Three Great Things About This Evening's Ride

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Chasing my shadow, the sun and wind behind us
Barbed wire fences draped in honeysuckle sweetness
Wild geese calling "Here's a lake, here's a lake"

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Lest We Forget

When Mr. M and I were in England last year to celebrate our silver wedding anniversary, we were impressed and touched by the number of war memorials with their moving inscriptions.  Everywhere we went, it seemed, tablets or statues had been put up, commemorating regiments, divisions, historical events connected with various conflicts, and private citizens, such as fishermen, who perished in the war effort. (America's contributions are also recognized:  the statue of Franklin D. Roosevelt in Grosvenor Square, and the beautiful American Memorial Chapel in St. Paul's Cathedral, are just two examples.)

Here are a few of the memorials we saw:

Royal Artillery Memorial, Hyde Park, London
This side shows the figure of a dead artilleryman
and under him the words "A Royal Fellowship"

War Memorial in Lyme Regis listing the names of the fallen
in the two world wars

On the wall of a house in Lyme Regis
(I was thrilled to see this)

If you watched the royal wedding last month, you may have noticed a large, dark block of floor just inside the West Entrance of the Abbey (where all the guests and bridal party entered). The red carpet split and went around this block, and everyone walking the carpet had to go around it too.

That block is the memorial to the Unknown Warrior. On it is this inscription:

BENEATH THIS STONE RESTS THE BODY
OF A BRITISH WARRIOR
UNKNOWN BY NAME OR RANK
BROUGHT FROM FRANCE TO LIE AMONG
THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS OF THE LAND
AND BURIED HERE ON ARMISTICE DAY
11 NOV: 1920, IN THE PRESENCE OF
HIS MAJESTY KING GEORGE V
HIS MINISTERS OF STATE
THE CHIEFS OF HIS FORCES
AND A VAST CONCOURSE OF THE NATION
THUS ARE COMMEMORATED THE MANY
MULTITUDES WHO DURING THE GREAT
WAR OF 1914-1918 GAVE THE MOST THAT
MAN CAN GIVE LIFE ITSELF
FOR GOD
FOR KING AND COUNTRY
FOR LOVED ONES HOME AND EMPIRE
FOR THE SACRED CAUSE OF JUSTICE AND
THE FREEDOM OF THE WORLD
THEY BURIED HIM AMONG THE KINGS BECAUSE HE
HAD DONE GOOD TOWARD GOD AND TOWARD
HIS HOUSE

When we stood in the Abbey last year reading this, I cried like a baby. Even now it brings tears to my eyes.

It occurred to me today that in America we're a bit out of touch with our war dead.  I live in a village which has a memorial wall listing the names of the fallen back to the Civil War.  I recognize most of the names on the wall;  they're the family names of neighbors and friends and people who come to my place of work.

But many of us here in America live in communities that are less than a generation old, filled with people who will move on before the next generation grows up.  We often lack a sense of continuity and local history. Perhaps that's why I found the memorials in England so touching.  They were personal tributes in an impersonal world; a recognition of shared struggles; an effort to ensure that the names of the fallen are not wiped from our memories.

Here is to all who have unselfishly given of their lives, their time, their health and their youth, in obedience to the call of duty and the "sacred cause of justice and the freedom of the world." May their sacrifices not be in vain.

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A Sundress for Little C

My youngest great-niece turns 2 today.  I thought it would be fun to make her a little sundress, with a crocheted bodice or yoke and a thrifted men's shirt for the body.

There are a lot of cute patterns out there for re-purposing men's shirts into girls' dresses, and also many cute ideas for crochet-top dresses.  I decided to come up with my own design, which was dictated by the amount of yarn I had available (1 skein), and my almost pathological dislike of weaving in yarn ends (hence the 1-piece yoke).

Here's how it turned out:

If you're interested in making something similar, here are some photos and a description of the process.  (I can't really call it a pattern - it was all very improvised.)

For the yoke, I knew I wanted to use this gorgeous soft yarn, so I shopped for a shirt to match:

Deborah Norville Serenity Garden Yarn
bought at JoAnn Fabrics

After a lot of messing around and frogging, I came up with a simple round yoke (using a child's dress pattern to help with the sizing).  I started with a strip of foundation single crochet (bless you, Doris Chan - you may not have invented this but I learned it from your fantastic books) because it's stretchy and flexible, and has a nice neat edge.

I joined the foundation single crochet strip into a circle (big enough to go over Little C's head), then added two rounds of a kind of tipped-sideways double crochet block stitch (chain 3, *skip 2 spaces and attach to foundation chain with dc, chain 3 and dc 3 in dc that is attached to foundation.  Repeat from * around.)  I got the idea for this stitch from an old Magic Crochet magazine.

This stitch pattern was pretty flexible, and the circle was small, so the yoke came out nice and flat without any increases.  I finished up with a round of chain 4 and sc in each block, then a half-double crochet in each chain, all the way around, to mimic the look of the starting round.  Boy, I hate crocheting into chain stitches;  don't you?  It's so much easier to crochet into a space, but that didn't look right for this piece.  And Little C is worth the trouble.

So now I had a nice round piece which I could fold in half and use for a yoke.  I also made a granny square for a pocket.  All I needed was the dress.

A brown paper grocery bag (with the bottom cut off) made great pattern paper.  After checking some online children's size measurement charts, I knew the average chest size for a 2-year old was 21".  So I added an inch for ease, and cut a piece of paper 11" wide (half of 22") to make a pattern block for the dress.  (I didn't need to add side seam allowances because I would be using the shirt, and those side seams were already sewn.)  The length of the grocery bag was about right for the length of the dress.

I laid the folded yoke on the pattern block, and traced out the neck and armhole shapes on one side, adding seam allowances:

Then folded the paper in half and cut out the neck and armholes:

Time to lay it on the shirt and see how much room I had. (The pattern piece looks so skinny because it represents the basic shape of the dress without any gathers. Imagine it split in two and spread out as wide as the shirt.  That's how I would cut the shirt.)

Plenty of room, but the shirt pocket was in the way.

Adios, pocket!

With the pocket out of the way, I could push the pattern piece a little higher up the shirt, and get maximum length out of my fabric while still using the ready-made side seams.

Now to cut up the shirt from armhole to armhole.  I used the woven lines of the plaid as a cutting guide and cut one layer at a time; first the front, then the back:

Right across to the sleeves and carefully around the bit of armhole

Then I smoothed it out all nice and flat, and LOOK HOW UNEVEN THE HEM WAS:

Mass-produced clothing.  Sheesh.

That wouldn't do at all for Little C's dress.  I'd have to cut it off and make my own hem.  No big deal.  Time enough to work on that when the top part was done.

Next I traced and cut the armholes at each extreme side of the top (by sliding the pattern piece all the way to one side of the shirt, marking it, then all the way to the other side and marking again):

Then went to the center and marked the depth of the yoke curve.

Then sketched in a long curve, connecting it to the armholes at the sides:

Folded the shirt in half, and cut it.

Now it was time to bind the armholes, and gather and bind the yoke curves.  I didn't want any raw edges inside the dress.

After a refreshing sniff of my lilac bouquet which was sitting on the table and scenting the entire room...

I cut some 3/4" bias strips for the armholes, and some 1" bias strips for the yoke curves:

And pressed under one long edge on each (a little less than 1/4"):

Note to self:  ironing board cover needs washing

I sewed a 3/4" strip to each armhole, right sides together, and trimmed the seams a tiny bit:

Then folded them over to the wrong side and topstitched them down:

Now it was time to gather the yoke curves.  I realized I had no idea how much to gather them, nor where exactly to attach them to the yoke, so back to the brown paper pattern piece:

I marked the center points front and back,
and the side edges of where the bodice would attach.

I measured the distance between the attachment points (just under 6"), then marked my binding strips with lines that far apart.

I gathered the yoke curves using the good old zig-zag over dental floss trick, and pinned them to the binding strips between the marked lines:

Whoops!  Forgot to press these edges under. Will have to roll by hand.

Attached the strips, trimmed the excess, folded them over to the inside, and pinned in place.  I decided to hand-stitch them down instead of topstitching, to keep the curve soft and flexible (machine-stitching through all those gathers would make it pretty stiff).

All pinned and ready for hand-sewing

Top edges nice and finished

And the little dress was almost done!

The rest went pretty quickly.  I agonized over decided which side of the yoke should go in front, pinned it to the bodice:

And machine-stitched it in place.  Repeat with back yoke.  Trimmed the bottom of the dress and added a quick machine hem:

At the last minute, I modified the granny square pocket to give it a stronger top edge.  I frogged the last side of the square and did a row of single crochet instead:

And pinned it to the dress and topstitched it in place.  Hooray!  I was done!  Or was I?

Front yoke

Back yoke

Every girl needs coordinating accessories.  I had time, yarn and fabric enough left to whip up a little bag:

Cut off a chunk of sleeve and cut into a neat rectangle.
Sew side with french seam.

Gather the bottom inside...

And ziz-zag to prevent fraying.
Turn right side out and lay aside.

I crocheted a simple shell-stitch top for the bag (3 rows of shell stitches, a row of double crochets with chain spaces for drawstrings, then a frilly shell top with a round of picots to finish). Then I trimmed the bag a bit shorter (I had made it too tall), folded and hemmed the raw top edge of the bag, pinned the crochet to it, and top-stitched it on. (Sorry, forgot to take pictures of this part. You can use your imagination.)

Crocheted a couple of chain stitch handles, wove them through, and NOW I was done.

Wait...how about an amigurumi to go inside the bag?  Just kidding. I did look at some patterns online but decided I'd better quit. I bought a stuffed ladybug toy and put it in there instead.

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Happy birthday, Little C, with love from Aunt Sue and Uncle M.  If you pull on the ladybug's tail it will scurry around.

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No Muffin Cups for Me!

I don't know when I gave up on muffin cups (aka cupcake liners). Must be at least 15 years ago now.

Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against them. Except that I was always running out of them in the middle of a batch of something, and they were expensive, and half the muffin (or cupcake) seemed to stick to the sides of the liner instead of being available for MY insides. And while it can be rather fun to scrape the crumbs off the liner with one's teeth, the procedure lacks dignity.

So I started using parchment paper instead. This is what I like to do:

Tear off a strip about 4" wide...

Fold in half repeatedly (lengthwise and widthwise)
until you end up with this ~ roughly 2" square

With good sharp scissors, cut around the edges
to make a squarish sort of circle, and...

Voilà! 16 little liners.

Just drop them in.  (No need to grease the pan.)
It's okay if they don't perfectly cover the bottom.
Add batter as usual.

I run a thin flat spatula around the sides when finished baking.
(Raspberry chocolate chip oatmeal muffins.
I could hear you wondering.)

The paper peels right off.  These muffins came out with nice crusty sides
due to the baking time. (I like them that way.)
Cupcakes won't get this crusty.

The extras go into a little snap-top plastic container.

After a few batches, I have enough extras on hand that I don't need to cut any for a time or two.  (When I'm feeling very ambitious and organized, I cut up a supply in advance.)

I did a bit of quick calculating, and here are some numbers if you're interested in a cost comparison:

Parchment Paper:  I pay about $3 - $3.50 for a 24-foot roll at the grocery store. An entire roll would yield 1152 standard-size liners. Let's round up the cost and round down the yield:  say $3.50 for 1000.

Muffin Cups: On Amazon, Wilton Standard White Baking Cups cost $3.38 for 75.

It may not be as pretty as the liners, but I think the parchment is a much better deal for everyday use.

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