I happened to hear of cutwork embroidery designs through one of my close friends almost a month ago, but I couldn’t really figure out what it was until I read this definition: “Cutwork embroidery is a beautiful form of needlework where portions of the background fabric are cut away and discarded, with the edges worked over in buttonhole stitches.” Sounds a bit difficult to understand…. It will unless you see it.

Cutwork embroidery is a form of hand embroidery. The most interesting definition is undoubtedly the one in the Encyclopedia of Victorian Needlework: Dictionary of Needlework by Sophia Frances Anne Caulfeild and Blanche C. Saward. According to this source, cutwork was a term first used by English writers when referring to the earliest known laces known as Point Coupé, Opus Seissum, and Punto Tagliato. The method for making this cut work begins with fastening a certain number of threads in a frame, crossed and interlaced, tack them to a piece of lawn, and finally do the buttonhole stitch around the edges. The lawn is cut away leaving the buttonholed lace, which may or may not have picots.

If you really want to learn cutwork embroidery designs, you could go through Embellishments A to Z : An Embellishment Idea Book. This to my mind acts like an excellent tutorial although actually it isn’t one. A School-like teaching of Cutwork is available in Lessons on Cutwork. This starts from the basics quite methodically beginning from the basics giving step by step instructions with intermediary images to help you.

Do you know of any good resources or examples of cutwork embroidery designs? If so, please let me know (using the “Contact Us” link at the bottom of this page).