I also need to make a double batch of cinnamon rolls to take with us. Several dear commenters mentioned the cinnamon rolls I talked about briefly in a recent post. Here is my favorite recipe for cinnamon rolls. (And I've tried lots!) The original recipe calls for making the dough in a bread machine and cutting them into mini cinnamon rolls. I always double the recipe and make big size cinnamon rolls instead and, of course, I make the dough the good old fashioned way since I do not have a bread machine.- 1 and 1/3 c. milk
- 2/3 c. maple syrup (note: due to sometimes not having enough grocery money to spend on real maple syrup, I've also used the fake Aldi stuff and though the flavor is not as wonderful as the real thing it is still very good).
- 2/3 c. soft butter
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 tsp. salt
- 6 c. flour
- 2 pkg. yeast (I buy yeast in bulk, so um, dump in what looks to be about right) :)
Filling:
- 1 c. packed brown sugar
- 4 TB flour
- 3 TB cinnamon
- 1 stick cold butter
Icing:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 3 TB butter, melted
- 3 TB maple syrup
- 1 to 2 TB milk
Method:
In a saucepan, warm milk, syrup and butter til butter is melted - do NOT boil. Cool to a warm temperature beneficiant to yeast (I do this by feel; there MUST be a scientific temperature for putting yeast into liquid but I do not know what it is). When nicely warm to the touch, put in yeast.
Stir in eggs and salt. Mix in 3 cups of flour. Add enough remaining flour to make a stiff dough. Turn out onto board or floured counter and knead for 10 minutes. Pat dough into ball, place on greased platter and cover with a towel or plastic wrap. Let rise for 1 hour.
Punch dough down and divide into two. Roll each ball into a rectangle, appx. 12" x 18" (very appx.!) 
Combine filling ingredients in bowl, cut in butter to make a crumbly mixture. Spread filling evenly over rectangles of dough. 
Roll up each rectangle into a fat log.
Cut each log in half, then cut each half into 5 rolls. (I know it makes a weird number of rolls - 20 - but it is what works best for me). Place 15 rolls on a baking sheet. The remaining 5 rolls put into a seperate baking sheet. Cover and let rise for forty minutes.
Preheat oven to 375. Bake rolls for 25-35 minutes or until golden brown on top. Remove from oven and top with a clean towel. (if you don't do this the rolls will get hard on top). Let rolls cool beneath towel while you make the icing.
Combine the confectioners sugar, melted butter and syrup in a bowl. Add in enough milk for desired consistency. Spread over warm rolls and let rolls cool, uncovered, completely. When cool put into an air tight container.
These will be our breakfasts this weekend! We are going cooler-less. :) David finally got fed up with hauling it.Love,
Sarah
Believe it or not, I ended up using Sense and Sensibility's Romantic Era Gown pattern for these bodices. It is against copyright laws to use most commercial patterns in paid dressmaking but Mrs. Chancey has graciously given permission for home dressmakers to use her patterns to make clothing to sell without a licensing fee. Sense and Sensibilty patterns are usually pretty good with sizing (the only issues I've had before with their gown patterns is a gappy neckline, but I think that is a personal fitting issue rather than anything wrong with the pattern itself!) and are a good base to start from when you don't want to drape a pattern from scratch. I cut the pattern for a back closing bodice and added a lot of extra length the front bodice so we could make a pointed front. With a combination of draping and drafting and an hour or so of fitting we came up with a good base pattern. Instead of using darts to fit the bodice I drafted the darts into a single princess seam that comes from the neckline down across the point of the bust to the waist. This helps create a very smooth fitted line, helps accentuate the feminine curve of the bosom and helps give the fashionable appearance of a tiny waist. As usual the bodices are flatlined with white cotton and the fronts are boned.
The other bodice is more smooth and tailored in line. The sleeves fit rather closely around the upper arm and then flare out in a graceful curve at just below elbow level. The trim is also more sleek and tailored than the other bodice. Flat lace and braid trim is applied around the neckline, sleeve edges and along the front princess seam lines.
I think this lady will be quite eye catching in this lovely color! It is the perfect fabric and hue for springtime dances, I think.
It was a little disappointing to not make it out for the entire weekend, espcially when we heard, once we arrived, from more dedicated campers, that the prior evening had been fine and lovely. However, it did rain quite a bit while we were there so I suppose it is a good thing we did not take all our canvas out to have to pack up and haul away while wet.
The remainder of our medical unit, the 108th IL, also came up just for the day.
We walked the paths, browsed the sutler tents and at last we settled down in a pretty spot near the outdoor stage, from whence came jubilant and exciting music from the 33rd IL band and the boys roamed the low "ditches" and played the leaves and with rocks and sticks they found. The occasional mud puddle was a delightful thing for them. 
For lunchtime we spread a little picnic we had packed and ate by the shores of a small and pretty pond. 
We had, in the words of the boys "Sausert" (sausage) and cheese and bread with cups of water and for dessert shortbread cookies which are wonderful since they do not stain clothing. It was simple and satisfying fare and easy to clean up afterwards, just requiring a shaking out of cups and a brushing off of crumbs. No sweeping or dish washing necessary! :)
(As an aside, I used to never get my photo taken when I was still single nor before we had children; but now we are very popular! This strange occurance seems to be the effect of three certain small boys in our possession).
Some dear friends of mine - Van and Katherine - were at this point seen approaching. 
They made their way to us and we spent the duration of the battle in conversation with Katherine and I at times making dashes for a wayward child. In the midst of the booming cannon, Malachi fell asleep.
One area that officer sack coats differ from enlisted issue sack coats is in length. Regular sack coats had just 4 buttons and officer coats boasted 5 buttons and extra length. They could also include details not found on enlisted sack coats like extra pockets, different collar styles and could closely resemble civilian wear of the day. Officers did not have their clothing issued to them but, from what David tells me and what I have read, were issued a clothing allowance with which to purchase their different uniform parts. Thus, a LOT of variation can be found in extant original officer uniforms since they were made by personal tailors and could include variations based on the desires of the officer in question. David personally likes to stick pretty closely to regulations but this was not always the case in the period. 
David's coat is made from dark blue wool flannel from Wambaugh and White and his trousers made from dark blue kersey from the same company. The body is lined with black cotton sateen and the sleeves with white pima cotton. The buttonholes were done with silk twist from B. Black and Sons. The pattern was Charlie Childs federal fatigue blouse pattern, altered for length. I also had to make some adjustments at the side seams and shoulders and neckline to fit David's particular figure. He wanted six pockets so he has two inner pockets sewed into the lining and four outer pockets. 
I am pretty happy with how it came out although, as always, there is room for improvement. David did complain less about this particular coat than he has about previous coats. His only gripes were the gathers in the sleeves (he likened them to the wide puffy sleeves popular in the 1980's, even though many pictures of original coats depict light gathers or easing in the sleeve heads) and the pockets, the edges of which to don't remain together when the coat is worn. (although the pictures of the original coat I was copying a lot of details off of had slumpy pockets too!)
The pattern calls for silk taffeta, but due to budget constrains (silk can be expensive!) Nona purchased royal blue satin instead. The accent fabric is a matching royal blue velvet that was recycled from an old underskirt of hers. The lace around the neckline and sleeves was also recycled from another skirt she used to wear. The lining for the bodice and sleeves is white cotton. 
I followed the pattern fairly well (for me) but did make a few alterations. For instance, I did not use the skirt pieces guide given in the pattern but cut and sewed three panels (50” wide) together for the skirt and balanced the length at the waist. Mid-19th century skirts are so simple to make, they do not really require a pattern at all. I did not really follow the instructions. If you have a basic knowledge of mid-19th century construction techniques it is not hard. It becomes ingrained in your mind so that you do it automatically. But for basics; the bodice is flatlined, the seams sewn and pressed to one side (not open). The opening is pressed under to create a self facing and stitched down. The raw edges on top and bottom are bound or piped, and the sleeves set in (usually with narrow self fabric piping in this seam). I also covered every seam in the bodice with tape to finish it off nicely and the front seams are boned.
This pattern seems to run large. We cut the bodice (for a mock up) in a size 18, which seemed to be the correct size based on the measurements we took. However, it was so large that even when it was pinned closed in the back it still slipped right off! The pattern says that 6” of wearing ease are added above the natural measurements of the person it is meant for! That is WAY too much wearing ease! We took the pattern in a lot and then I traced off the fitted pattern onto fresh paper. (ALWAYS trace off a pattern, once you have nicely fitted it, so you don’t have to go through the inconvenience of such a fitting again unless you change size). 
It was a little tricky working with the slippery satin and velvet. I had to sew much of the dress by hand with it lying flat on a table so it wouldn’t shift around. The finished dress doesn’t look as “crisp” as the dress on the pattern cover (made of silk taffeta) but well, satin is a slippery, soft fabric. For decoration I sewed blue bead fringe to the outer edges of the bretelles (which are of velvet, bound in satin), around the sleeve hems and across the neckline. The same bead fringe also is sewn to the bottom of each tab. The tabs are reversible and sewn to a separate waistband than the main skirt, so it can be worn in a variety of ways. One side is satin and the other velvet, with the gathered “petals” on the velvet side made of satin and on the satin side made of velvet. For additional trim I sewed on the satin and velvet covered buttons to correspond to the pattern. Around the edge of the neckline lace I sewed tiny glass seed beads and ran a blue satin ribbon through it to draw it up when it is worn. 
Today I sewed on the last petals and made the head-dress. The headdress is made like a decorated hairnet but is constructed of slightly different materials, to match the dress. Using small scraps of satin and velvet I made seven rosettes, which were sewn to a wired base. Inside each rosette I attached a blue silk flower and a tiny blue silk ribbon rosebud. The hairnet part is made of fine black net and has an elasticized bottom edge for ease of wearing.
Now the ball gown bug has bit me and I have been shopping around online a bit for silk fabric. I have always wanted a pale pink or pale yellow silk taffeta evening dress or ball gown, either solid or in a large plaid. Pink and yellow seem to be hard colors to find. Not that I need a ball gown. We don’t go to events that have balls. Most are just outdoor dances or, at most, a barn-dance where a day dress is far more appropriate to wear. Still! One can plan. . .in the meantime, I'm very excited about the straw bonnet I just ordered from 
This little outfit was made using up the leftover fabric from the older boys’ tunics. The little jacket is made from scraps of the green linen, and the gathered dress is made from the (great quantity of) leftover blue and white cotton.
Malachi seemed to like skirts. Floofery! Frillies! Handfuls of crisp clean cloth to grab onto and wave around! He has a separate button on petticoat that goes with this strapped petticoat. I also made that last year for Judah but honestly, we ended up hardly using it. It kept wanting to come unbuttoned from the strapped petticoat and the strapped petti gives a nice amount of “pouf” even without the extra petticoat buttoned on. 
The dress is a basic gathered style. I love these little dresses but feel like I’m cheating somehow when I make this style, since they are just SO easy to sew up and very quick, too. The short sleeves were cut with a curved hem and then drawn up at the shoulder. You can see his undershirt sleeve peeking out from beneath but oh well, that is a period look. :P The skirt has a 75” sweep and is gathered tightly to a 1” wide waistband that is piped on both sides. Inside the waistband is faced with white cotton. The neckline is also piped. To close the dress, there is a cloth covered button at the waist and at the neck in the back. 
The dress really is a bit too big, all around. But I made it that way on purpose. After three children, I have learned to make things Big. When little David was a baby I made his dresses to fit him exactly as he was a the time I was making them. He only got to wear each gown a time or two before he outgrew them, but since I didn’t have any other children to clothe I enjoyed making him new dresses before each event. When Judah came along, I began to make things a little bit big, but not too much. If they got a few months worth of wear out of them I was happy. Now with Malachi, I’ve learned. It’s Got To Be Big. The clothes I am making this spring are intended to last at least until next spring, if not longer. Hopefully.
The little jacket took me the longest time to make. It is a simple style and is unlined yet it took me three weeks before I finished it. Why? I don’t know. I had just enough linen left to cut a small coat. I originally made three quarter length bell sleeves to go with it. For some reason though, the sleeve head came out too small to be set nicely into the armscye. I don’t know why this happened. But it did happen. I despaired. I went through four sleeve evolutions before I came across the KayFig pattern for a toddler dress and coat, and the little coat on the pattern cover has short ruffly sleeves! I decided that it was fate, and so I put a short ruffled sleeve on the coat.
The coat was meant to almost meet in front, and it does, when laid flat, but on Malachi there was more of a gap across the chest than I had intended. I might put a concealed hook and eye at chest level, to bring the edges of the coat together in the front at that point. We’ll see. 
Some may think me strange, but I think I will have Malachi use this for his Easter outfit. I think it will be adorable. The boys will wear their green tunics and if I get my bum in gear I want to finish my sheer dress to wear for Easter Sunday and we can all go to church a la 1860's. I originally wanted to make a 1790’s style round gown but I just lack the motivation. I don’t have all the undies I’d need (I have the linen for my shift but haven’t even cut it out yet!) and it would just be too much, all at once. Plus if I make my sheer dress I’ll have lots of use for it after Easter is over with.
This dress was originally made about a year and a half ago from some silver and black striped wool I got from Fabrics.com in their $1.99/yard clearance section. The original dress you can see here: 
I had just enough of the wool left to make a whole new bodice. I did have to piece in a little bit under the armscye on the back bodice piece but it is not very noticable unless you look closely. I used the same sleeves off of the old bodice and kept the sleeve trim intact. Instead of making a pointed front, I made this dress with a plain round waist and attached the skirt directly to the bodice to make a one piece dress with a dog leg opening.
I debated whether I wanted trim on the bodice at all. On the original old bodice I had ruched trimming at the armscyes which I had removed when I took the sleeves off. I decided that would look pretty across the front, and tie in the sleeves to the whole dress a bit better. When I sewed the ruching to the bodice front, there was a section of about 2-3" of untrimmed bodice between the line of sleeve ruching and the line of bodice ruching, right at the back shoulders. To fill in that area, I took the curved "false jacket" trim off the old bodice and used those strips to make some sewn flat bows, which I sewed a matching covered button to. I then tacked these to that untrimmed area to fill it in.
When I originally made the dress I was a little shocked at the vibrancy of the blue-green color. It was a little bright. Mrs. Clark at the Sewing Academy suggested that I put a line of black trim down the center of the ruching to tone it down a bit, so I did that with this trim. I used narrow black velvet ribbon and tacked it on the ruching with a large running stitch, short on the outside and long on the inside. 
Now that I have worn this dress for a while, I see the fit isn't perfect, but it's a lot better than the dresses I've made the last few years, which were usually made quickly without much time taken for adjusting the fit. For some reason this fabric is shiny and seems to accentuate any flaw since it reflects light. I assure you, in humble cotton, the fit looks much better. :) I think if I fine tune the darts and maybe bone them, it will look passably well.
And here is a cropped view of the little boy in question. Really, is there any doubt?!
I'm sure happy this morning. :) Giggling. It's awesome.
It works for tunics too. I like the phrase. It is imaginative. It is unique.
The undershirts are of a soft fine white cotton and are probably the most simple garments I've ever sewn. They are cut all in one piece with the shoulders on the fold and there are but two seams, one on each side, that curves from the short sleeve, to under the arm to down to the hem. The seams are felled for neatness. I did have to hem the neckline opening by hand since I cannot manage such a fine hem using my machine, but, with about a half hour of work put into each one, the first set is done and I hope to finish the rest tonight. Little David loves his "white shirt". He has been wearing it all day! 
Now. It appears that the Yoked Tunic is a thing of mysterious origin. One does not know whether it originated in fact, or in ones head. It seems the general reigning thought from the good folks at the Sewing Academy is that yoked tunics were not worn, owing to the fact that no original yoked tunics have been documented and no original images of boys wearing yoked tunics have yet been found. Last year I saw and saved a picture of a boy wearing what looked to be a type of yoked tunic but of course, now that I actually need it I can no longer find it on the computer!
At any rate, while Yoked Tunics are perhaps a thing of questionable veracity, it IS true that yoked garments, both underwear and outerwear, were worn in the 1860's period. Yoked dresses were worn by women and girls (it appears that both small boys and girls could have worn yoked dresses) and there is a gorgeous example of a yoked jacket/blouse in the Confederate Echoes of Glory book that closely resembles the tunics I've made for my boys. It was said to have been a popular style that was widely copied by officers. And it is true that civilian clothing, especially womens and childrens, was at times made in a military style, or had a "military influence". For example, the ubiquitous Zouave Jacket. So considering that, I think a yoked tunic is plausible. But until I find some real good documentation - don't take my word for it! :)
I had just enough linen left to make Malachi a little unlined jacket. This green wildly sets off the boys eyes. I think I've seen enough green for a while, though!
I just love the perky little flat bows at the top! So adorable!
Malachi is stricken with croup at the moment, so I must return to my poor sick little guy, but wanted to share this with other antique-fashion-lovers. :) 
Love,