Not only is embroidery a relaxing pastime that produces beautiful and unique art, it can even positively impact your health.

While one can feel joy by simply admiring the lovely colors and textures of a flower embroidery pattern, picking up a thread and needle to create art can also enhance creativity, help relieve stress while also building patience and community.

You can find inspiration to stitch in the cute cat who’s always on your walking path, the daisies in the backyard, or in anything else that intrigues you.

What is Embroidery?

Embroidery is an inexpensive and easy-to-learn art in which a piece of cloth is decorated with yarn or thread by way of needlepoint.

Embroidery is typically an aesthetic addition used to further embellish textiles with color, dimension, texture and richness.

Benefits of Embroidery

Embroidery can benefit both state-of-mind as well as the brain’s actual functioning. From reducing stress to building community, read along to find out why you should get to stitchin’!

Enhances Creativity

The moment the yarn is threaded through the needle, motor, sensory, and attentional processes are at use, making brain connections more tightly integrated and efficient.

This means creativity feels more fluid and the ability to produce becomes easier and quicker, allowing the creator to focus on perfecting the details of the project, such as color and pattern.

Relieves Stress

Art of any medium and at any level can be therapeutic.  Whether you’re a master-stitcher or a once-in-a-while crafter, at any skill level, practicing art has proven to reduce stress hormones.

Crafting has shown to reduce levels of cortisol, a prominent stress hormone in the body in less than an hour.

Builds Patience

In art, and almost everything else, patience is a necessity.

Just as we are patient while waiting for food to cook, plants to bloom, or paint to dry, one must learn to be patient with their masterpiece as it comes to life.

Embroidery teaches us to appreciate consistent, careful work… that may not always be instantly gratifying.

Bonds Community

It can be challenging to make new friends as an adult. Thankfully, finding a hobby in common, such as embroidery can make the conversation feel as easy as a split stitch!

There are tons of embroidery blogs and Facebook groups where members share their own patterns and pics of final creations. Go online and find your close-knit group of friends to craft with.

What You Need to Begin Embroidery

 

Embroidery is a great craft you can pick up because it is both inexpensive to get started and simple to learn. Stop by your local art supply store and add these items to your list of things to buy:

• Embroidery hoop: In order to stitch smoothly through your piece of fabric, you will need to keep it still and taut. An embroidery hoop maintains the position of the fabric by clamping it between two hoops, making stitching designs and switching between yarns much easier.
• Embroidery pen: It is highly recommended to pick up an embroidery pen so that it’s easier to trace your pattern. The ink in the embroidery pen is water-soluble, meaning it will disappear when it’s washed so that your final art piece has no trace of ink.
• Fabric shears: Shears is just a fancy way to say fabric scissors. Having sharp, new shears is important to cut and control cloth pieces and yarn strings. Using dull scissors can damage your fabric or worse yet, your stitching.
• Needle: Embroidery needles have larger eye holes and sharper points than normal sewing needles to allow a variety of yarns to puncture and pass through different thicknesses of cloth. Your thread type will decide which embroidery needle is best for your project.
• Thread: Thread for embroidering can be thick or thin, smooth or textured— it all depends on how you’re hoping to use it on your fabric canvas!

After supplies have been gathered, it’s time to try your hand at some beginner’s stitches. Grab a piece of scrap fabric and start by learning a backstitch and work your way down the list.

5 Beginner Embroidery Stitches You Should Know

While there are many different embroidery stitches, you only need to know a couple to begin your masterpiece. Here are five beginner embroidery stitches to get you started:

• Backstitch: The backstitch is the strongest stitch among basic embroidery stitches. A basic backstitch is used to secure fabrics together or to outline shapes. It can be used in lieu of a sewing machine to sew strong seams by hand.
• Chain Stitch: A chain stitch uses looped stitches to form a chain-like pattern to create curved lines. This style is used for more intricate or “drawing style” embroidery.
• French Knot: A French knot is a bit more advanced embroidery technique usually used to create flowers or to fill in small circular spaces.
• Split Stitch: The split stitch is one of the most basic embroidery stitches. It is used most commonly to outline images or fill in large spaces with thread.
• Satin Stitch: A satin stitch is a decorative stitch that uses a series of flat stitches in order to completely cover background sections of fabric. The technique uses a zig-zag pattern which ensures that the stitches are very close together making sure that no fabric can be seen through the stitching.

Flower Embroidery Patterns

 

Feeling floral? Kick-off Spring or celebrate Earth Day by stitching a colorful flower onto your favorite fabric. Test your needlework and create a bright yellow sunflower or a romantic red rose with help from a free printable flower embroidery pattern below.

Once the pattern’s been printed and the material is taut in the embroidery hoop, use a pencil or an embroidery pen to lightly trace the design on the fabric. Stitch directly over the pattern using the thread and stitch style of your preference.

If you’re not using pencil, once the piece is complete, simply soak it in a bowl of water to remove embroidery pen ink.

Otherwise, you can remove your art or leave it in the embroidery hoop for display.

If you’re using normal 8.5”x11” paper to print out these patterns, we suggest using a 20 cm (or larger) embroidery hoop.

Sunflower Embroidery Pattern 

The symbolism of the golden-hued sunflower is equally bright as its petals, as the sunflower represents happiness, vitality and friendship. Download and print out our sunflower embroidery pattern below and let your creativity shine!

For maximum pop, we recommend stitching this fun flower on a piece of darker fabric to highlight the bold yellow hues.

 

Rose Embroidery Pattern 

Keep a rose that will last even longer than Belle’s when you stitch it into a piece of your favorite fabric. Depending on the color, the meaning and symbolism of a rose change.  Red represents romance and love while yellow represents friendship.

Pick out a color thread and use this simple rose embroidery pattern or freehand one of your own for a beautiful and thoughtful piece of art.

Peony Embroidery Pattern 

While all flowers are gorgeous creations on their own, the peony is one especially magnificent. Representing fortune and honor, the pretty peony is stunning in all forms. Download and print out this peony embroidery pattern to create one you can keep on display all the time.

Check out this beautiful (and cheap!) peony embroidery pattern to try for yourself!

 

Other Amazing Embroidery Designs

If you’ve conquered the flower fields and feel like taking on new embroidery challenges, check out some other amazing embroidery designs below. We love the cat embroidery pattern— something about those whiskers!

Cat Embroidery Pattern 

Be a copycat and use this cat embroidery pattern to stitch yourself a captivating feline friend.  It’s a simple but fun piece that will be sure to impress anyone who gets their paws on it.

Butterfly Embroidery Pattern 

See how quickly time floats by when you use this butterfly embroidery pattern to grow your craft wings. You can use your favorite combination of colors or stick to something simple— the choice is yours!

Mermaid Embroidery Pattern 

Check out this fin-tastic (and simple!) mermaid embroidery pattern. Pick four colors for her body, hair, fin, and shells and start feeling the creativity come in waves.

If you’re creating an embroidered mermaid as a gift,  you can also add along some birthday flowers or candles— they’re going to love it!

Bee Embroidery Pattern 

Use this bee embroidery pattern and stitch the cutest and most buzz-worthy gift for a baby shower or a birthday. This pattern is great for intermediate embroiders, as it incorporates a few different stitch styles.

With lower stress levels and more friends to craft with, the benefits of embroidery are both physical and emotional.

When you pick up a needle and some yarn, you are sure to relax while creating a beautiful piece of art to hang in your home or even to gift as a sweet just-because gift.