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How to Hand Embroider Tiny Roses

Hand embroidery can be a very relaxing pastime, as well as a wonderful way to embellish all sorts of fabric items, from handkerchiefs and table linens to garments. Flowers are often a popular subject for embroidery, and roses seem to be one of the most popular ones. Large blooms can be found splashed across a tablecloth, but tiny and delicate roses seem most appropriate for small items, baby garments and blouses made of delicate fabrics such as lawn or batiste.

Things You'll Need

Fabric
Embroidery hoop
Embroidery floss (green and at least two shades in the color you wish for your roses, a darker shade and a lighter shade)
Embroidery needle
Embroidery scissors

Instructions

- 1
  Place the fabric in the embroidery hoop. Pull the fabric taut and tighten the screw on the outer ring of the hoop.
- 2
  Thread the embroidery needle with two strands of the green embroidery floss. Knot the end. Embroider one or two leaves using a lazy daisy stitch: bring the needle up from the back, loop it around and go back into the fabric near the place where you came up. Push the needle back up inside the loop and down again on the outside of the loop, and pull firmly.
  
  Make a second lazy daisy stitch at a slight angle to the first. Take a couple of tiny straight stitches on the back and snip the floss, leaving a small tail.
- 3
  Thread the embroidery needle with two strands of the darker colored floss for the rose. Knot the end. You will make the roses using the bullion stitch. Bring the needle from the back of the fabric to the front near the leaves. Move the end of the needle one-quarter inch to the right, insert the needle there and come back out at the same place you originally came up. Do not draw the needle all the way through, but push the point out about half an inch. Wind the thread around the end of the needle eight times. Hold down the little coil of thread with your thumb and carefully pull the needle through. Pull the coil down the thread, then go back through the fabric at the second point you came through. Pull it firmly enough that the coil forms a curve.
- 4
  Slightly above and to one side of the first bullion stitch, make a second one. When you pull it, use your finger to make sure it curves into the first stitch. End off the darker colored floss by taking a couple of tiny straight stitches on the back, and snipping it, leaving a small tail.
- 5
  Thread your needle with the lighter floss. Around the darker bullion stitches make three more slightly larger ones (you may need to coil the floss around the needle 10 or 12 times). End off as you did the other stitches. Once you have finished you may snip the tails more closely, but not so closely that the stitches will come loose.

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