy
• Embroidery hoop – Etsy
• Download the traceable design

For this design, I selected 2 shades of blue, an off white color, yellow, and brown. We’ll keep the colors relatively simple so you can mostly focus on mastering basic shading using the long and short stitch.

I used water soluble Super Solvy stabilizer (available on Amazon) and a micron to transfer the pattern. I like using this for thread painting designs because it’s easier to include lots of detail.

Helpful Tips Before You Start

• Pay close attention to how long you are making your stitches. Shorter stitches will allow you to gradually and smoothly blend colors together.
• Stitch direction is another way you can more easily blend colors together. The slight change in direction will also allow you to create a slight visual division between each petal.
• You may find it easiest to mark stitch direction lines along each petal to ensure they are going in the proper direction.
• To make the color blending a lot easier, use 1 strand of floss at a time.
• Finally, I suggest reviewing this long and short stitch tutorial first if you’ve never used this stitch before!

Video Tutorial

Before we start filling in the flower with long and short stitches, split stitch along the outline of the petals using 2 strands of floss. This will help make the edges of the petals neater and also raise them slightly. These will be covered up, so either shade of blue is fine to use.

Each petal will be filled in with long and short stitches across the length of the petal. The stitches should slightly fan out as the marked lines reflect.

I prefer to work dark to light, so first I filled in the shaded areas with the darker blue color. Make sure to overlap the stitches on top of the split stitches you made.

Next I used light blue to fill in the rest of the petal. Start from the edge of the darker stitches, overlapping these stitches into them to blend them.

Continue making long and short stitches until the entire petal is filled in.

Again, make sure that these stitches overlap on top of the split stitches along the edge of the petal.

Using off white, fill in the small marked areas at the base of the petal, overlapping the stitches into the blue stitches.

Repeat these steps for each of the petals.

If you’re having a hard time getting the stitch direction right, you can also make stitches that are spaced out along the petal first.

Then go back in between the stitches to fill the entire petal in.

The parts of the petals that come into contact with one another can be challenging to define. Here’s how to visually separate them:

Don’t overlap the stitches along the edge of one petal into the other petal. Instead make sure that the edges of the stitches touch. This will form a natural division or seam line between each petal.

Fill in the very center of the flower with horizontal stitches using brown thread.

Fill in the outer circle with yellow long and short stitches. The stitches should slightly overlap into the white and end right up against the brown stitches.

Make evenly spaced out stitches that fan out and follow the same direction as the stitches in the petals.

Then fill in the rest of the area in between the stitches.

And that’s it…you’ve successfully completed a long and short stitch flower!

You can take these techniques and concepts and apply them to hundreds of different kinds of flowers.

Where stitches bloom like garden roses, may your creativity also flourish!

More Tutorials And Patterns

If you enjoyed this tutorial, I think you’ll love this morning glory embroidery tutorial. This is a great tutorial for stitching a flower that overall has a different shape to it as well as overlapping petals.

The video tutorial and downloadable design is available on my Patreon. I explain in depth about color selection, planning stitch direction, and more. Check out a preview of the tutorial here.

Sunflowers, tulips, pansies, and more…there are so many other kinds of flowers to embroider using this technique. Take a look at some of the patterns available in the shop!

Amanda

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.