Free preview · full pattern in the Vintage Crochet Baby & Kids' Patterns
Infant’s Cap Crown in Crochet and Point Lace (1854): vintage crochet pattern
A round crown for a baby's cap: a Honiton-style crochet sprig of flower, bud and leaves for the centre, a scalloped crochet border, and open English lace (a needle-lace filling) joining them. Worked in fine No. 70 and No. 90 cotton.
By the crochetpatterns.io editorial team · Updated · Editorial policy · pattern testing in progress
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Skill level | Advanced |
| Yarn weight | Lace (#0) |
| Yardage | Not printed. (as printed; yardage not given) |
| Hook | 0.75 mm |
| Gauge | Not printed. |
| Finished size | Not printed; the book says to draw a circle “the size of the copy” (its engraving). The border has 256 ch round its foundation. |
| Time | about 9 hours |
Materials
- Cotton crochet thread about size 70–80 (period: cotton No. 70; approximate), white, for the crochet
- Cotton crochet thread about size 100 (period: Evans's boar's-head cotton No. 90; approximate), white, for the open English lace
- Purchased picot (pearl) edging
- Stiff paper for the pattern; fine sewing needle; or a round of fine cotton net instead of the lace filling
- Hook: Start with a 0.75 mm (US steel 14) hook and adjust to suit your thread (original: crochet hook No. 22, eagle card-board gauge; approximate conversion). No gauge is printed.
Smart Yarn Matcher
Compare all yarns →Yarn Kit & Substitution Options
This pattern calls for 350 yards of weight #0 yarn. Select a suggested yarn to see required skeins and estimated cost:
Caron Simply Soft · 100% Acrylic
315 yds per skein · High-yield yardage, silky no-scratch texture
2 skeins required
approx. $$10.98 total
Abbreviations (US terms)
- chain
- slip stitch
- single crochet
- double crochet
- treble crochet
- double treble crochet
- stitch
- stitches
- round
- skip
- repeat
- fasten off
- right side
- wrong side
Notes before you start
- Source: "Infant’s Cap Crown", The Ladies' Complete Guide to Crochet, Fancy Knitting, and Needlework (Mrs. Ann S. Stephens), Dick & Fitzgerald, 1854. Public domain in the USA.
- As printed — materials: Cotton Nos. 70 and 90. Crochet hook, No. 22, eagle card-board gauge, and a fine sewing needle.. Gauge: Not given.
- Modernisation note: Stitch names checked against the book's own definitions (pp. 22–23), which describe the same stitches as modern US terms, so they are kept: “ch.” = ch; “sl.” / “slip” = sl st; “sc.” = sc; “dc.” = dc (US, not UK); “tc.” (treble crochet) = tr; “l tc.” / “long tc.” (long treble crochet) = dtr; “miss” = sk. Note that the book's “tc.” is a modern US tr, not a UK treble (US dc).
- Modernisation note: Period wording modernised: “needle” (meaning the hook) → hook; “commence” → begin; “close for a loop”, “close in a round” and “form it into a round” → join into a ring (the book does not name the joining stitch unless it says “slip”); “under” a chain → in the ch-sp; “fasten off” → FO; “alternative” → alternate. Repeat marks (✕, +, *, †, ¶, (a)) are written as parentheses with the book's total count.
- Modernisation note: Printed paragraphs split into one step per row, round or instruction; no stitches, counts, rows or rounds added, removed or reordered.
- Modernisation note: Crochet hook numbers belong to the book's “eagle card-board gauge”, a period bell-type gauge in which higher numbers are finer. The metric and US sizes given are approximate conversions only, and no gauge is printed.
- Modernisation note: Period cotton numbers (Evans's crochet cotton and “boar's-head” cotton) do not match modern thread sizes exactly; the modern thread size is a starting approximation. Choose the thread that suits the hook and gives lace of the right fineness.
- Modernisation note: No yardage or weight of thread is printed for this design, and none is estimated.
- Modernisation note: The engraving for this design is not among the surviving illustrations of the book, so it is transcribed from the text alone.
- Modernisation note: The book says its engraving marked the number of stitches in every part of the sprig, “a mode of engraving … invented by myself”; that engraving does not survive, so the sprig is transcribed from the written directions only.
- Modernisation note: Check: no size is printed for the crown (“a circle the size of the copy”).
- Modernisation note: Check: border rnd 1 as printed uses 34 ch per repeat (not 32), and rnd 2 is worked 16 times on the other side of the chain although there are 8 patterns; transcribed as printed.
- Modernisation note: Check: the book says the border “would serve very well for a collar, or any other article”.
- Modernisation note: “Pearl edging” was a purchased narrow picot braid; a modern picot edging is the nearest equivalent. Brussels net is a fine hexagonal cotton net.
Smart Pattern Companion
Row progress: 0 of 9 done (0%)
Stitches
0 of 9 done- Chain (book's definition, “ch.”): “A loop of thread made on the hook, and through this the thread is drawn, forming the first chain stitch; draw the thread through this one, and a second is formed.” = ch.Mark row complete
- Slip stitch (book's definition, “sl.”): “Insert the hook in the stitch next to that already on the needle (unless the directions particularly say, miss so many,) and draw the thread at once through both stitches.” = sl st. The book says it serves “to carry the thread from one part to another, without either breaking it off or widening the work.”Mark row complete
- Single crochet (book's definition, “sc.”): “Insert the hook in the chain, and draw the thread through it; this forms a second loop on the hook. Draw the thread through these two by a single movement and the stitch will be completed.” = modern US sc.Mark row complete
- Double crochet (book's definition, “dc.”): “Raise the thread over the hook, so as to pass it round, before inserting the latter in the chain; draw the thread through, and you will find three loops on the hook; bring the cotton through two … finish the stitch by drawing the thread through these.” = modern US dc (not the UK dc).Mark row complete
- Treble crochet (book's definition, “tc.”): as dc, “but as the thread is passed twice round the hook before the insertion of the latter in the chain, there will be four loops on … Bring the thread three times through two loops to finish the stitch.” = modern US tr.Mark row complete
- Long treble crochet (book's definition, “l tc.”): “has the thread twisted three times round the hook, before it is passed through the chain; consequently, it will require the thread to be drawn four times through two loops” = modern US dtr.Mark row complete
- Working “through” a stitch (book's definition): “To work THROUGH a stitch, is to draw the thread under instead of in it. This is stronger than the usual method, but not so neat” — insert the hook under the whole stitch or chain instead of into it.Mark row complete
- Repeat marks (book's definition): stitches between two similar marks (✕, +, *, †) “are to be done as many times as directed; thus, ✕ 3 dc. 2 ch. ✕ three times, means 3 dc. 2 ch., 3 dc. 2 ch., 3 dc. 2 ch.” So “twice” or “3 times” is the total number of times the group is worked. Written here as (…) twice, (…) 3 times.Mark row complete
- Open English lace (book's definition, point lace stitches, p. 57): English lace is made by working “a series of diagonal bars across the space to be filled up, securing the tightness of each thread by working a button-hole stitch on the braid”, crossing them by bars in the contrary direction one-eighth of an inch (3 mm) apart, and working a small spot where the bars cross “by passing the needle alternately under and over the threads, five or six times round”. Open English lace “is commenced like the preceding, but when the two lines of diagonal bars are made, a line of perpendicular and one of horizontal threads must be added. The spot will thus be worked on eight threads instead of four. The lines to be at the rate of five to an inch.”Mark row complete
Working on:
Chain (book's definition, “ch.”): “A loop of thread made on the hook, and through this the thread is drawn, forming the first chain stitch; draw the thread through this one, and a second is formed.” = ch.
Continue this pattern
The rest of the Infant’s Cap Crown in Crochet and Point Lace (1854) pattern is in the Vintage Crochet Baby & Kids' Patterns
Still to come in the full pattern:
- Sprig (No. 70 cotton)
- Border
- Finishing
Included with 133 patterns for $12 — $0.09 per pattern.
Errata
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Frequently asked questions
Where is the Infant’s Cap Crown pattern from?
It was published as "Infant’s Cap Crown" in The Ladies' Complete Guide to Crochet, Fancy Knitting, and Needlework (Mrs. Ann S. Stephens) by Dick & Fitzgerald in 1854. The publication is in the public domain in the United States; this version is transcribed and modernised by crochetpatterns.io.
What yarn or thread do I need for the Infant’s Cap Crown?
Size 70–80 crochet cotton, with size 100 for the needle lace (approximate). Not printed.
What hook should I use?
Start with a 0.75 mm (US steel 14) hook and adjust to suit your thread (original: crochet hook No. 22, eagle card-board gauge; approximate conversion). No gauge is printed. Gauge: Not printed.
