Passover is right around the corner. Have you stocked up on boxes of matzah yet? I made a matzah trip the other day and came home with jumbo boxes to last our large family through passover (hopefully). In the spirit of all things matzah, I made two matzah kippahs that look good enough to shmear with your favorite matzah topping. I used to think that making a kippah must be really hard, but it's surprisingly easy and can be done in just a few hours. Today I'm going to show you how simple it is.
The Uncommon Yarmulke
is a fantastic book written by Cathy Perlmutter that walks you step by
step through the process of making your own yarmulke or kippah, as it's
called in Hebrew. First, hop on over to Cathy's website here
and purchase a copy of her book for specific templates and
measurements. If you're an instant gratification person, like me, you
can get a pdf copy of her book and print out those templates right now! (This post is in no way endorsed or sponsored by Ms. Perlmutter. I just love her book! If you don't want to buy a copy, you can make your own templates using an existing kippah that you own, but out of respect for Ms. Perlmutter's copyright, I will not be including specific templates or measurements.)
I got my matzah fabric from 1-800-Dreidel.com. They have a fabulous selection of Jewish-themed fabrics and craft supplies. You can find the matzah fabric here, but I just purchased a small remnant piece from their website. This project is great for using up those small bits of fabric.
- a medium or quilter's weight cotton fabric for the outer fabric and lining
- fusible interfacing of your choice
- template plastic, cardboard, or card stock
- some type of marking tool
- pins (They'll get a lot of use)
- clover clips (optional)
The matzah fabric was a lightweight canvas type fabric, so I chose not to interface it,
but if you're using a cotton, I suggest adding interfacing for extra body.
After making your template from The Uncommon Yarmulke - I'll be making the four-panel kippah - you'll need to trace it onto your fabrics. You'll need four from your matzah fabric, four from your lining fabric, and either eight or four from the fusible interfacing - depending on the thickness of your fabrics. Make sure you mark the top of your template where the four panels will come together in the center. Transfer this mark onto each of the outer, interfacing, and lining pieces. Trust me, I speak from experience.
Follow the directions for your particular interfacing to fuse it to the lining and outer fabrics.
For my kippah, I chose to do a prepared bias binding. The Uncommon Yarmulke also has directions on how to use packaged binding, which is a really easy and quick option. Nine pieces of fabric - Easy!
Now we sew - my favorite part! I despise the prep work. See that lovely little dot at the top of my fabric? That's the mark I told you to make. You'll match up the two tops and pin along one side.
This is where you'll be sewing using a 1/4" seam. Match and pin the two
pairs of lining fabrics and the two pairs of outer fabrics. If you're really adventurous, you can skip the pinning.
Head on over to the ironing board. Before you use that bad boy, make sure you finger press the seams open. Because we've got a curved seam, ironing can be kind of tricky, so take your time. It's important that your seam is open fully and pressed all the way so it lays nicely later on. Pressing on the right side is also essential. This is the part where I always say I should get a ham - no, not the oinking kind - the kind that's used to iron curved parts on garments. But using the end of your ironing board or just squiggling the tip of your iron in there works too.
Look! Now we're got four sort of butterfly looking things. Time to make it just two!
There are those marks again! They're so crucial to this process. We're going to match up the two outer pieces and the two lining pieces. You want to make sure you match up the marks on both pieces that you're sewing or you'll be stitching the bottom together - not so good.
Now is not the time to be adventurous. You want to have those seams match up perfectly - or as close to it as you can. I like to pin just on either side of the seam. Then you want to match up the ends and pin along the curve. Use as few or many pins as you need to feel comfortable. Going slowly as you sew also helps.
Time to iron again. Now you should have your lining and outer sections all sewn together. Finger press that long seam open and hit it with the iron again. It's a little bit more difficult now that you're essentially trying to iron inside a little bowl, but I just do one side, the other, and then get the tip of the iron into the center. Also make sure you press the right side as well.
Now it's time to sew the lining to the outer section. This step is something I came up with. The book just says to pin it, but I found that pinning the two sections together and sewing a smidge less than 1/4" seam helped the raw edges to stay together better while I was getting the binding pinned and sewn on. Once again, we're matching up seams. Make sure the four lining seams match up with the four outer seams.
Because the two sections are the same size, it will seem at first that the edges to not want to fit - or that you made something too large. It's okay. You just need to convince it to come together. See my nice little cactus-y, porcupiney thing up there? Here's where you need to pin the heck out of this. Start with those four seams, then match up the raw edges in between each seam. Next you'll match up halfway between each of those pins. Then you should have your own little kippah porcupine.
Sew, sew, sew! Just give the edge a little smoosh and sew less than 1/4" all the way around the edge. This stitching line will be covered by your binding later (if you make sure it's just a smidge away from the raw edge) so it doesn't need to be perfect. We're just keeping everything together for the next step.
More pins! Depending on what type of binding you choose from the book and how you choose to finish it off, this is where you'll be pinning it along the edge. What I've done here is a prepared bias binding made to match my lining with a mitered edge. You'll pin it all around the outer edge and stitch it a scant 1/4" all the way around. Take out all those pins and give them a rest. Time to use your finagling skills.
Wrap the binding around the raw edge, nice and tight and even, to the lining. The folded edge of the binding should easily go past the stitching line. On this step I like to use the clover clips. I used to use pins, but getting them through all those layers of fabric so they could secure the binding to the back was somewhat difficult. It's completely do-able, but the clover clips save a lot of time and hassle.
Once again we're going to stitch around the edge of the outer portion of the kippah. Stitch "in the ditch" or as close to the binding as you can. The closer you can get, the more sure you are that you'll catch the binding on the back to secure it and that your stitches on the outside will be less visible.
Guess what? You're finished! You now have a matzah kippah that will be the envy of everyone at your seder. Wasn't it easier than you thought? I hope that this post inspires you to get your own copy of
The Uncommon Yarmulke and start making these fanciful headcoverings for all the kippah wearers in your life. If you have any questions or need any help, just leave me a comment.
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