How to embroider wild flowers: mini hoop DIY and easy gift idea

Lovingly handmade gifts are always well-received, especially when they’re embellished with hand-embroidery – and bestowing your creations will give you a great sense of accomplishment, so it’s win-win!

Give wild flowers that will last with pretty blooms sewn in lazy daisy stitch. Bookworms will love this thoughtful embroidered bookmark, or add sweet embroidered flowers to a little handmade zip-up pouch makes a great gift for that hard-to-buy-for someone (if you can bear to part with it, that is!).

This project was first featured in Simply Sewing magazine, issue 19.

How to embellish gifts with Lazy Daisy embroidery

Before you begin

Download our Free Lazy Daisy Flower Pattern

Step 1

Trace the template from the PDF pattern onto your fabric and stitch over the lines. Use bright shades of pink and white for the flowers so they really stand out.

Step 2

Start by taking two strands of cotton from your cut length and thread your embroidery needle with one end and knot the other.

Bring the needle up at 1 and down at 2, without pulling the needle all the way through the fabric. Bring the needle up again at 3, with the thread under the needle and pull gently to form a loop.

Step 3

Secure this loop by pushing the needle into the fabric at 4. This is one complete lazy daisy stitch. To make another stitch next to it, repeat this method, starting at 5 to work the next stitch. In this design we have grouped them together, starting at the same point each time but angling the stitches slightly to form the flower shape.

Step 4

Finish off your blooms with embroidered knot details. If you need a hand with knot stitches, see our guides to stitching French Knots and Colonial Knots.

Step 5

To turn your stitching into a bookmark, cut your fabric into a rectangle and sew it, right sides together, to a second piece of the same size. Turn inside out and slip-stitch to close. To make a pouch, see our guide to how to make a zip pouch.

This design doesn’t need to be made into a bookmark or pouch to make a one-of-a-kind gift. Simply mount it into a hoop for quick-stitch wall art!

Stitch a thoughtful gift

These little embroidered flowers can be used to add a personal touch to lots of items, from bookmarks to clothing and accessories, transforming them into a special gift.

Update your clothing with florals

Enhancing an old denim jacket with fresh, vibrant florals can give unworn items a new life. Get started with our denim jacket embroidery project.

Rebecca Reid

Rebecca is founder of Amber Makes and has previously worked as Senior Technical Editor of Love Embroidery and Simply Sewing magazines. She works with sewing TV channels including Sewing Street, Yarn Lane and Sewing Quarter. She been stitching since she was a child and has worked on many craft magazines as well as running her own curtain-making business. She is known by her colleagues as a sewing oracle – you name it, she can sew it. She’s hugely knowledgeable about sewing techniques, fabrics and tools and is full of helpful advice for her fellow sewists, from the best place to buy curtain-making materials to which books and websites are handy for that sewing problem you’re stuck on.

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