I am taking a little time offline this week to spend with family and to try and kick the final symptoms of my recent illness. Fortunately, I have some great blogging friends who have offered to help me out with a series of fabulous guest posts. Today the wonderful Amanda of Not Just Cute inspires us with her plans for a touch of handmade this Christmas.
My children love to play with their food. That is, they love to play with toy food. We have a small set of inexpensive plastic food, but lately I’ve felt like it’s time to expand the menu. In my search for new cuisine, I’ve decided that making some felt pieces might be a great route to take. Felt food pieces offer a different sensory experience than the typical plastic pieces. They can be both realistic and charming. Avoiding paints and other aspects of manufacturing can also contribute to the piece’s safety.
I began scanning the internet for a few ideas and was bowled over with inspiration! I thought I’d share a bit with you as well.
On the Fiskars website (incidentally, my go-to brand for sewing scissors), I found instructions for this hearty breakfast, as well as for pizza and pasta, all of which look simple enough for my basic sewing skills, and good enough to eat (or at least pretend to)!
Skip to My Lou offers an unintimidating tutoral for this darling doughnut, perfect for my boys who are slightly obsessed with the odd story of Arnie the Doughnut. Simple circles. I think I can handle this!
{Image: Carrie McBride, via Ohdeedoh}
Then, I stumbled upon the motherload! Ohdeedoh has a HUGE felt food roundup, featuring tutorials for the darling farmer’s market basket from Shelley Inspired, pictured at the top of this post, as well as an amazingly simple no-sew cinnamon roll and an irresistible slice of pumpkin pie, complete with whipped cream on top, both from Smashed Peas and Carrots.
So I think I’ll be busy with a few felt projects between now and Christmas. We’ll see if I stick to simple circles of pancakes, donuts, and cookies, or if I get really ambitious and branch out to the farmer’s market basket!
Have you made felt food? Do you have a favorite felt food tutorial? Please share your experiences and helpful hints!
Amanda Morgan is a mom, an educator, a consultant, a writer, and a chocolate fiend. Her blogs, Not Just Cute, focuses on the education and development of the whole child.
Related Posts – More Homemade for Kids Christmas Ideas
- DIY Kids: Treehouse Play Scene
- Dress Ups: Winging It!
- Let’s Dress Up: Butterfly Mask
- Felt Ice Cream Tutorial
Read more of Christie's adventures at http://childhood101.com.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
oh play food is so on my brain lately too! that farmers market basket is beautiful and if i could pull my finger out i would love to attempt to make such a thing. i have been eyeing off some gorgeous wooden play food sets online, they are pricey but made to last and so much nicer than the plastic stuff. i should just pull my finger out and make my own though, thanks for the inspiration!
That ohdeedoh was such an inspiration as well as Skip to my Lou. I have to make some more this winter. Also check out etsy shops for felt food that you can buy or for more inspiration some people make entire cookware sets so cool!
I literally just today told my best friend I was going to attempt to make felt fruit/veggies for my will be (5 months at Christmas) daughter for Christmas. Thank you for posting this!
Our kids were given some felt foods last Christmas and even my almost 8 year olds play with them ALL the time…. great gift idea!
I love the ideas! I was trying to think of something original for my niece, so I am off to buy some felt to make her some food for Christmas!
I have only just tried sewing with felt. And am so glad to find that it is easy. What a brilliant idea. Bring on the handmade Christmas ideas! Thanks Childhood 101. You always provide such great resources. grace
I’ve made heaps of felt food for my kids – they love it. Here’s the links to a few I’ve done: http://abunchofkeys.blogspot.com/2010/05/basket-of-vegies.html, http://abunchofkeys.blogspot.com/2010/09/basket-of-fruit.html and http://abunchofkeys.blogspot.com/2011/04/lunch-for-one.html There should be links to the patterns/tutorials I used in the posts too. I’ll be making felt cupcakes and teabags for christmas presents for the kids too
The breakfast items just make me smile. Love the bacon. Thanks for sharing.
{ 2 trackbacks }