---
title: "Needle lace"
description: "Needle lace is lace built up stitch by stitch with a needle and a single thread, usually over a design laid down on parchment or fabric."
type: Glossary
url: https://teazle.art/glossary/needle-lace
published: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-14
author: "The Teazle editors"
---

# Needle lace

*Needle lace is lace built up stitch by stitch with a needle and a single thread, usually over a design laid down on parchment or fabric.*

Needle lace is made with an ordinary sewing needle and one thread. The lacemaker builds the design out of looped stitches, mostly variations of buttonhole stitch, so the lace is a kind of embroidery that no longer needs a fabric underneath it.

## Where does it come from?

Needle lace grew out of [cutwork](https://teazle.art/glossary/cutwork.md) in sixteenth-century Europe. In [reticella](https://teazle.art/glossary/reticella.md) the stitches still filled holes cut in linen; in [punto in aria](https://teazle.art/glossary/punto-in-aria.md), Italian for “stitch in air”, they were worked free of any woven ground. Printed pattern books spread the designs across Europe.

## How is it different from bobbin lace?

Bobbin lace is made with many threads that are twisted and braided, not with a needle. Needle lace tends to show dense, knotted-looking stitches, and its outlines are often raised with an extra padding thread.


## Sources

1. [Reticella](https://trc-leiden.nl/trc-needles/techniques/lace-making/reticella). Textile Research Centre, Leiden
2. [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
3. [Punto in Aria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punto_in_Aria). Wikipedia

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