Lace Techniques
There are many different techniques for creating lace. Some examples of the most common ones can be found here.
NEEDLE LACE
Created using a needle and thread to create hundreds of small stitches to form the lace itself.
Tenerife Lace
A needle lace from the Canary Islands. It is often mentioned alongside Nanduti Lace, as they are both based on the 17th century Spanish Sol lace. (See The Lace Guild’s page on Tenerife/Nanduti Lace for a more detailed description).
Nanduti Lace
An embroidered lace traditional tol Paraguay. The name means “spider web” in the official, indigenous language of Paraguay, Guaraní. It is often mentioned alongside Tenerife Lace, as they are both based on the 17th century Spanish Sol lace.
Punto in Aria Lace
An early form of needle lace originating in Italy. Meaning “stitch in air”, it is considered the first true lace because it was the first meant to be stitched alone, and not onto a woven fabric.
Embroidery
While not all embroidery is lace, it can resemble true lace through open, transparent effects. There are several types of embroidery that are frequently used to create lace effects.
Pulled/Drawn Thread
Drawn thread work involves removing threads from a piece of cloth and grouping the remaining threads together to form a pattern of spaces.It is an early form of open work embroidery and lace.
Filet
Embroidery on a netted backing that uses simple stitches and different thicknesses and types of threads to produce different transparency effects.
TAPE LACE
A type of lace made using a straight tape that is bent into shape and sewn into position using decorative stitches.
Battenberg (Battenburg) Lace
A tape lace made popular in the 19th Century, it is often made with a plain tape or tape featuring a simple dotted line down the middle. (see the Textile Research Centre’s article on Battenburg Tape Lace for more information).
CROCHETED LACE
Filet Crochet
A crochet technique that imitates embroidered filet lace. A pattern is created on a net background by combining solid and open meshes.
Irish Crochet
A style of Irish lace characterized by separately crocheted pieces, which are later assembled into a mesh background.
BOBBIN LACE
Made using threads that have been wound onto bobbins to control them as they are braided and twisted together. The weaving is held in place with pins set in a pillow as determined by a pattern.
Torchon Lace
A type of Bobbin Lace. It is made continuously, with the pattern created at the same time as the ground.
KNIT LACE
A style of knitting characterized by “holes” in the fabric created through the use of a yarn over stitch typically paired with a nearby decrease stitch. It is generally not as fine as other types of lace, but is often faster to produce.
TATTING
A form of lace made with a shuttle and thread which are used to produce knots and loops that are drawn into circles and semi-circles.
