The needle-point lace

Needle lace developped out of draw thread embroidery and reticella. In the early stages of this developpement some threads would be cut out of the fabric, the raw edges of the cut areas stabilized, and then fancy lace filing stiches would be added to the empty spaces.
 

A piece of Burrato, it's not a point lace but an embroidery, it is not made only wtith lenghts of threads :

At this stage, the work needed a temporary scaffolding while it was being working on.
So the embroiders began working with a 3 layer sandwitch : one layer of sturdy cloth, a parchment pattern with 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 stiches would not pierce the parchment, but would be anchored to the cloth being embroidered.
 

Needle-point lace of Venice - XVI^th Century  : Reticella (cutted stitch)

Needle-point lace of Venice - XVI^th Century  :  Punti in aere (stitch up in the air)