Taylor's "puffy hat"

Taylor loves to watch the Backyardigans, and one of her recent favorite episodes is “Samurai Pie,” in which pie maker Tyrone tries to teach Austin to “make pies like a samurai.” Austin must try to make The Great Pie for Empress Tasha while ninjas Uniqua and Pablo try to steal the pie! I shouldn’t admit this, but it’s very cute and one of my favorites, too. Taylor likes to dance and do the martial arts movements along with the characters, and she says “Pie-ya!” All of this is adorable, and we gave her a plastic bowl and big spoon so she could also pretend to make pies.

But what really got my crafty juices flowing was Tyrone’s “puffy hat,” also referred to as his “puffy baker’s hat” (Austin eventually earns one, too.). I know I could just buy a kid-sized chef’s hat, but what fun would that be? I downloaded a free chef’s hat pattern on youcanmakethis.com and got to work. I found the pattern a little confusing at times, and I think it assumes the user has a little more knowledge than I have. For example, it never tells you to remove the basting stitches, but it makes sense that you should, so I did. Is it common knowledge that basting stitches are always temporary? I have no idea, but apparently I should.

I made the toddler-sized hat, which is kind of big on Taylor, but she can grow into it, and she loves it anyway. She didn’t want to take it off, and this is not a child who likes to wear hats!

She looked more like a pilgrim than a chef until I smooshed the hat down a little.

I should have waited until morning to give the “puffy hat” to Taylor, because once she saw herself in the mirror, she wanted to watch “Samurai Pie,” but it was bedtime. I think my little baker will be making lots of fake pies tomorrow!