Chicken Scratch Embroidery

PAT and VIP are super excited about their embroidered gingham! I was relieved to finally find this McCalls booklet. Grandma had saved it since 1962 and it came to me when she passed away 5 years ago.

This has illustrations and pattern information for sewing patterns McCalls sold at the time and then on the opposing page is the gingham pattern:


There is a lot of retro charm here:


Most of the cross stitching is really simple:


In case you have never cross stitched, it is easy to learn. Here are some instructions:


I like these simple geometrics:





Unfortunately, I don't think the charm of chicken scratch embroidery really shows in this booklet. It would benefit from some actual photographs. I did a "chicken scratch embroidery" search at Flickr and found some wonderful projects HERE.

I bet someone has these pattern packs offered by McCalls in the early 1960's. I sure wish Grandma had these!


I have a few more photos of this booklet at my flickr HERE. You can see the full sized patterns if you click on a photo and then click "All Sizes".

I have done some aprons with some embroidery like this along with rick-rack. I actually think this was from a modern McCall's apron pattern. This is an old photo taken with my old, bad camera: