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Felt play food

38K views 127 replies 59 participants last post by  sunanthem 
#1 ·
My DS has a homemade felt pizza kit that he loves to play with. It consists of a 6-inch diameter tan felt circle for the crust, a 5-inch red circle for the sauce, 4 1.5 inch circles for pepperoni/sausage, 4 brown mushroom shapes, 3 cloud-shaped green spinach leaves, and about 8 or 10 wavy ivory strips for cheese.

I'd like to make more food kits like this one. I'm thinking of making a taco/burrito kit and a sunny-side up egg, but am looking for other suggestions or patterns. Could someone direct me to a website or book with felt fabric patterns?
 
#2 ·
I made my girls breakfast and cookies. Tacos and pizza are such a great idea!! I was planning on making sandwhich sets. as well as waffles and bagles.
 
#3 ·
#4 ·
cute cakes.
 
#7 ·
Holy freaking cow!!!! She is an artist. I was impressed with my eggs and bacon. but sushi in little bento boxes. how awsome is that.
 
#9 ·
Whoa, I definitely had something simpler in mind when I started looking for patterns!

To make felt tacos, start with a circular 6 inch "tortilla" in ivory or tan. Add a few amorphous brown blob shapes for meat or beans. Some 1.5 inch long red crescents for tomatoes, green cloud shapes for lettuce or spinach, and yellow-orange strips for cheese. Mmmm, I'm getting hungry.
 
#11 ·
I use the acrylic felt. It works fine. It would be fun to use wool and dye it nd the whole 9 yards but i can get arylic craft felt for 10/$1.
 
#12 ·
If you are going to put a lot of time and effort out on making felt food, you will probably want to use a quality felt - acrylic is nasty! Wool blend felt is a nice compromise.

Weir Doll has a very nice quality 70% wool felt, in a nice array of colors, including plant dyed, and I have seen it sold in some local sewing shops as well, so it is getting a bit easier to find. The other 30% of the wool blend is rayon, and some artisans say this makes it easier to work with than the pure wool variety.

I LOVE working with 100% wool felt, myself. It is as nice to use as the finished toys are to play with. It is just pure pleasure to sew. It is more durable than synthetics, and you can steam it into shape, not so with acrylic. The colors are so much nicer and more natural.
 
#13 ·
yeah, you're right. i am addicted to wool felt -- i had a fantasy of something exacty like wool but really cheap, haha. here in new york, i usually get mine from a shop called brooklyn general (i believe they also take online and phone orders) -- they have amazing colours. i did find a nice blend that marcus brothers makes, in great colours, and you can get a different texture by soaking it in hot water for 20 minutes and then machine drying -- it comes out very soft and sort of fluffy.
 
#14 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by E.V. Lowi
If you are going to put a lot of time and effort out on making felt food, you will probably want to use a quality felt - acrylic is nasty!
I think this is an opinion that could be stated more politely. I think acrylic felt has a place when cost and availability is a consideration. Vegans might prefer to use it as well. I personally use both acrylic and wool felt. I would rather see someone make toys for their child with love from acrylic felt than feel compelled to buy crappy plastic food because they can't afford wool felt.
 
#18 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Kari_mom
I would rather see someone make toys for their child with love from acrylic felt than feel compelled to buy crappy plastic food because they can't afford wool felt.
Yeah! We're not all aiming for family heirlooms here....
 
#19 ·
what is needle felting?
 
#20 ·
Needle felting is a dry technique that uses a barbed needle to tangle the wool fibers together, rather than water/heat/agitation like wet felting or glues like some flat felt techniques. Here is a link to make a ladybug that is a good overview: Mielke Farm. Needle felting is next on my personal list of stuff to try, it looks really cool.
 
#21 ·
I just want to add a few thoughts about the wool verses acrylic felt topic - Wool fibers are very difficult to ignite, and are self extinguishing; that is, they quit burning when removed from the source of the flame. Acrylic, on the other hand ignites at a very low temperature, and continues to burn when removed from the flame source and turns into a sticky mass of hot melted plastic which adheres to the skin, kind of like napalm. For this reason alone, I do not recommend using acrylic in toys. It is simply not safe in products meant for children. Polyester felt has a higher melting point, and would be a better choice, if you are looking to use a completely synthetic felted fiber. I believe that Central Shippee carried poly felt at one time, but I haven't checked that source lately.

As far as moths and other bugs, I have never had a problem with them on any of the wool felt that I have purchased in the last three decades. I think it must be mothproofed these days. They do go after the wool stuffing that I use, and the roving, as well. Placing these into a plastic bag in the freezer compartment for a couple of days cures the problem.

As far as making "heirlooms" goes, if your children are quite young, you may not be aware of it yet, but they tend to create their own ideas about what they consider an heirloom, and it might surprise you when they do. My own children treasured the things that I made for them, regardless of what it was made out of!
 
#22 ·
I am not that concerned about the fake bacon bursting into flames. I don't know, I think we have a clearly diffrent quality in mind. mine is cute (imho) and sewn but otherwise is just a step above paper cutouts. I just wanted something that wouldn't leave a mark when it hit you in the head and was a little more whimiscal than real. . . . . and it never gets near flames.


here is a picture of my "leftovers " from my Christmas presents. its a bad picture. it works for my kids. I have about $.50 into it and it took me all of 30 minutes to whip up. I guess if it does go up in flames or isn't the top quality it just doesn't matter to me. it is fun to make, my girls did the strawberries themselves, we had a blast doing it together. I don't think I could make the real thing in 30 mintes
if it took too much time and money I would be hesitant to let my childen play with it much less be the ones to sew it. i would be chasing them making sure the played with them right (as opposed to thier strawberry wars
: ) it would be bad.
I don't know how much wool cost where you are but here it is like $8 a yeard which is way prohibitive. i could never afford to make it if I had to pay that much for materials. we are just making goofy little craft projects and play food. not artistic heirloom masterpeices. think more along the lines of strawberry torpedos
 
#24 ·
Quote:
As far as moths and other bugs, I have never had a problem with them on any of the wool felt that I have purchased in the last three decades. I think it must be mothproofed these days.
That is an interesting observation. I wonder what they are using, and if it is toxic. I find that even my older children will 'mouth' play food. Any ideas on where to find out?
 
#26 ·
The moth proofing is added to the raw wool during processing - not sprayed on the surface of the felt. There are also chemical dyes used to color the felt. Even natural plant based dyes can be very toxic. But since wool is naturally flame retardant, that is one less chemical to worry about. With acrylic, you have that issue, in addition to the formaldehyde that is used in the fiber processing, which off gasses forever.

We never plan to catch something on fire, but accidents do happen! All toys manufactured overseas must be tested for flammabilty, and pass certain standards of safety, prior to importing to the US. Shouldn't we be as cautious with our own kids?
 
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