Free chef SVG files

Aprons, tea towels and what size to cut

Most of these end up on fabric. For the bib of an adult apron, cut a hat or the hat over a crossed spoon and fork at 120 to 150 mm wide; for a child’s apron, 80 to 100 mm. The hats are heavy shapes with only a few slits, so they press well in heat transfer vinyl and survive the wash. Mirror the design before cutting heat transfer vinyl, as always.

The whisk is the fine one. Its wires are about 2.5 mm wide when the whisk is 100 mm tall, which is fine in vinyl at that size but too thin for wood or acrylic below about 150 mm. The fork has four tines about 3 mm wide with gaps a little narrower, so weed between them with a pin, not a hook.

Which hat is which

The puffed hat with three lobes is the one most people draw, and it sits low and wide, good above a word. The tall pleated hat is closer to what is worn in a working kitchen, where the height once marked rank. It is narrow, so it fits beside a name or on the neck of a bottle. The hat and moustache is two loose pieces: keep them on the transfer tape so the gap between them stays right.

How to open the files

• Cricut Design Space: choose Upload, pick the SVG, and add it to the canvas. Set the width you want; the shape is already welded.
• Silhouette Studio: Designer Edition and above open the SVG. The free Basic Edition does not, so open the DXF instead.
• LightBurn, xTool Creative Space and Glowforge: import the SVG, then set the layer to cut, score or engrave.
• Inkscape, Illustrator and Affinity: open the SVG. It is a plain filled path, so you can recolour it, add a stroke or combine it with your own work.
• Printing or sublimation: use the PNG, which has a transparent background.

Each design page lists the file’s narrowest part at seven sizes, so you can tell whether it will survive at the size you plan to cut.

Questions