Back to the 50's Crochet

When a friend of mine told me she has a Smithsonian-sized collection of Scottie dog tchotchkes, I started looking for stitching designs to make her something in this theme. I knew there was a Scottie ornament in the 2009 JCS ornament issue, but I wanted to see what else was around. My web surfing took me to a booklet of vintage crochet designs from the 50's that featured Sunbonnet L'il, a more grown-up Sunbonnet Sue. I fell in love with the appliques in this booklet. And one design in particular called "Out for a Stroll" was perfect for my friend. I decided to applique it onto a ready-made totebag. It was fun to crochet this, but much less fun to stitch it onto the bag. I don't think I'll be making many more of these. But my friend was so surprised and she seemed to love the bag even though it's way outside the type of thing she would usually go for.

The booklet called for Lily threads that I don't even think are made anymore. It needed different weight threads and hooks for various parts to get the proportions correct. I only had size 10 crochet cotton and several different hooks so I had to improvise. I think the Scottie is a bit large, but that's ok since the Scottie was the most important part.