Meet Louise Cutting

President and CEO

LOUISE CUTTING

Louise Cutting is a friend and mentor to ladies whose passion is to create stylish, comfortable, and practical clothing for themselves. Nearly 20 years ago she created Cutting Line Designs, an independent pattern company, to make versatile, simple shapes and modern lines available for a wide range of lifestyles and body types. Her patterns provide a “canvas” for sewers’ ideas and skills, backed up with instructions that have been called “the best in the sewing industry”. In fact, Louise illustrates the pattern envelopes and drafts the 60-80 helpful drawings in the pattern instructions herself so her customers have all the information needed to get great results.

Of course, Louise’s patterns are available on her website, cuttinglinedesigns.com, but she understands all the needs of her customers. She stocks natural fiber fabrics from both American and international sources, hard-to-find interfacings from Japan and Europe, and useful sewing tools and notions so ladies can create clothing for everything from casual weekends to weddings. Her fabric selection includes linens, cottons, silks, wools, tencels, and blends, along with some synthetic fibers to make wrinkle-free pants.

Her clear and detailed instructions are only one way she reaches out to educate sewers. Her Weekend Retreats (held in Winter Park, FL) are devoted to each individual student’s needs for altering the patterns to her shape, size, and taste in a relaxed atmosphere. The lively exchange of ideas, demonstrations, and presentations make for fun and learning. The Retreats are listed on the website’s Events page.

Louise has also been a contributing editor to Threads Magazine for 15 years. Her articles emphasize garment construction and fitting, so she writes about topics like darts, collars and collar bands, jacket linings, button placement, bindings, boiled wool techniques, determining sleeve length, and many, many more.

Sewers around the country have heard from Louise in person. She regularly teaches at events like these:

Sewing and Stitchery Expo in Puyallup, WA
The American Sewing Guild National Conference
various Original Sewing and Quilt Expo events
individual chapters of the American Sewing Guild in cities all over the country

In addition, Louise has filmed video presentations in conjunction with Threads Magazine and available in various formats through their website. They include a vast body of information about construction and fitting.

8 volumes of “Industry Insider Sewing Techniques”
“The Versatile Jacket”
“Quick To Sew Pants”
“Fitting the Changing Figure”—a 2 DVD set

Her outreach to sewers includes her television appearances, which allowed her to demonstrate many of the techniques and ideas she uses to elevate the finished results her followers can obtain. She has appeared on a variety of programs:

“Sew Much More” on HGTV
“America Sews with Sue Hausmann” on PBS (10 episodes)
“Martha’s Sewing Room” with Martha Pullen on PBS

The foundation for Louise’s current expertise is solid and wide-ranging. Having earned her degree from the Art Institutes, she began her career as a fashion illustrator, creating illustrations for department stores, advertising agencies, and national accounts. Her work has been published in Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, as well as newspapers and catalogs.

Her talent was noted at the Art Institute, and she subsequently was hired as the department head for the Fashion Merchandising and Design Program at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale and Prospect Hall College. She moved on to teach Interior Design at Marymount University.

Her entrepreneurial spirit led to her found Cutting Corners Inc., a successful custom clothing business, allowing her to move from theory to practice at designing and constructing bridal gowns, tailored suits, and “high end” sportwear for a discerning and appreciative audience in south Florida.

Her eventual move to Winter Park, FL led to the opportunity to purchase Fabric Collections, a jewel box of a fabric store. Everything from weekend wear to business attire to prom and cocktail dresses came out of the carefully chosen fabrics and various classes in that store. Her customers included women from every walk of life in Orlando to international visitors to Orlando’s many attractions to members of the Orlando Magic basketball team

Once Louise had opened her store, she began to contemplate designing her own original patterns.  She has created almost 40 designs, with some of the first designs still in the line and popular with her customers.  In addition to hand-drafting all of her patterns, Louise creates the drawings on the front of the pattern envelopes, taking advantage of her fashion illustration background.  She also draws all the step-by-step illustrations in the pattern instructions .  Now both the fabrics and the patterns, as well as her educational offerings, are available online to a world-wide audience. Ladies from across the United States as well as Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Scandinavia, and the Middle East order from cuttinglinedesigns.com.

Louise has been recognized by her customers and fellow educators with the Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award in 2008, as well as her induction into the American Sewing Guild Hall of Fame in 2016. This award has only been granted to 14 teachers over the 40-year history of the organization, which recognizes “individuals who have had a lasting impact on the home sewing industry with unique and innovative contributions.”