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D’alencon bars icon
D’alencon bars

  • English bars
  • Alencon beads
  • Bead stitch insertion
D’alencon bars main image

This needlelace stitch is formed by looped thread bars across an open space.  The aperture is edged with loose detached buttonhole stitches on both sides, and thread is then repeatedly looped through those stitches from one side to the other.  The bars are quite delicate and so not suitable for items which will receive a lot of wear and tear.

The stitch first appears in print in the 1870s in Beeton’s book of needlework; the name presumably refers to Alençon in Normandy, France which is a centre of needlepoint lace.

 

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Bar Buttonhole Border Embellishment Open Filling Insertion Needlepoint lace Whitework Cutwork

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Method

Create an aperture in your fabric or needlepoint lace, securing the edges as you choose.

The buttonhole stitches along both edges must be even in size and directly opposite each other.  You may find that tightening your stitches against a large needle keeps them even.

 

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1
D’alencon bars method stage 1 illustration
D’alencon bars method stage 1 photograph
1

Work widely-spaced detached buttonhole stitches along both edges of your aperture.  Ensure your stitches are opposite each other and large enough to fit 4 loops of thread; secure the end of each line with a tight buttonhole stitch into the final stitch.

Single Brussels stitch
2
D’alencon bars method stage 2 illustration
D’alencon bars method stage 2 photograph
2

Bring your thread out at one corner of the aperture and whip it around the first buttonhole stitch so that it comes up in the stitch.  Take your thread across the aperture and down into the opposite buttonhole stitch.

3
D’alencon bars method stage 3 illustration
D’alencon bars method stage 3 photograph
3

Pull through and take your thread back across the aperture and bring your needle up in the original buttonhole stitch.

4
D’alencon bars method stage 4 illustration
D’alencon bars method stage 4 photograph
4

Repeat this three times, keeping the loops next to each other and your tension even to create a bar.

5
D’alencon bars method stage 5 illustration
D’alencon bars method stage 5 photograph
5

Whip your thread from the original buttonhole stitch across to the adjacent one.  Work the next bar by taking your thread across to the opposite buttonhole stitch, as before.

6
D’alencon bars method stage 6 illustration
D’alencon bars method stage 6 photograph
6

Continue joining opposite buttonhole stitches with bars in this way.

7
D’alencon bars method stage 7 illustration
D’alencon bars method stage 7 photograph
7

A completed area of d’Alencon bars.

D’alencon bars

Structure of stitch

Bar Buttonhole

Common uses

Border Embellishment Open Filling Insertion

Embroidery Techniques

Needlepoint lace Whitework Cutwork

Related Stitches

Single Brussels stitch

References