Victorian Doily Pattern from 1846, translated

Twentieth Doily pattern from Cornelia Mee’s “Crochet Explained and Illustrated”, 1846, pp. 36-37
Rewritten with modern US crochet terms by Emi Del Bene, 2025

Here’s the pattern using modern US terms, original pattern + PDF version for printing below.

I used thread and a 0.75mm crochet hook, but you can use whatever thread or yarn and appropriate hook suits you best. With a 0.75mm hook, the finished doily fit in the palm of my hand.

Start with magic ring (MR).

Row 1: into the MR, (2 dc, 5 ch) x 8, slst into first stitch. Cut the thread. [56] For the first dc in every row where there is one, you can either make two chains or stack two single crochets on top of each other.

Row 2: reattach the thread by making a chain into the ch5 space from Row 1. Then, 1 sc into the ch5 space from the previous round, 7 ch, 1 sc into the next ch5 space, 7 ch, repeat all the way round. Slst into first stitch. Cut the thread [64]

Row 3: reattach the thread by making a chain into the ch7 space from Row 2. Then, 5 dc into the ch7 space from the previous round, 4 ch, 5 dc into the next ch7 space, 4 ch, repeat all the way round. Slst into first stitch. [72]

Row 4: 6 dc (one into each of the 5 dc from the previous row, and one into the first chain of the chain space), 4 ch, 7 dc (starting from one into the chain before the 5 dc cluster from the previous row, then one into each of the 5 dc, then 1 into the first chain of the chain space from the previous row), 4ch, repeat all the way round. After the final 4 ch, 1 dc into the chain before the cluster you started from, so it’s clusters of 7 dc with 4 chains in between all the way round. Slst into first stitch. [88]

Row 5: 7 dc (first 6, one into each of the dc from the previous row, starting from where you slst, and final one into the first chain of the chain space), 5 ch, 9 dc (starting from one into the chain before the 7 dc cluster from the previous row, then one into each of the 7 dc, then 1 into the first chain of the chain space from the previous row), 5 ch, repeat all the way round. After the final 5 ch, 1 dc into the chain before the cluster you started from, then 1 dc into the first dc of the cluster from the previous row. You will have clusters of 9 dc with 5 chains in between all the way round. Slst into first stitch. Cut the thread. [112]

Row 6: reattach the thread by making a chain into the ch5 space from Row 5. Then, 2 dc into the ch5 space, 5 ch, 2 dc into the same ch5 space, 9 ch, move to the next ch5 space and repeat all the way round. Slst into the first stitch. Cut the thread. [144]

Row 7: reattach the thread by making a chain into the first chain of the ch9 of Row 6 (the chain stitch, not the chain space). 9 dc, one into each of the chain stitches from the previous round, 3 ch, 1 dc into ch5 space from Row 6, 4 ch, 1 dc into the same ch5 space, 3 ch, repeat from 9 dc into chain stitches, all the way round. Slst into the first stitch. Cut the thread. [168]

Row 8: reattach the thread by making a chain into the 2nd stitch of the 9 dc cluster from Row 7. 7 dc, one into each of the 7 middle dcs in the dc cluster from Row 7, leaving one dc unworked on either side. 3 ch, 1 dc into ch3 space, 3 ch, 1 dc into next ch4 space, 2 ch, 1 dc into the same ch4 space, 3 ch, 1 dc into next ch3 space, 3 ch, repeat all the way round. Slst into first stitch. [200]

Row 9: one double crochet into every stitch from the previous row, slst into first stitch. [200]

The original pattern from Cornelia Mee’s “Crochet Explained and Illustrated”, 1846, available on Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/crochetexplaine01meegoog/page/n122/mode/2up