No. 203 Corset Cover Yoke in Joined Medallions (1915): vintage crochet pattern

Materials

• Size 30 mercerized cotton crochet thread — approximate; the original was “No. 30 thread”
• Steel crochet hook (original: No. 11 hook)
• Tapestry needle
• Hook: Start with 1.1 mm (US steel 11) — approximate; change size until the work lies flat

Abbreviations (US terms)

ch

chain

sc

single crochet

dc

double crochet

tr

treble crochet

dtr

double treble crochet

cl

cluster

st

stitch

sts

stitches

sk

skip

rep

repeat

rnd

round

sp

space

Notes before you start

• Source: "No. 203. Corset Cover Yoke" (No. 203), Clark's Crochet Book, Miller-Clark Designing Company, St. Joseph, Missouri, 1915. Public domain in the USA.
• As printed — materials: No. 30 Thread, No. 11 Hook.. Gauge: Not given.
• Modernisation note: Stitches are converted by this book's own key (“Key to Terms Used in This Book”, book page 2), not by name. The key defines: chain (ch); slip stitch (sl-st), drawing the thread through the stitch and the loop on the needle without throwing thread over; “double (d)” — put the needle through the work, draw a stitch through (2 on the needle), thread over and draw through both, which is the modern US single crochet; “treble (tr)” — thread over, put the needle through, draw a stitch through (3 on the needle), thread over and draw through 2, thread over and draw through the 2 remaining, which is the modern US double crochet; “double treble (dtr)” — thread over twice, cast off three times, the modern US treble; “triple treble (ttr)” — thread over three times, cast off four times, the modern US double treble. So throughout this transcription d = sc, tr = dc, dtr = tr and ttr = dtr. This book is one of the 1915 US books that uses the older British heights, so its “treble” must not be read as a modern treble.
• Modernisation note: The book's shorthand is written in modern US form: ch = ch, sl-st = sl st, d = sc, tr = dc, dtr = tr, ttr = dtr, p = picot, pc = popcorn, cl = cluster, st(s) = st(s); “miss” = sk; “thread over (the hook)” = yo; “join” at the end of a circuit = sl st to join. Ordinal row names (“1st Row”, “2nd Row”) are written Row 1, Row 2 and so on; where the book calls a circuit of a piece worked in the round a “row”, it is written Rnd and the change is noted in the section heading.
• Modernisation note: Picot (p) is the book's own: chain 3, 4 or 5 as you like, insert the hook in the first of those chains, thread over and draw through the chain stitch and the stitch on the hook. A triple picot is three picots in succession. Picots are written out as picots, with the book's chain count wherever it is printed.
• Modernisation note: Cluster (cl) is the book's own: three trebles (modern dc) worked in the same place and left incomplete — each drawn through only 2 loops — then thread over and draw through all 4 loops on the hook, and chain 1 to draw the cluster into shape.
• Modernisation note: Long printed paragraphs are split into one row, round or step per line; stitch order and counts are unchanged. Section headings added for navigation.
• Modernisation note: Hooks are printed only as steel hook numbers (No. 8, No. 10 and No. 11 are the only ones named in the book) with no diameters, so no exact metric size can be read from it. The metric sizes given are approximate starting points read across to the modern US steel-hook scale, in which a higher number is finer; work a swatch and change size to match the photograph.
• Modernisation note: No gauge is printed for this design — the book prints no gauge anywhere. Work a swatch and change hook size until the work lies flat and matches the photograph.
• Modernisation note: The book names a thread for only a handful of designs, always as “No. 30 thread”, “No. 30 mercerized crochet cotton” or “knitting cotton”, and prints no yardage anywhere. The modern equivalents given here are approximations only: No. 30 crochet cotton reads as modern size 30 mercerized cotton crochet thread; “knitting cotton” reads as a heavier cotton crochet thread about size 3–5. No yardage is estimated, because none is printed.
• Modernisation note: The book calls the medallion's circuits “rows”; they are worked in the round and are written Rnd here.
• Modernisation note: Check: the book says to join the pieces “as shown in illustration” and does not print a joining order or count, so that part must be read from the photograph.
• Modernisation note: Check: Rnd 1's “Ch3, 2tr into ring to finish first cl” means the ch-3 stands for the first treble (modern dc) of the cluster, so the first cluster is the ch-3 plus 2 more.
• Modernisation note: Check: the outer edge's Rnd 1 begins “Fasten thread in middle p, ch8, d, tr in 2nd p”; the single crochet and double crochet are read as worked together into the 2nd picot, as printed.
• Modernisation note: Check: the number of medallions is not printed; make as many as the corset cover needs.
• Modernisation note: Check: no colour is printed; the design photographs as white or ecru.
• Modernisation note: No finished measurement is printed for this design.
• Modernisation note: Metric conversions added where a measurement is printed.