Knitted, Embroidered Sunflower Pillow – Notes from Kristin

There is something deeply satisfying about finishing a handmade pillow. It sits on your couch or your bed and it just glows there, this tangible proof that you made something with your hands. The knitted, embroidered sunflower pillow I’m sharing today is exactly that kind of project — one that takes a little time, rewards your patience, and ends up being one of those pieces people actually notice and ask about.

This post is my full set of notes on how I made this pillow: the yarn choices, the knitting, the embroidery, the finishing, and all the little decisions along the way that made it feel like mine. I hope it helps you make yours feel like you.

Why a Sunflower?

I’ve been a little obsessed with sunflowers for as long as I can remember. There’s an optimism to them that I find hard to resist. They face toward light. They’re bold and unapologetic about being yellow. And they translate beautifully into fiber arts — the long petals have a natural rhythm that works well in both knitting and embroidery, and the dark, textured center is practically begging to be recreated in French knots.

I’d seen plenty of sunflower projects over the years — cross-stitch kits, needlepoint canvases, crocheted pot holders — but I wanted something that felt a little more dimensional, a little more lush. That’s where the combination of knitting and embroidery came in. The knitted base gives the pillow its structure and softness, while the embroidery lets you add color and detail that would be nearly impossible to achieve through colorwork knitting alone.

The result is a pillow that looks like it took tremendous skill but is actually very approachable once you understand how the two techniques work together.

What You’ll Need

Before we get into the how, here’s a general overview of the supplies that went into this project. I’ll get more specific as we move through each step.

For the knitting, I used a worsted-weight yarn in a warm natural cream for the pillow body. I like how this color lets the embroidered sunflower really pop without competing. A DK or aran weight would also work — just adjust your needle size and gauge accordingly. You’ll need enough yarn to knit two squares of whatever size you want your finished pillow to be. For a standard 18-inch throw pillow, plan on roughly 300 to 400 yards of your main color depending on your gauge and stitch pattern.

For the embroidery, you’ll want embroidery floss in several shades of yellow and gold (I used at least four), a deep brown and a warm black for the center, and a couple of greens if you plan to add any stems or leaves. I also used a single strand of a dusty orange-gold to add some depth to the petal shading. Wool embroidery thread works beautifully on a knitted ground and gives a slightly more rustic, cohesive look, but standard six-strand cotton floss is perfectly fine and gives a brighter finish.

You’ll also need a blunt tapestry needle for the embroidery (very important — a sharp needle splits yarn and makes a mess), a pillow form in the appropriate size, and your choice of seaming method. I prefer a mattress stitch for a clean, nearly invisible seam, but a simple whipstitch works too.

Knitting the Pillow Base

The pillow body doesn’t need to be complicated. In fact, I’d encourage you not to overthink it. The embroidery is going to be the star of this show, so a simple, flat, even knitted fabric is exactly what you want. Anything too textured or patterned will compete with your stitching.

I knitted mine in a basic stockinette stitch with a two-stitch garter border on all four sides to keep the edges from curling. If you’d like something with a little more texture, a seed stitch or a very simple two-row texture pattern works well and still provides a good ground for embroidery. Just avoid anything deeply cabled or highly dimensional.

For gauge, I was working at roughly 18 stitches and 24 rows per four inches on US 8 needles with worsted yarn. To get an 18-inch pillow front, I cast on about 82 stitches and knitted until the piece measured 18 inches. I then knitted a second identical piece for the back.

Before you bind off, take a moment to block your knitted pieces. I know, I know — blocking feels like the boring step, but it makes a genuine difference here. A blocked piece lies flat and accepts embroidery much more gracefully. Wet blocking is my preference: soak the pieces in cool water for 20 minutes, press out the excess (don’t wring), lay them flat to the correct measurements, and let them dry completely. Once they’re dry, the fabric is stable and ready to embroider.

One small tip: leave long tails when you cast on and bind off. These can be woven into the seams later and save you from having extra ends to hide.

Planning the Sunflower Design

Before you pick up your embroidery needle, spend some time with the design. I can’t stress this enough. Diving straight into stitching without a plan is how you end up with a lopsided flower or petals that run off the edge.

I sketched my sunflower lightly with a water-soluble fabric marker directly on the knitted front panel. You can also trace your design onto tissue paper and baste it to the fabric, removing the paper after stitching, which is especially useful if you’re not confident drawing freehand. A third option is to use an erasable chalk pencil, which disappears with gentle heat.

For this pillow, my sunflower spans about 12 inches from petal tip to petal tip, centered on the panel. The center disc is approximately 4 inches in diameter. I placed the flower slightly above center rather than dead center — this is a small compositional choice that makes the design feel a little more dynamic and intentional.

I drew 20 petals, which is roughly true to life for a sunflower and creates a satisfying density without overcrowding. Each petal is roughly an elongated teardrop or spatula shape — wider at the outer tip, narrowing as it meets the center disc. I varied the lengths slightly so they weren’t all perfectly uniform, which adds to the organic feel.

If you want to add leaves or a short stem, sketch those in now too. I added two leaves on a slight diagonal below the bloom, which helps anchor the flower visually on the pillow and gives the composition a little more life.

Embroidering the Sunflower Petals

Now for the part I find most meditative: the actual stitching.

I work the petals first, before the center, because the center stitches will later overlap the inner edges of the petals, which helps everything look clean and integrated.

For the petals, I use a combination of long satin stitches and stem stitch. The main body of each petal is filled with long satin stitches running lengthwise from the base of the petal toward the tip. I use three to four shades of yellow and gold to create a gradient — starting with a deeper, more amber gold at the base of each petal and transitioning toward a bright, clear yellow at the tip. This shading is what gives the embroidery that lush, almost painterly quality.

To make the shading, I don’t do anything fancy. I simply switch threads partway through filling a petal. I might do the first third of the petal in deep amber gold, the middle third in a mid-toned sunflower yellow, and the outer third in a bright clear yellow. Where the colors meet, I let the stitches interlock slightly so there’s no hard line. This is called shaded satin stitch or sometimes thread painting, and it sounds more advanced than it is.

Once the petal is filled with satin stitches, I outline each petal in stem stitch using a slightly darker thread than the petal’s mid-tone. This outline crisp everything up and gives the petals a defined, confident edge. It also covers any slightly uneven edges in the satin stitching, which is enormously forgiving.

For the petals behind the main layer — the ones that peek out between the foreground petals — I work them in slightly cooler, slightly darker shades of gold and amber. This suggests shadow and depth without requiring any complicated technique.

Take your time here. Petals go slowly, especially when you’re shading. Put on a good podcast or a movie you’ve seen before and just stitch. It’s one of the pleasanter ways to spend an afternoon that I know of.

Embroidering the Center

The center of a sunflower is a marvel — those tightly packed seeds in their perfect Fibonacci spiral, surrounded by a ring of slightly different colored florets. You don’t have to recreate all that geometry, but taking some inspiration from it makes the center feel satisfying and real.

I work the center in two layers. The base layer is a dense filling of straight stitches in a very deep, warm brown — almost chocolate — worked in a somewhat random grid pattern to suggest the irregular but ordered look of sunflower seeds. I keep these stitches short, about a quarter inch, and pack them in closely.

Over that base, I add French knots in a mix of deep brown, warm black, and a touch of dark olive green. The French knots are the element that really makes the center come alive — they have a perfect round, dimensional quality that beautifully mimics the look of sunflower seeds. I cluster them most densely toward the center of the disc and space them just slightly more openly toward the outer ring, which creates a subtle sense of depth.

Around the outer edge of the center disc, where it meets the petals, I work a ring of colonial knots or larger French knots in a slightly lighter brown. This transitional ring helps the center feel grounded in the petals rather than floating on top of them.

The whole center takes a while because of all those French knots, but it’s strangely satisfying work. Each knot is quick, and you can see the center filling in and becoming richer with every few minutes of effort.

Adding the Leaves and Stem

If you chose to include leaves and a stem, this is where they come in. I work the stem in a simple stem stitch (appropriately named) using two strands of a medium green. It’s a short stem — just enough to suggest that the flower is growing from somewhere — and it’s slightly curved rather than perfectly straight.

The leaves are worked in a combination of satin stitch and fishbone stitch. Fishbone stitch is my absolute favorite for leaves because it creates that natural central vein and gives the leaf a realistic, slightly symmetrical fill without being boring. I use two greens for each leaf — a brighter, cooler green for one half and a slightly more olive or yellow-green for the other, which creates a sense of the light catching one side differently.

I outline the leaves in stem stitch in a darker green to finish them, just as I did with the petals.

Finishing the Pillow

With all the embroidery complete, give your front panel one more gentle blocking if it’s been distorted by the stitching. Sometimes dense embroidery can pull the fabric slightly; a light steam block from the wrong side fixes this beautifully. Be careful not to press directly onto the embroidery — always work from the back, with the embroidered side face-down on a thick towel so the texture of the stitches is preserved.

Now it’s time to assemble. Hold your front and back panels together with right sides facing, and seam around three sides. I use mattress stitch worked from the right side for the three knitted edges, which creates a seam that’s nearly invisible. On the fourth side, I leave enough of an opening to insert the pillow form.

Turn the cover right side out, insert the form, and seam the final side closed. If you’d like the pillow to be removable for washing, you can add a zipper or a set of buttons to that final seam instead of stitching it closed — but for a pillow this decorative, I usually just close it permanently.

Give the finished pillow a good press from the back with a little steam, fluff the form, and set it somewhere beautiful.

Some Notes on Color and Customization

One of the things I love most about this project is how easily it adapts. The sunflower is the obvious, irresistible choice for this kind of bold, centered embroidery, but the same structure — a knitted pillow body with a large embroidered botanical motif — works for so many other flowers and subjects. Dahlias, zinnias, peonies, cosmos, and even vintage botanical-style berry sprigs would all be stunning using the same approach.

In terms of color, the cream and gold combination I chose feels classic and warm. If you prefer something more dramatic, try a deep navy or forest green pillow body with the same gold and amber sunflower embroidery — the contrast is striking. A blush pink background with a more antique, dusty gold palette for the flower would feel softer and more romantic.

You can also scale the design up or down. A smaller version on a 12-inch pillow form would make a charming accent piece, while a larger design on a 22-inch pillow could serve as a real focal point on a sofa.

Caring for Your Finished Pillow

Handmade textile pieces deserve a little extra care. For this pillow, I recommend spot cleaning as needed and a gentle hand wash if a full clean becomes necessary. Use cool water and a small amount of wool wash or very mild dish soap. Support the pillow gently as you wash — don’t agitate or wring — and press out excess water between two towels. Lay flat to dry.

Avoid the dryer, which can felt the knitting and distort the embroidery. With gentle care, a pillow like this will look beautiful for years.

Final Thoughts

Making something by hand — something that will live in your home or in someone else’s, that will be touched and noticed and perhaps handed down — is one of those activities that still feels quietly radical in a world full of disposable objects. This pillow took time. It required decisions: which shade of yellow, how many petals, how dense the center. Those decisions are what make it yours.

I hope these notes give you a clear enough path to make your own version. Take them as a starting point, not a prescription. Use the colors that make your heart lift. Choose a flower that means something to you. Stitch slowly when you can.

That’s really all there is to it.