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Needle lace can be fragile and delicate, simple and geometric or sculpted and solid like bendable ivory.  But in every kind the whole thing is made of thousands of tiny buttonhole stitches.  There are dozens of different variants of the buttonhole stitch, and each creates a different density or texture.  If you will look at the photos above you will see this.

Needle lace developed out of drawn thread embroidery and reticella (reticello).  In the early stages of this development some threads would be cut out of the fabric, the raw edges of the cut areas stabilized, and then fancy lace filling stitches would be added to the empty spaces.  As time went on the areas where threads were removed became larger than the areas where threads remained.  At this stage the work needed a temporary scaffolding while it was being worked on.  So the embroiders began working with a 3 layer sandwich:  one layer of sturdy cloth, a parchment pattern, with the  the actual cloth being embroidered  basted on top.  The  layer of coarse fabric and parchment were only a holding device to keep everything stable.  The lace stitches would not pierce the  parchment, but would be anchored to the cloth being embroidered.  At this stage somebody finally realized that no cloth was actually needed at all.

This point is when true needle lace begins.  It is very ingenious, really.  You have two layers of coarse fabric, with a heavy paper or parchment pattern on top.  The design lines are marked on the pattern.  A thick cord doubled is laid down along all the design lines and hooked to itself at every change of direction.  This thick cord is called "the cordonnet".  It never pierces the pattern, but remains lying on top of it, couched in place by temporary couching stitches which will be removed later.  In the middle photo  below you can see the purple couching stitches.  The blue paper strips demonstrate that the cordonnet and lace stitches only lie on top of the paper but don't pierce it.  The reason that you have 2 layers of coarse fabric, as in the left photo below, is that when the lace is completed, you slide a scissors or knife between the 2 layers of the cloth and cut the couching stitches.  The lace then comes free of the sandwich.  Cutting between 2 layers of scaffolding cloth removes the danger that a slip of the scissors could ruin the work.

  229   mb/ LH           Needle lace sampler 793 mb/ LH

Another photo of the cutting-away process:  http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3xZqi2D5BNI/SwVquvGZVPI/AAAAAAAABl4/YWD6u8Zs9ts/s1600/blog20091119b.jpg

  In the right photo above the dark purple stitches are the temporary couching stitches.  If you look closely at the intersections of the cordonnet you can see how the cordonnet was linked to itself in those areas.  When all the work is completed, both cordonnet and lace filling stitches, another layer of very close buttonhole stitches is worked over the cordonnet.  The lace filling stitches themselves are wrapped around the cordonnet to begin, and wrapped around it again to end.  The final step of close buttonholing over the cordonnet permanently secures these beginning and ending wraps so they don't come loose.   All the stitches used in the actual lace are buttonhole stitches, many many variants of buttonhole stitches.  Different spacings, whether or not twists are added, exactly where you put the needle all produce markedly different textures and densities.  Working needlelace is about juxtaposing density and textural differences in a beautiful and balanced way.

See learning needlelace for book recommendations and online lessons.

See      http://needlelacetalk.ning.com/    for info and advice.

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