---
title: "Bobbin lace"
description: "Bobbin lace is lace made by twisting and crossing many threads wound on bobbins, worked over a pricked pattern pinned to a pillow."
type: Glossary
url: https://teazle.art/glossary/bobbin-lace
published: 2026-10-17
updated: 2026-10-17
author: "The Teazle editors"
---

# Bobbin lace

*Bobbin lace is lace made by twisting and crossing many threads wound on bobbins, worked over a pricked pattern pinned to a pillow.*

Bobbin lace is woven, in a sense, rather than stitched. Each thread is wound on its own bobbin, and the lacemaker twists and crosses pairs of bobbins over a pattern pinned to a firm pillow, setting pins to hold each stitch while the lace grows.

## How is it different from needle lace?

[Needle lace](https://teazle.art/glossary/needle-lace.md) is built from one thread and a needle. Bobbin lace uses many threads at once, sometimes hundreds, so it tends to have a softer, more fluid look of plaits and woven areas. Both appeared in Europe in the sixteenth century, and early bobbin laces often copied the designs of needle lace before developing patterns of their own.


## Sources

1. [A lace in the fabric of history: a brief history of lace](https://www.mdhistory.org/a-lace-in-the-fabric-of-history-a-brief-history-of-lace/). Maryland Center for History and Culture
2. [Lace in Vermeer's paintings](https://www.essentialvermeer.com/lace/lace.html). Essential Vermeer

Canonical: https://teazle.art/glossary/bobbin-lace