Pssssst...... Can you do me a favour?

It's Sel's (my little sister) birthday today, and I want to surprise her.

She's a Chef, so what do you think I made her?

A Chefs Hat of course!

I had to give her the pressie early, while I was visiting on the weekend. Note the fire blanket located very close to where she was cooking Saturday night... hee hee

Anyhow - I would love it anyone could help me to surprise her by heading over to her blog and leaving her a Happy Birthday message. I would be ever so grateful!


A big thanks to Nikki for providing me with the hilarious Chefs print fabric from her stash.

Birthdays

My sister called me on Monday to request an apron, as her neighbours daughter was having a birthday yesterday.  Luckily, I already had some chefs hats ready to go for the Daylesford Makers Market.

I didn't have time to make all of the straps from fabric as I would usually do, so I substituted for twill tape instead.

It was also Moo Moo's birthday yesterday, so we had a barbecue dinner and ice cream cake (perfect for a 34 degree day). Just in case you can't tell..... he turned 3!

and the bandwagon keeps on rollin'.....

The weather was perfect yesterday for a little get together with friends, a bbq dinner, and some pressies for the kiddies.

For Belle - Chefs Hat and matching apron

For Jack - Chefs Hat and matching apron

 I used the same method as my tutorial for the hats, but instead of snaps, I used two strips of velcro which should make it easier for the kids to adjust by themselves.

Belle absolutely loved hers as I made a set for her brother earlier in the year and she has wanted one of her own ever since. Jack was not so sure.....

Twas a Bonanza indeed!

The Thornbury Craft Bonanza returned to my house yesterday (not really in Thornbury I know).

Bev bought over these delicious cupcakes that she made using the Chocolate Fudge Cake recipe from Homemade - The Handmade Help Recipe Book.

Liesl bought over her soon to be prize winning scones - good luck with getting the scones to the showgrounds today Liesl!

I spent the afternoon whipping up a couple of adult sized crazy chefs hats.

Bev and Anna are going to wear them at the official launch of Homemade - The Handmade Help Recipe Book.

But first, we had to test them out, just to make sure that they could withstand the pressure in the kitchen.....

Serena doing an impression of the Swedish Chef from The Muppets!

Me - all chef hatted out (can you see my new curtains in the background)?

Bev selling the Cookbook
Bec looking like she's disco dancing....

....and Annabel who managed to colour co-ordinate the chefs hat with her t-shirt...clever girl!

Now why didn't we get a silly photo of Liesl in a crazy chefs hat????

We all missed Cathy who was sick in bed today..... can't wait 'til the next one girls.

Tutorial - How to make a Chefs Hat for your budding Masterchef

I've made three Chefs / Bakers hats as gifts so far, and the kiddies seem to love them, so I thought I'd share my technique so that everyone else can join in the fun. It's a quick and easy project that you should be able to whip up in less than 1.5 hours.

Today I'm making a hat for my 10 year old nephew, so I've chosen fabrics that he likes (not necessarily what I like).

There are three different sections of the hat - Puffy Top, Headband, and Binding.

Lets begin with a list of things that you will need:

• Three fabrics (you won't need much so you can probably rummage through your scraps)
• Iron on interfacing for the headband
• For the closure - Snaps or Velcro or Ribbon or Buttons
  
• Sewing supplies - sewing machine, tape measure, fabric marker, rotary cutter, mat etc.

It's probably best to read through the tutorial and work out the measurements before you begin. There's a little bit of very basic maths involved to ensure that the hat fits!

Step 1 - Cutting the Puffy Top

• Cut a square of fabric approximately 40 cm x 40 cm (I just use a very large quilting ruler).

• Fold the fabric in half, and then in half again, so that you now have a folded square (20 x 20 cm).

• Make sure that your folded edges are at the left hand side and at the bottom.

• Grab a dinnerplate, and place it on top of the fabric, and trace an arc onto the square, or just cut around the plate using your rotary cutter (you could also use scissors).

• Open out the fabric and you should have a fairly neat squarish circle (don't worry too much about perfection as it will be all gathered anyway).

Note: the smaller the original cut square of fabric, the smaller the puffy top will be. If you would like a really large and puffy chefs hat, just make the fabric square larger.


Step 2 - Cutting the Headband

• If possible, measure the head circumference of your intended victim recipient - my nephew is approximately 54 cm.
• If you're making this for a child, then it's best to add a couple of centimetres and the make the hat a little larger so that it will fit for longer (we're going to make the closure adjustable for different sizes later on).
• Cut two strips of fabric 8 cm wide x head size in length - I'm cutting mine 8 cm wide x 56 cm in length.

• Cut two strips of interfacing in the exact same size, and iron them onto the back of the headband strips.

Step 3 - Cutting the Binding

• I'm using a piece of straight cut binding for this project, so it's just a basic straight cut strip of fabric which I've turned into binding using my trusty Clover 25mm Bias Tape Maker.
• The width of the strip will be determined by the bias tape maker - I've cut my strip approximately 2.5 cm wide.
• The length is determined by the headband measurement plus an additional 30 cm.
• Therefore the strip of fabric will be 86 cm long x 2.5 cm wide.
• Run the strip through the bias tape maker - check this fab tutorial if you're not sure.
• Once I've done this, I then fold my strip in half again and iron it (turn the steam off beforehand or you'll burn your fingies).

Step 4 - The fun part (Construction)

• Place your two headband pieces wrong sides together (the interfacing on the inside).
• Sew around the four sides very close to the edges (the edges will be hidden later).

I've used pink thread for the purposes of this tutorial but I would actually use matching thread.

• Place your sewing machine on the longest stitch selection and sew a simple stitch line right around the circle, taking care to leave long threads at the ends (do not backstitch / backtack at beginning or end).

• Pull the bottom thread slowly and carefully (to ensure that it doesn't break) from either side to begin gathering the puffy top.

• Keep gathering until the gathered bottom circumference of the puffy top is the same length as your headband strips (in my case 56 cm).

• Tie off your threads so that the gathering cannot undo, and so that the size cannot be changed.

• Place your headband piece and the puffy top right sides together, and either sew or overlock the entire way around the hat.

• I find it easier to use clips rather than pins as the gathered puffy top and the interfaced headband are quite thick.

• Turn right sides out, and topstitch around the top of the headband (as you're topstitching, fold the overlocked or stitched seam from the inside, down towards the bottom of the hat, so that the topstitching is going through lots of layers and providing extra stability and support).

Step 5 - The binding

Now that the hat has been constructed, the binding will finish everything nice and neatly.

• Turn the hat to the back where the ends of the headband meet up.
• Using sharp scissors, make a slit up into the puffy top approximately 5 cm (this will help to form the adjustable closure).

• Start stitching the binding at the bottom corner edge of the headband (you can start with a raw binding edge as this will be covered later)
  

• Machine stitch the binding all the way around the bottom edge.

• When you get the corner, you will need to swivel 90 degrees and fold your binding and then continue stitching up along the edge of the headband, and onto the puffy top where you previously made a slit with the scissors.

• When you reach the top of the slit, swivel and turn and keep stitching the binding back down until you are approximately 5 cm from the end.
• At this point, you'll need to trim your binding to the correct length.

• Before trimming, ensure that you leave enough length to fold inside and under, so that you are not left with a raw binding edge.

Step 6 - The closure

When it comes to the closure, you could use buttons, velcro, or even ribbon, but I like to use snaps (probably just because I get to play with the hammer).

• Follow the directions that come with your snaps - I use a Snapsetter.
• I place the snaps at various intervals to allow for different head sizes.

For an alternative closure idea, check out this fabulous Chefs Hat by Lara from Thornberry.


Step 7 - Go forth and Cook or Bake to your hearts delight!

Wingin' it

With any type of crafting that I do, I really like to just 'wing it' and have a go. Things don't always go to plan, and the end result is not always what I was visualising in my head.

Case in point above: This is a pressie for a sweet little girl who likes to do some baking with her mum. I was trying to make a chefs hat like the one that I made earlier, but once I'd gathered the piece of fabric for the top of the hat, I realised that it was far too small for a chefs hat.
So now it's a bakers hat!

I found a really small teatowel from the stash to transform into an apron - it nearly reaches her ankles at the moment.... but at least her clothes will stay clean.

So that's what I call 'Wingin' it 101'

As a thankyou, I received some beautiful creations - this one is a scary monster

Then this one is a footprint, and an alien....

....and this one is me! I even have fingernails and a bellybutton

The birthday month

April is definitely the craziest birthday month of the year among my family and friends. I'm still heading along the make/buy handmade present path, but year after year, it's getting a bit more difficult.

A friends little boy is turning five this weekend. I've been racking my brain trying to think of something to make for him, when my sister happened to mention that she was going to bake some cupcakes with the kiddies. I had one of those lightbulb moments, and knew immediately what I was going to attempt to make.

The apron was the easy bit.... it's just a much smaller version of my adult aprons. The chefs hat was a bit more of a challenge, but I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I just need to make sure that I take some measurements, and write down how I actually made it before I gift it away! I'm predicting more baking gifts in the future.