1900s Antique Design Shell Edging Reworked in Modern Crochet Pattern Directions

1900s Shell Edging

Posted on August 12th, 2011 by Sandi in Edgings, Free Patterns

In the early 1900s a crochet designer by the name of Sophie T. La Croix came up with this beautiful design. She had an interesting idea in creating it to be worked sideways, instead of starting with a long chain to be worked in long rows. Hats off to Sophie for the sideways concept because the benefit for you is that you can figure out how long you need it to be as you go along.

In the antique pattern book, Sophie didn’t give the edging any name; it just had a number. When I first rewrote the directions in the year 2001, I called it Shell Path at that time but here I decided to just call it 1900s Shell Edging. The version that I worked out is slightly different than Sophie’s. I rewrote the entire directions to be in modern crochet terminology and I added a great deal of extra instruction. I have added even a little bit more now, in 2011, to explain some parts even further because it is a complicated pattern. I have included the early 1900s directions at the end of the pattern, so you can compare the two sets of directions, if you would like to. Seeing the early 1900s directions is a history lesson about crochet patterns of that era (crocheters were expected to just know how to do many parts without having a full explanation for all the steps in the pattern directions).

These are the directions that I reworked and wrote out for you:

In this pattern, a shell = (3 dc, ch 3, 3 dc) worked all in one same place.

Abbreviations:
ch = chain
dc = double crochet
sl st = slip stitch

Materials: Use any size thread of your choice. Just to give a basic idea what the finished width could be, I made a sample with size 10 thread and a US size 8 steel hook and it is about 1 inch wide.

Or use yarn: If you are using this pattern for an afghan edging, use yarn of the same weight as you used to crochet the afghan. Just to give you a general idea about finished width, if this edging is made using worsted weight yarn and using a US size H hook, the edging turns out to be about 3 1/4 inches wide.

Note: This is not worked in rounds so the directions call each part that is done between turns a Row. However, it may not be the type of row you are used to, so be aware that a row in this pattern may consist only of a short amount of directions, such as doing one shell and a few chains and that is the end of that row.

I created a photo how-to tutorial for this pattern, to make it easier to understand. See
http://crochet.sandimarshall.com/shell-edging-photo-tutorial-row-1/ for Row 1. There will be a link to the next part of the photo tutorial on each tutorial page.

Starting Chain: Chain 12.
Row 1: Skip 7 chains. (3 dc, ch 3, 3 dc) in next ch, ch 3. (There are starting chains in this row that are left unworked, that you will be using later when you come to the end of row 3.) Turn.
Row 2: (3 dc, ch 3, 3 dc) in ch-3 space (in center of shell), skip next row below, dc in next chain space (at the edge of the row), ch 4. Turn. See my Row 2 Photo Tutorial if you have questions.
Row 3: (3 dc, ch 3, 3 dc) in ch-3 space (in center of shell), ch 1, (dc, ch 1) 8 times in ch-3 space (at edge of the row), then sl st in the end chain of the leftover chains (that were left unworked after you had finished row 1). Turn.
Row 4: Ch 3, skip ch-1, skip dc, (sl st in next ch-1 space, ch 3) 7 times. Do not turn.
Row 5: (3 dc, ch 3, 3 dc) in ch-3 space (in center of shell), dc in next chain space (at the edge of the row), ch 4. Turn.
Row 6: (3 dc, ch 3, 3 dc) in ch-3 space (in center of shell), ch 4. Turn.
Row 7: (3 dc, ch 3, 3 dc) in ch-3 space (in center of shell), dc in next chain space (at the edge of the row), ch 4. Turn.
Row 8: (3 dc, ch 3, 3 dc) in ch-3 space (in center of shell), ch 1, (dc, ch 1) 8 times in ch-3 space (at edge of the row), skip the next two rows, sl st in chain-3 space (at edge of next row).
Row 8 Hint: In the last part of that row, the part that says: (sl st in ch-3 space at edge of next row), that ch-3 is the last loop in the scallop. What is the scallop? The scallop is the part that was made of (dc, ch 1) 8 times in row 3 then (sl st in next ch-1 sp, ch 3) 7 times in row 4.
Row 9: Ch 3, Turn, skip ch-1, skip dc, (sl st in next ch-1 space, ch 3) 7 times.
Repeat: Repeat rows 5 – 9, consecutively, until you have reached length desired.
On Last Repeat: On the last repeat of row 9, do not do the last chain 3. End off.

You can see Sophie’s directions below. I typed them exactly as written in the book Old and New Designs in Crochet Work, Vol. 2 (There was no date of publication in the book but it is definitely early 1900s. Vol. 1 was published in the year 1913). In the early 1900s era, crocheters were usually expected to just know what to do without the directions being fully spelled out. For this pattern, there were four rows, as shown below, no other instructions. Try crocheting the edging, using the early 1900s directions below, if you’d like, just to see the difference between then and now. It can make one appreciate today’s more complete pattern directions.

Directions by Sophie T. La Croix in early 1900s
12 ch., tn.
1st R., sk. 7 ch., 1 sh. in sh., 3 ch., tn.
2nd R., 1 sh. in sh., 1 dc., 4 ch., tn.
3rd R. top as before, 1 ch., (1 dc., 1 ch.) 8 times, in loop of 3 ch. bet. 1st and 2nd R., 1 sl. st. in ch., tn.
4th R. 3 ch. sk. 2 st., 1 sl. st. over ch., (3 ch., sk. 1 dc., 1 sl. st. over ch.) 7, 2 ch., top as before.

When I was looking at the antique crochet pattern book by Sophie T. La Croix and decided I wanted to try crocheting this edging pattern, I dove in on her directions and little by little figured out what she meant to be done in each of the four rows shown above. I tried to think what extra directions would be helpful to other crocheters who would want to make this edging too and added to my own reworked intructions, also translating all of it into modern crochet terminology that crocheters are used to using now. I hope my rework of it is helpful to you in being able to accomplish crocheting this beautiful edging for yourself.

My rewritten instructions copyright 2001- 2011 and beyond by Sandi Marshall. If others would like to have the pattern, please give them the URL of this page, so that they may come here for themselves. Thank you.

Old and New Designs in Crochet Work, Vol. 2 had no date of publication in the book but definitely early 1900s. (Vol. 1 was published in the year 1913 and Sophie T. La Croix published 16 volumes.) This places the original pattern book as old enough to now be in the public domain.