A Crocheted Invalid's Slipper

From Woman's Own, 3rd October 1914.

Quickly Worked Invalid's Slipper

Two and a half ounces of J. & J. Baldwin's 3-ply White Heather, Grey Wheeling, or a 4-ply Beehive Scotch Fingering.  No. 10 hook.   Work firmly throughout.

Commence with 7 ch., turn, miss the 1st chain, 1 d.c. into each of the next 5 ch., 3 d.c into the 6th ch., then work down the opposite side of the ch., making 1 d.c. into each stitch. Turn. Make 1 ch. to turn each row, and be careful not to miss the 1st stitch in each row which is directly under the hook. Always pick up the back thread nearest forefinger.

2nd row:  1 d.c. into each stitch of previous row. Work forwards and backwards, making 3 d.c. into the centre stitch of every other row until there are 42 stitches in the row.

To make a firm edge, insert the hook through both threads when working the last stitch of each row.

Now commence the side. Work d.c. into d.c. on the first 11 stitches of the front, and continue working forwards and backwards (11 stitches) for 5 ridges, then increase 1 stitch at top edge in every 5th row until you have 14 stitches.  Work 14 stitches to the row until the centre of the back is reached.  The second half of the sides is worked to correspond, decreasing at the top edge to 11 stitches in the row.  Join neatly to the front of slipper, and s.-s. on the right side of the work around the lower edge. With a coloured wool make 4 rows of s.-s. round the top edge.  When working the s.-s. do not pull the loop upward as in d.c, but draw it towards you.

Fleecy soles can be purchased for a few pence, or ⅛-inch-thick leather can be bought at a saddler's. Stand a man's slipper on a piece of felt or leather, pencil round, and cut to the pencil mark, sew a piece of flannel inside, and stitch with thick thread the crocheted slipper to the sole, putting the needle backwards and forwards closely, an eighth of an inch from the edge of the material.

Send your garments when finished to Stores Dept., British Red Cross Society, 83, Pall Mall, London, S.W., or to your local branch of the British Red Cross Society.  A list of contents should be placed outside each parcel sent.

[Do these instructions make sense?  Not to me, just reading them through, but then I haven't very much crochet experience, and they might make more sense if you were working through them. But it would make more sense still to buy professionally-made slippers for the sick and wounded. It would be hard work to sew leather soles onto a crocheted upper by hand, with ordinary sewing tools.  Amateurs would be slow, and would be likely to get poor quality results, I think.]