Alice is the daughter of Clare’s godparents, and she turned 3 last week.  Which meant a party!  Which meant me still sewing madly the night before in an attempt to get her gift completed on time.  Which I did!

Obviously, I didn’t make the book, but I did make the apron and hat.  The apron pattern is Simplicity 4286, view D.

I like the level of coverage, as 3 year olds can be messy cooks.  The chef’s hat is made following Curlypops‘ excellent tutorial – which couldn’t have been better timed if we’d tried!  She posted it about two days before the party.

Here’s the back of the hat.  Unfortunately, because I made it late the night before the party my kids were fast asleep and there weren’t any heads available to measure.  So I winged it.  When I tried it on Clare and Stella the next morning it was definitely on the small side.  Time for hat surgery!  I unpicked the extra velcro which had been added to make it smaller, then sewed on some buttons and hair elastics.  You were wondering what those buttons were for in the above photo, weren’t you!

The hat fits Alice fine at the moment just velcroed closed, but with the buttons and elastic it will continue to fit her as her head grows (it looked rather dashing on her father when he tried it on).  Necessity is truly the mother of invention!  The apron and hat were a huge hit at the party.