CREDITS:

Digital scrap items in the header, layouts and sidebar are by Miss Mint at PeppermintCreative.com or Jen Wilson at JenWilsonDesigns.com

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Felt Play Food & Directions!

I just can't ever stick to one thing, can I? LOL! I stumbled across handmade felt playfood last week and I immediately wanted to make some. Most of you know that I am ALL FOR pretend play and Aiden's huge trunk of dress ups just wouldn't be complete without an apron, some cooking items and play food. While I have big plans for some super cool "boyish" camping food, I started with the basics: cookies. I even made a brownie!



Now, I do not sew. In fact, this is one of the first sewing projects I have completed on my own without supervision or help (and band-aids) from the sweet, patient women in my family. Seriously, I am NOT talented with a needle and thread. But I have to say these treats turned out to be ADORABLE!!! That's how easy they are!!!

To give credit where it is due, I stumbled across this set for sale on Etsy and my cookies were (obviously) heavily inspired by her gorgeous designs:



While I like the messy frosting template I made, I might need to go buy a jumbo flower punch so I can cut the felt more quickly. (I'm pretty sure this is what others do for nicer looking frosting blobs.) Flower & scalloped circle punches are at Hobby Lobby for $10-$17 each.

I also am MADLY in love with this sack lunch set by Bugga Bugs and bought it on Etsy this morning!



She has lots of amazing food and tons of patterns you can buy. She even has a huge set of cupcake patterns that fit into a muffin tin! How cute is that?!!!

Okay, since I'm in the habit of crediting all my crafts, here is a quick run-down of what I used:

Materials:

Craft felt squares - 20¢ each at Hobby Lobby
Embroidery Floss - 29¢ each at Hobby Lobby
Poly Fill - $2.49 for a bag at Hobby Lobby
Crewel Embroidery Needles #20 - $1.29 at Hobby Lobby
Seed Beads - already had on hand. I used pink bugle beads and large seed beads
Small thread needle with narrow eye that seed beads could slide over
Card stock (any color) - for making my own patterns
Straight Pins


Directions:

I started with the frosted sugar cookies. First I used a drinking glass to trace a circle 2.5 inches wide on card stock and cut it out. Then I drew the icing blob and cut it out. Next I pinned the cookie pattern to the ivory felt and cut it out. Repeated with the frosting blob. (This way each cookie is the same.) You actually get to decorate the cookie first so I used one strand of floss that matched the icing color to tack the icing on the cookie with several spaced out stitches. Then I added the beads. Once the top was ready, I pinned it to another blank cookie cut out, making sure the edges matched up perfectly. I shoved a very small pinch of poly fill in between and hand-stitched the edges with closer stitching than what I used on the frosting edges. Each cookie took about 35 minutes. (Which is probably why they're $15 per half-dozen on Etsy!)

Note: Some people seem to prefer wool felt to the acrylic craft felt but wool felt is expensive. I used the craft felt and everything turned out great. You can also buy felt by the yard at HL in the fabric department. I've heard it's slightly better quality. Either way, all the felt is hand washable, even with beads. Red colors might bleed, though.

Want some inspiration? Imagine being a little girl again and sitting down to this tier of gorgeous play treats at a tea party:



Cupcakes & ice cream are the next thing I want to make! I do have to admit that I feel a little guilty for making junk food, especially since I'm always pushing fruits & veggies with Aiden. I think the healthy sack lunch pattern set will be a nice addition to his play food!