Ladies’ Chest Protector Vest No. 858 (1919): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Fine (CYC #2) wool yarn — the original was Utopia Shetland Floss, 3½ balls (color not named)
• Crochet hooks in two sizes (original: No. 3 and the finer No. 1)
• 10 button moulds (6 for the front, 2 for the back of the neck, 2 for the belt)
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 3.5 mm (US E-4) for the body and 2.75 mm (US C-2) for the tight band; no gauge or measurement is printed, so swatch and fit as you go

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

hdc

half double crochet

dc

double crochet

sk

skip

st

stitch

row

row

inc

increase

dec

decrease

Notes before you start

• Source: "Ladies’ Chest Protector" (No. 858), Utopia Yarn Book: Being a Practical Treatise on Knitting and Crocheting (Fourteenth Edition), Henry E. Frankenberg Co., New York, 1919. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: 3½ balls Utopia Shetland Floss. 1 Crochet Hook, No. 3. 1 Crochet Hook, No. 1.. Gauge: Not given.
• Modernisation note: Stitches converted by the book's own definitions ("Explanation of Terms Used in Crocheting"), not by name: s. c. ("insert hook in ch. or st., draw the wool through, over, and draw through both loops on hook") = modern US sc; h. d. c. (over, insert, draw a loop through, over, draw through the three loops) = hdc; d. c. (over, insert, draw a loop through, over and through two loops twice) = dc; t. c. / treble crochet ("over twice", then through two loops three times) = tr; sl. st. (insert, over, draw through st and loop on hook) = sl st; ch. = ch; "over" = yo. For these stitches the 1919 American names already match modern US usage, so no stitch changes height.
• Modernisation note: Period abbreviations and wording modernised: s. c., h. d. c., d. c., t. c., sl. st., ch. written as sc, hdc, dc, tr, sl st, ch; "m." written as mesh; "st. of ch." written as "ch" where the stitch is a chain; "wool"/"thread" written as yarn; "needle" (used for the crochet hook) written as hook; "break off yarn" written as "fasten off"; "repeat" written as "rep"; ordinal row names ("Second Row", "Twenty-first Row") written as Row 2, Row 21.
• Modernisation note: This design is printed in the book's compressed shorthand ("wk." work, "e." each/every, "r./rs." row(s), "inc./dcr." increase/decrease, "cro." crochet, "y." yarn, "cen." center, "fr." front, "gr./grs." group(s), "rd./rds." ridge(s), "sp./sps." space(s), "re." repeat, "patt." pattern, "pl." plain, "cir." circle, "che." chenille, "col." color, and color abbreviations such as "pk." pink, "wh." white, "bl." blue); these are spelled out.
• Modernisation note: Long printed paragraphs split into one row, round or step per line; stitch order and counts unchanged. Section headings added for navigation where the text runs on.
• Modernisation note: Hook numbers (bone, ivory, amber/celluloid No. 1–5) refer to the book's own illustrated scale of 1919 hooks, which pictures the hooks but prints no diameters, so no exact metric size can be read from the book. The suggested modern hook is a starting point chosen for the yarn weight.
• Modernisation note: No stitch gauge is printed anywhere in the book; work a swatch and match any printed measurements (in the modern gauge line) before starting.
• Modernisation note: Utopia yarns are 1919 trade names with no exact modern equivalent. The modern CYC weight given is an approximation only: Utopia Shetland Floss was a soft, fine, lofty 2-ply wool (treated here as fine, CYC #2); Utopia Alpaca and Llama wools, and the Worsted and Silk Mixture, as light (CYC #3); Utopia Germantown (zephyr) as light (CYC #3) and 8 Fold Germantown as medium (CYC #4); Scotch Knitting Yarn/Worsted as medium (CYC #4); 3 Fold Saxony as super fine (CYC #1). Yardage is never printed — the book gives skeins, balls or hanks only, and their weight is not stated.
• Modernisation note: The model number (No. 858) is printed under the illustration; the heading has no number.
• Modernisation note: "Fasten to vest" kept: the book calls this chest protector a vest in its button instructions.
• Modernisation note: Check: "work 65 h. d. c. across the row" follows 29 hdc + ch 7 + 29 hdc (65 sts), so it is probably the next row across all stitches. Left as printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: how the buttonholes are made is not printed. Left as printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: after the neck is shaped on 30 hdc, the fronts are worked on 18 hdc; how the 30 hdc become 18 is not explained beyond the 8 decrease rows. Left as printed.
• Modernisation note: Metric conversions added.