18th Century Embroidery Designs

For centuries, every lady was skilled in the fine art of sewing, mending, and embroidery, and beautiful examples of their fragile handiwork still exist. During Jane Austen's time, embroidery patterns were created sometimes by experts, as for Lady Middleton, and sometimes by amateurs. They were tacked onto the cloth on an embroidery frame, as in the image above from the Republic of Pemberley. The embroidery pattern below was most likely made by an expert because of its elegant, expert lines. It would have been used for a dress or apron.

Lady Middleton was the daughter of the first Earl of Chichester. She married in 1778 and died in childbirth five years later. View a sampling of her embroidery patterns in the following site: Whitework embroidery patterns