Kalocsa Lace 
Kalocsa Lace embroidery is closely associated with the town of Kalocsa 118 km south of Budapest. Kalocsa embroidery is an intensive industry that began in the mid 1920’s. It was a hybrid of the local art of painting the entire internal surface of walls with great sprays of flowers and of machine made white embroidery. From about 1925 patterns for this work were drawn ‘out of their heads’ by women skilled at drafting though not necessarily with any training in art. ‘Pricking’ was the method used to transfer designs to fabric. The satin stitch hand embroidery of the flowers was a cottage industry, that, within a few years the tourist potential for Kalocsa embroidery became apparent and the range of colours was extended to include from 22-27, mostly vividly bright, though sometimes restricted to soft blue and mauve. From 1930 openwork was added to aprons, caps, blouses and table covers after the hand embroidery was completed. The openwork or lace was a combination of hand cutting and machine embroidery using a Singer treadle machine. This process was referred to as Richelieu. While the hand embroidery of the flowers is still carried out by thousands of women in their own homes, the machines are now centralised in a factory in Tomori Place Kalocsa. This style of embroidery and lace adorns their national costumes, aprons, caps, blouses and home linens especially the famous dowry. Stitches used are mainly satin stitch, stem stitch and buttonhole stitch.I have taught Kalocsa Lace for many years now but stitching it ALL by hand.

My designs are in kitset form and available from me by emailing me at peta@farmside.co.nz  The kits contain fabric, threads, needles, instructions etc, leaving you just a hoop and scissors to find.

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Click on the designs to see larger examples:

New Zealand flora


Tone on Tone x2


Southern Beauty


Spring flowers


Glorious Kalocsa