This stitch consists of two small parallel backstitches right next to each other so that they form a single dot.  They are normally worked in lines and frequently an area is filled with roughly parallel lines of dot stitch; less commonly, they can be scattered randomly like seeding.  The similarities between the two stitches mean that some authors do not distinguish between the two stitches.

Blanche Caulfeild’s version in her Dictionary of Needlework indicates that more than two stitches can be worked if a more substantial dot is required.

Dot stitch was used as a filling stitch on Victorian whitework garments, including Ayrshire work, although it is hard to ascertain how prevalent it was.  Written sources rarely use the name, and it can be difficult to establish on well-worn garments whether a stitch is one single stitch worked with multiple threads, or two parallel ones.  The University of Edinburgh archives has a collar from the 1820s which shows dot stitch as a filling for various motifs.

Jacobean crewelwork features dot stitch, often as a line of dots, rather than as a filling stitch but again, written sources rarely identify it.  At a casual glance it can look like running stitch in a heavy thread, but closer inspection indicates that it is wider than a running stitch.