How to Hand Embroider Roses

To many, hand embroidery is quickly becoming a lost art. Our grandmothers and great grandmothers probably used it to embellish every day objects around the home. You can employ it on the blouse collars, pillow case edges and on linen handkerchiefs. Machine embroidery looks great, but it can't capture the detail or delicacy of hand embroidery. Here are some directions to embroider bullion knot roses. You must learn how to make a bullion knot to make these roses, which are just a series of bullion knots wrapped around each other. Practice making them on scrap fabric.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Embroidery floss, six stranded, in a light and darker shade
• Scissors
• Sharp, pointed embroidery needle
• Solid colored scrap of practice fabric

1. Cut a comfortable sewing length from the 2 shades of embroidery floss. Separate the floss into sections of 3 strands each. Thread the needle with the darker of the two colors and tie a small knot in the end of the thread.

2. 
    

   Make a bullion knot. Come up through the fabric with the thread at the point where you want the center of your rose. Let's call this point A. Put the tip of the needle back in the fabric just about a quarter of an inch from where you came up. Let's call this point B. Put the point of the needle back very close to where the thread originally came through- point A. Do not pull the needle all the way through the fabric but leave it positioned in the fabric. See the picture for more details.

3. Wrap the thread around the needle. Make 12 neat wraps around the needle. Holding the wraps securely with your thumb and forefinger, pull the needle through the fabric. Hold the wraps lightly beween your fingers until the thread is pulled tight. You should have a smooth, wrapped coil of thread. Attach the knot by going back through the fabric at point B. Your first bullion knot is made.

4. 
    

   To make the rose, make 2 bullion knots side by side, one on top of the other. These knots will be the center of the flower. Make 4 bullion knots, wrapping around the 2 center knots. Think of a real rose and the way the petals wrap. Use the lighter colored thread to make at least 5 or six knots wrapping around the flower. The picture shows a rough diagram of how the stitches should be laid out. Spaces are left between the stitches on the diagram so that they can be easily seen.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep practicing to get the perfect rose.
• You can use this technique with a larger needle and heavy weights of embroidery floss to make big roses for large projects like jeans.
• Use the darker floss for the center of the roses and the lighter floss for the outside.