Ethnic Crochet

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This is an old piece of embroidery given a makeover through crochet edging. I embroidered this peacock a few years back on a lazy day when I had nothing else to do. I made it on a small piece of cloth and decorated it with beads, mirrors and kundan stones, but then I didn't know what to do with it. You see, I made it when I was still not bitten by the crochet bug. So it ended up with other 'WIP-forever' items.

Only the other day I took it out and realized what a beautiful piece of work is getting wasted. But what to do with it? It is just a small piece of cloth. May be I could sew it on to something but, again, what? Then obviously crochet came to my mind. I decided to give it a crochet edging. Luckily I had a color to match with the embroidery.

After finishing everything I found that I was not able to hang it on the wall because it was not firm enough and slumped on the sides. So I used some old cloth for padding at the back and made it firm. Now the peacock stands proudly on the wall.

I am giving you the pattern for the edging. It was adapted from a crochet edging pattern from mypicot, which has some interesting free patterns.

Crochet Edging Pattern

It is a very simple one. You start by making 5 ch. Then 2 dc into last chain from loop (which will be the first chain that you made), ch 3, 3 dc into same chain. Now you have formed the first shell. Note that you will be working this pattern vertically, starting at the bottom and advancing towards the top. Next, make 5 ch, turn your work and make 3 dc, 3 ch and 3 dc all into the 3 ch space that you have. Now you have formed the second shell on top of the first one. Again, make 5 ch, turn your work and make 3 dc, 3 ch, 3 dc all into the 3 ch space of the previous shell. Continue working this way until you reach the required length and fasten off.

You can see here in this picture how the work advances from bottom to top.