What I've been doing instead of blogging

Please excuse the interruption to postings this week. I really did get my motivation back, but I've also been trying to clear a long-standing project from my plate (and from my wee brain). A couple of months ago (eek), I agreed to make child-sized chef's hats for each child in Ellie's class. You read that correctly: I agreed (offered, even!) to make 24 child-sized chef's hats. Yes, I am insane. Yes, it took me ages. It was so much work that I lost motivation. I have so little project time (unless I opted for less sleep, which makes everyone around here miserable) and it was all being consumed by the hats. I began referring to them as "the damned chef's hats" and then shortened my whining to "the DCH" so I could gripe in front of Ellie without her knowledge. At no point did I begrudge them the hats. They are actually really cute and soooo adorable on the heads of eager 3-5 year olds. But the process and the obligation...that got to me.





Anyway, with Markus's help, I finally knocked out the rest last night. 24 child-sized chef's hats, complete and completely adorable. And adored! Last week, the teacher assigned the first dozen hats, and the kids were so excited and proud that motivation came flying back to me ten-fold. Finishing the last hats was actually fun! Still, it did take up all my available project time that could be used for sewing, knitting or blogging. I'm back now. Really.

In case the more crafty among you are interested, I found the pattern here. The pattern calls for quilting-weight cotton and a 24-inch circle for the poof in the hat.


After a prototype (modeled by Stephanie above), I changed to using white cotton drill, the fabric of professional chefs' uniforms. I found the result far more satisfying. I also found the 24-inch circle was too much poof for my liking, and I eventually narrowed it down to 18-inches. That used a lot less fabric (remember, I had to make 24...and two trips to the fabric store) and made it more like a muffin top than a big floppy top. If you are only making one or two, choose any diameter between 18 and 24 inches and I'm sure you'll be happy.