Make a Chef’s Hat (Sewing tutorial)

What I conjure out of my chef’s hat is anybody’s guess. At times something eatable but other times….. I even managed to make a cake without a drop of sugar once. You never know what my cooked food will look like or taste like when I start. This is a running joke in my family. My kids thought nothing new of this, and never expected anything better, till the day papa entered the kitchen.

All the beautiful dishes that he makes every weekend are worth a thousand praises; So I have decided to make him a chef’s hat. The least I can do is dish out some encouragement. Here is the ‘how to’. 

How to make a Chef’s Hat

Step 1. Measure

Measure around the head over the forehead. Say you get 22 inches. Add 2 inches to this.

Step 2. Cut out the pieces

Cut out 2 pieces of fabric for the hat belt – 6 inches by 24  inches (the measure you got earlier). You would want to attach stiff interfacing to the back of one of the belt pieces for the hat to look nice and stiff.

Cut one circle shape of 20 -inch diameter (For more fullness and tallness you can go as big as 24 inches) or cut out a square shape of 20 inches and then fold it twice and then measure 10 inches from the middle and cut out the extra to get the circle of 20 inches diameter.

You also need 2 pieces of 2 or 2 1/2 inch long velcro (length of velcro depending on how small you want to make the hat). Take 2 of the soft pieces and one of the hard pieces (discard the extra hard piece). 

Step 3. Sew the velcro pieces

Pin the velcro strips on the right sides of the belt pieces.

One side on one fabric piece and the other loop side on the other piece, other side. You can pin it in place and see whether it works as it should. Do not stitch first and then give your seam ripper opportunity to work.

Stitch the velcro pieces in place. When you have sewn the belt it should look like this.

Step 4. Sew the belt

Keep the two pieces of the belt together, right sides to the inside.

Sew them together on 3 sides – one long side and the short sides.

Step 5. Gather the hat top

First take the circle and on the edge, simply turn under the edge twice and whip stitch with a hand sewing needle and thread or sewing machine stitch – for 1 1/2 inch.

Now gather the rest of the edge.

Loosen the tension of your sewing machine a little and adjust the stitch length to the longest. Take the circle fabric and make gathering stitches along the perimeter (stitch along the circumference with the longest stitch in your sewing machine).

Leave long thread tails at the end and at the start. Gather by gently pulling these threads. Gather the whole edge (leaving the 1 1/2 inch you have stitched earlier) to match the long edge of the hat belt.

Step 6. Sew them together

Turn the hat top wrong side out.

Keep the belt piece long edge on top of the edge of the hat (as in the picture below- notice the small gap of 1 inch where the hand stitching is done) Pin the inside edge of the hat belt to the hat top gathered edge. 

The whole belt should fit along the gathered edge of the hat. If not, loosen or tighten the gathering to fit exactly. Pin or baste stitch everyhwhere. Sew the edges together. Ensure that at no point you are stitching the other edge of the hat belt.

After sewing this, the picture below is how it will look on the wrong side.

Turn the hat rightside out.

Now you just need to turn under the other edge of the hat belt over the top of the hat and top stitch in place.

Pin in place to get everything correctly aligned.

You can top stitch the bottom edge of the hat belt for a nicer look.

I do not know whether he will wear it. If not him, then whom? Not me! 

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