Embroidery Scissors

Embroidery is one of the world’s oldest textile crafts. Long before specialised tools existed, people stitched animal hides together using bone needles and natural fibres, gradually developing decorative stitching alongside practical repairs. Over thousands of years, embroidery evolved into an art form across cultures including China, Egypt, the Middle East and Europe. 

The word embroidery entered English through Old French, from broder, meaning “to adorn with needlework”. As embroidery became increasingly detailed, the need for finer, more precise cutting tools grew alongside it. By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Sheffield’s specialist scissor makers were producing patterns developed specifically for delicate needlework. Four traditional Sheffield embroidery patterns continue to be made today at Kutrite Works: the Stork, Print Embroidery, Quilting Scissors and Sheffield Threadsnips.

Why Sheffield?

Following Benjamin Huntsman’s development of crucible steel in the eighteenth century, Sheffield earned an international reputation for producing finer, harder and more consistent cutting tools, including scissors and shears. During the Industrial Revolution, the city became known as the “toolbox of the world”, producing specialist tools for almost every craft and trade. 

Embroidery was no exception. Specialist scissor makers developed patterns for increasingly delicate needlework. These traditional Sheffield embroidery patterns survive today, still made by our putters, helping to keep an endangered craft alive.

The Story of the Stork

Among the many traditional embroidery scissor patterns to emerge from Sheffield, none is more recognisable than the Stork. Historical price lists and surviving antique examples show that stork-shaped scissors have been made in Sheffield for generations, although the pattern itself has appeared in many countries around the world. 

The exact origin of the design remains uncertain. One widely accepted explanation links the stork motif to maternity clamps once used by midwives to restrict blood flow to the umbilical cord after childbirth. As the stork has long symbolised birth and new life, the design is thought to have found its way into specialised embroidery scissors during the nineteenth century, perhaps carried by midwives who embroidered while waiting between deliveries. 

The Stork is cold drop forged in C50 carbon steel, the only pattern in our collection made this way, a process suited to its fine, detailed profile and delicate, needle-fine beak. 

One thing, however, is beyond doubt. Over the years, a number of antique sewing boxes have found their way to Kutrite Works and, almost without exception, each contained a pair of Stork embroidery scissors. The Stork became a constant companion to generations of needleworkers and remains one of the world’s most recognisable embroidery scissors. Today, it continues to be treasured both as a practical tool and as a thoughtful gift, often passed from one generation to the next. In 2022, the Royal School of Needlework chose the Stork as part of its 150th anniversary collection, alongside the Print Embroidery.

The Print Embroidery Pattern

The origins of the Print Embroidery pattern remain something of a mystery. We know the name predates Ernest Wright; the original forging dies acquired from Lilleyman in Sheffield were already known as “Print Embroidery”. 

Hoping to learn where the name came from, we once asked Philip Wright. His reply was disarmingly simple: 

“No idea. We always called them Prints.” 

His answer showed just how deeply rooted the name was in the Sheffield trade, but not where it originated. Despite researching its history, we have yet to find documentary evidence explaining why this traditional pattern became known as the Print Embroidery. For now, the mystery remains. 

Like the Sheffield Threadsnips, the Print Embroidery is hot drop forged from C50 carbon steel. This gives it slightly more robust blades than many embroidery scissors, making it exceptionally comfortable for cutting not only threads but also small pieces of fabric. Around the workshop, the Print Embroidery has long been one of our favourite embroidery scissors to use. It was chosen for the same RSN collection as the Stork.

The 6″ Quilting Scissors

Quilting has evolved from a practical way of joining layers of fabric into one of the world’s most widely practised textile crafts. As quilting techniques developed, so too did the tools used to make them. 

At 6 inches, our Quilting Scissors are the longest embroidery scissors in the collection. Hot drop forged from 420B stainless steel, their fine-pointed blades combine low weight with excellent corrosion resistance. Their length makes them ideal for accurately trimming fabric pieces and, as one experienced seamstress demonstrated to us at a textile show, they also work beautifully as thread snips. With the blades closed, the fine points can even be used to carefully unpick stitches without damaging the surrounding fabric. 

Although they are not designed to cut through thick stacks of fabric, they are perfect for trimming individual fabric pieces, snipping threads and detailed finishing work. Their lightweight design makes them exceptionally comfortable to use throughout long quilting sessions.

The Sheffield Threadsnips

These Sheffield Threadsnips have a story unlike any other scissors in our collection. They were hot drop forged by T.G. Lilleyman & Son, the last dedicated scissor forger in Sheffield, during the late 1980s, before Sheffield’s traditional scissor forging industry came to an end. 

When we acquired the Ernest Wright business, we also discovered several forgotten chests filled with these original forgings. By tracing old invoices and workshop records, we were able to establish when they had been produced. Every pair we make today begins with one of those original Sheffield forgings. 

When this historic stock is finally exhausted, the Threadsnips will not disappear. The pattern will remain unchanged. They will simply have to be hot drop forged again in C50 carbon steel before continuing their journey through Kutrite Works, just as they do today. Until then, each pair represents a direct link to Sheffield’s last generation of traditional scissor forgers.