Lots of edgings books were published of course and eBay is a great  place to find them - and the auctions are ususally just for a couple of dollars.  Many of the patterns are far more complex than my crochet skills & pattern reading skills can match at the moment.  Depending on the age of the booklet, some will name the stitch to do next (for example "rice stitch") without explaining how to actually do it.  So one of the encyclopedias of crochet stitches is nice to try to figure out what is intended.

Another interesting thing in the booklets is that many of them call for using rolled edge hankies (rather than ones with crochet holes on the edge or a drawnwork edge).  The first row is then solid single crochet around the edge, getting 24 or whatever is called for stitches per inch.  Stitches per inch is important, as is using the size of hanky required, so that the corner motifs and edging details come out right.  I'm finding that I can take a simple 1st & second row from one pattern & combine it with a nice 3rd row pattern from another & get a perfectly acceptable beginner's hanky edging.

My current project uses the start of edging #13 from Star Edging Book #102 & the last row of #8078 from The Book Of Edgings Crochet and Knitting Book 56.  And here it is:

1st row: Sc around edge of a hankie with crochet holes, join in 1st sc
2nd row: Sl st into next sc, ch 6, dc in same space, ch 3, dc in same space, ch 3, dc in same space, * ch 1, skip 3 sc, 1 dc, ch 3, 1 dc in next sc, repeat from * to 4th st from corner, ch 1, skip 3 sc, 4 dc with ch 3 between each dc in corner st, repeat from 1st * all around edging to correspond, join in 3rd st of ch.
3rd row: Ch 3, * under next loop work 1 dc, ch 2, 1 tr, ch 4, 1 tr, ch 2, 1 dc. Skip next sp. Repeat from * around. 

Part 2 of message
Hi!
I've not used a sewing machine to make an edge, so I'm not sure how it would work.  My Singer Featherweight has a rolled edge attachment I've never used, though I've been thinking about it!  If you make a solid sc edge over the rolled edge, I think it will work - though that is a lot of  crocheting & to some extent depends on how fine your linen is.  You won't be able to get more sc per inch than you have linen epi (weaving term for ends per inch).  The hanky I'm working on now is 60 epi and has 15 crochet holes per inch (cpi).  As I've said, I'm a beginner at this so 15 cpi is about right for me now.  Once I get better I'll try a rolled edge with 25 or so cpi!  I use a Clover size 10 (.75 mm) hook.  Don't know exactly what that corresponds to - feels like about a 13 or 14.
Katherine