Cutwork Embroidery Project Completed

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1. Stitching the buttonhole bar
2. Stitching the cut edges
3. Completed Cutwork

Here is the  finished Cutwork Embroidery Project .

The stems have been worked with stem stitch and the leaves with satin stitch .

Cutwork Embroidery : Stitching The Cut Edges

This post is a continuation of Cutwork Embroidery Project : Buttonhole Bar

Find all the posts related to Cutwork embroidery here

Next step is to cut the fabric as shown in the graphic below without damaging the buttonhole bars above.

The small cuts across the raw edge helps to relieve tension over the edges when the fabric is folded inwards.

Start stitching the raw edges with Tailor's Buttonhole Stitch  folding the fabric inwards at the line formed by running stitch. 

Check the link for correct stitch instructions.

Check the insertion of needle at the start of the stitch. But , pull the needle and thread in the opposite direction towards right side to get a proper knot at the edge.
The black pen mark around the border that can be seen is drawn to have uniform width of the stitch. 

Work the Buttonhole Stitch across the edge to finish. The above picture shows the finished work on one side.

Cutwork Embroidery Project : Buttonhole Bar

Cutwork Embroidery is made up of mainly buttonhole bars , eyelets and the cut, raw borders secured with buttonhole stitch or satin stitch. I am using the buttonhole stitch exclusively for this project. The design used is very suitable for first timers (I am one among them) with just buttonhole bars and buttonhole borders.

Here is a pictorial presentation of the cutwork embroidery here.

The design I have used is very simple.
Stitch the running stitch on one edge of the open space starting at 'A'.

Continue stitching around till the first bar is reached. The stitch should be such that the stitches on front should be longer than that on the wrong side of the fabric . This is called the darning stitch

See how the last running stitch is made covering the bar, before the first buttonhole bar is started.

When you reach a crossbar, stitch across the opposite edge of space.
You can see the needle going under the two stitches on the two opposite edges.

Bring back the needle under the stitch on opposite edge only.

In a similar manner make the third cross stitch for first cross bar, taking the needle under the stitch on opposite side only.

Start stitching for the first buttonhole bar as shown above.
Take care not to pick the fabric below the bar.

Buttonhole bar in progress.

You can see in the above picture how the needle is taken under the fabric after finishing the buttonhole bar ,so the the bar remains straight. Continue stitching as shown below.

Continue stitching the running stitch over the border as done before till another bar is reached.

Buttonhole bars are done and the work is ready for next step.........

Next post will be on how to cut the fabric and secure the borders with buttonhole stitch.

See all the posts related to Cutwork Embroidery here

Cutwork Embroidery

Link to the Cutwork embroidery project

A type of embroidery characterized by openwork patterns created by outlining shapes in tight buttonhole or satin stitches and cutting away the background fabric. 

Cutwork embroidery is sometimes called “embroidered lace” because of its open appearance, but it is not considered to be true lace. Instead, cutwork is fabric made “lacy” by cutting away the ground. Finished holes are sometimes filled in with bars of buttonhole stitch. 

Cutwork is one of the three main techniques used in whitework, along with drawn work, pulled threadwork, and needle lace.

The simplest form of cutwork contains small open areas, such as eyelets.

There are many different variations of cutwork.

Well known examples include :

French Richelieu embroidery - 

Richelieu embroidery includes distinctive buttonhole stitch bars that cross the cut out areas.The connecting bars, instead of being left plain as they are in the Renaissance embroidery, are ornamented with picots.

English broderie anglaise- 
Th is type of whitework includes motifs of flowers, leaves,and stems created entirely in eyelets

Portuguese Madeira work-
Madeira work is a form of Broderie anglaise, which consists chiefly of eyelet holes,  as well as satin stitching and other cutwork techniques.

 
Scandinavian Hardanger embroidery
Hardanger is a Norwegian style of embroidery that uses satin stitch and blocks of drawn threads or cutwork.

Other types of white cutwork include :

Venetian (Italy) embroidery with its thickly padded buttonhole
stitching, 

  
 Spanish cutwork with turned-back hemmed satin stitch edges, and the heavily embroidered Colbert embroidery 

Stay tuned for next post on Cutwork Embroidery tutorial.