Felt Lollipops

Used the tutorial from One Inch World. These are for Colette's birthday, though I made some for Maggie too, of course.
ETA: These are not very durable. They didn't last long at all with the toddlers.

Easter Bunnies

I made these marshmallow peep bunnies out of felt for Easter this year. I made enough for my Primary class, my nieces, and of course Maggie and Colette (totally counts as felt food!) I just cut out two bunny shapes for each and embroidered french knots for the eyes and nose. Then I blanket stitched the two sides together, stuffing before finishing off. I also decided to add arms to the bunnies to hold a treat, cash, or a note. The arm is just a strip of felt, added to the blanket stitch on both sides. I was going to do the Peeps chicks (pattern here), but I didn't really like how the one I made turned out, plus I liked the bunny-arm idea.Why can't she sit this still when I'm trying to take a picture of her?

Felt Play Money

I made a few felt play bills for Maggie today. I like how the freehand cutting and the handstitching gave them a bit of a cartoony look. I got the idea here.

Felt Fortune Cookies and Chinese Take Out Box

I followed the instructions for making the felt fortune cookies at Somewhat Simple. They were really easy and fast to make. The Chinese take out box is another story. I sewed the whole thing by hand, plus the embroidery. I got the pattern and instructions here. It was fun and definitely worth the effort, though. This is one of my favorite items of felt food I've made so far.

Felt Green Eggs and Ham

Maggie is very into the book Green Eggs and Ham right now. In fact, I often quote it to get her to try new things (like the Winnie-the-Pooh ride). For her birthday, I made her a set of green eggs and ham out of felt, to go with her felt play food collection. The other felt green ham I found online was more of a slice of ham, but I went ahead and tried for a half a ham. I folded a square into a triangle and sewed on edge. Then I rounded the top (not enough) and added an oval to the opening. I sewed some detail stitching and a bone on the oval first. It was pretty easy to make. I think she's going to love it.

I used 1 sheet of green felt and already had the white felt and polyfill. So 30 cents for this gift.

It appears I am rapidly running out of the time when I can make gifts in front of Maggie. While I was finishing up the eggs, she walked in an said, "hey! an egg!" Oops.

I finally found the original idea I saw here. I really thought it was a ham shaped ham, but I guess not.

Felt Hot Dog and Bun

I made felt hot dogs to add to Maggie and Colette's felt food collections. The mustard is yellow ric rac (they were out of red). I published detailed instructions here.

Felt Sack Lunch Set

This is what I ended up making for this year's Talent Auction. In August. I actually made four of these sets, two for upcoming 2nd birthdays and two for the auction. I did the sewing for two of them yesterday, and it took about 4 hours. So two hours each, plus the crocheting. Each set includes a lunch sack, ingredients for a lunchmeat sandwich or PBJ, a banana, an Oreo, and a chocolate chip cookie.

I got the instructions for the lunch sack from Skip to My Lou. However, she doesn't give dimensions, or instructions for sewing the extra seams on each corner, which Rachel and I decided were necessary for structure and cuteness. I used 10x12 rectangles of felt, and cut off 1 1/2" squares on the bottom. I embroidered the LUNCH on one side, freehand using my trusty darning foot. The one in the picture is crooked. The other ones are straight because I sewed along a piece of tape, but the tape fuzzied the felt a bit when I removed it. Still trying to find a good solution.

To sew the corner seams, I pinched each corner down and flattened it one at a time (see picture). Then I pinned it and sewed as close as I could along the corner. Normally I don't condone things like pinning, but if you don't pin it, your seam won't be straight and your bag will be ugly. I'm just saying.

Summer Fake Food

I made some more felt food items for the girls' birthdays coming up. Watermelon slices and grape and lime popsicles.
John helped with the twin pop shape. If anyone is wondering, it is entirely possible to sew through popsicle sticks.
I made the watermelon with a circle each of red and white felt. I sewed them together, then embroidered french knots around the edge. Hah, that sounds so fancy. I tied knots out of black yarn. Then I sewed the top piece to an arch of green. This slice is too thick for my taste. I wanted it to be skinnier at the top. I'll try again.

Felt Food Accessories: Menu and Drawstring Bag

I made and laminated menus to go with the girls' felt food sets for Christmas. I just typed it up in Word and copied it into two columns. It is two sided. I took them to Kinko's to have them laminated for just over $1.

For Colette, I made a drawstring bag with a pocket in front for the menu. (I didn't make one for Maggie because she has a play kitchen to keep her food in.) I cut a piece of fabric twice as wide as I wanted the bag (plus 1 inch for seam allowance) and just as tall (plus 2 inches). Then I cut out a piece for the pocket.

I folded the top of the pocket down twice and sewed along the top. Then I folded the sides and bottom of the pocket in and pinned it to the front of the bag. Then I sewed it on close to the edge of the sides and bottom.

To make the casing for the drawstring, fold the top edge down once just to hide the raw edge and once again big enough for your drawstring (I just used 1/2" ribbon). Press and stitch close to bottom edge of the fold.

Then put right sides of the bag together and sew along the bottom and side of the bag, leaving the drawstring casing open.

You can tuck the raw ends of the casing into the casing itself. Thread the drawstring through the casing by attaching a safety pin to the end and working it through. Tie knots in the drawstring to keep it from getting unstrung. If you are using ribbon you can keep it from unraveling by melting the threads together at the end over a match.

Play Felt Food and Instructions

For Christmas I made Maggie and Colette each a set of fake food. Colette opened hers today so I'm going to go ahead and get a head start on my Christmas-gift posting.

Most of this was very easy to make. I used acrylic felt which I bought for $2/yard or 25 cents a sheet at Jo-Ann. I spent about $15 on this entire project, and that includes buying a bag of batting I barely touched and plenty of leftover felt. So about $5 for each set. Felt is easy to work with because it doesn't fray or unravel so it doesn't need finished edges. Most of the sewing was done by machine with straight or zigzag stitches. Aside from the chocolate chip cookies, Oreos and donuts, I made:

Bread: Cut two cream bread shapes and a long tan strip. I sewed the strip to one bread shape, then most of the way around the other. Then I turned, stuffed with a few layers of batting, and hand stitched the opening closed.
Lunch Meat: ham and turkey. Two circles zigzag stitched together.
Cheese: Two rectangles zigzaged together. I used a straight stitch to add circles to the Swiss cheese.
Lettuce: I cut a lettuce shape out of two layers of green felt. I zigzaged them together, then used a straight stitch to add detail stitching to the leaves.
Tomato: Two layers of a red felt circle. Zigzaged together, then added detail stitching in the center.
Mayo, Mustard, Ketchup, Jelly and Syrup: Cut out blob shapes.
Peanut Butter: Sewed together two blob shapes using a zigzag stitch.
Pancakes: Two circles with a layer of batting in between. Zigzaged together.
Butter: two squares of yellow straight stitched together.
Bacon: I straight stitched two tan strips to a larger brown strip.
Egg: For the egg I used two white blobs and a yellow circle. Stitch the yellow circle to one white blob - before closing the circle, lower the needle and stuff with polyfill. Finish stitching the circle. Zigzag the other white blob underneath.
Pizza crust/sauce/cheese: I am not very happy with how my pizza turned out. I layered an 8 inch tan crush with a 7 inch layer of batting, a 6 inch tan crust, a blob of sauce and a blob of cheese. Stitched around the outsides to hold everything down. Then I stitched the pizza into four pieces in double lines and cut between the double lines. I folded the larger tan crust over the batting and hand stitched it to the upper crust. Each girl got two pieces.
Pizza toppings: These are all just shapes cut out of felt. Yellow pineapple, pink ham, red pepperoni, brown mushrooms, green peppers, and black olives.
Carrots: I cut two long ovals, stitched them with the machine leaving a gap, turned, stuffed and hand stitched the opening closed. Then I hand sewed on two wavy green strips at the top.
Cucumbers/Pickles: I made these the same way I made the bread only without any batting. I machine-stitched a green strip to one cream circle. Then I stitched the other cream circle to the other side of the green strip, most of the way around. Turned through the gap and hand stitched closed.
Banana: The banana was complicated enough to make that I wrote down instructions as I figured it out. The banana was the first thing I made, back in September and I've been keeping it a secret. Finally, I published my instructions, so you can check them out here.

Sack lunch: turkey sandwich with carrot sticks and Oreos.

Sandwich ingredients.

BLT.

Breakfast.

Salad.

Pizza.

I have more felt food planned, but I think it'll wait until the girls' birthdays this spring.

Here are some links I found helpful while planning this craft:
Felt Food Tutorial
Crocheted Food Patterns

Crocheted Chocolate Chip Cookie

Here are the instructions for the crocheted chocolate chip cookies I made this week. They are really easy if you know how to crochet in the round. No fancy stitches or anything. I made this recipe up myself. The finished cookies are about 2 1/2 inches wide and 1 cm thick. This is a great portable project that can be whipped up in less than 1/2 hour.

Supplies:
tan yarn
darn brown yarn
size G crochet hook
yarn needle

Stitch abbreviations:
Ch=chain
SC=single crochet
DC=double crochet
Sl St=slip stitch
St=stich

Worked in the round, joining.

Cookie (Make two)
Round 1: Using tan yarn, make a magic ring, ch 2, 13 DC in magic ring, join with sl st (14 DC)
Round 2: Ch 2, 1 DC in same st, 2 DC in each st around, join with sl st (28 DC)
Round 3: Ch 1, 1 SC in same st, *1 SC, 2 SC* repeat from * around, join with sl st (42 SC)
Tie off.

Tighten, knot and trim magic ring end of yarn. Pull other end of yarn to back end of cookie. Stack two cookies, front sides out. Thread yarn needle with tan yarn and stitch together through Round 3, starting in between the cookies. If you don’t have a yarn needle you can join using a sl st. Tuck yarn ends inside cookie.

Chocolate chips
Thread yarn needle with dark brown thread. Stitch a chocolate chip by stitching several times in the same area. Tuck thread end in between cookies and stitch over. Be sure to look at both sides of your cookie while making the chocolate chips. Move your yarn to another place on the cookie by sliding the needle in between cookie layers. Stitch several times for another chocolate chip. Repeat until your cookie is chocolatey enough.

This is my own original pattern. Feel free to use it for personal and gift-giving use but please don't sell items made from this pattern.

Crocheted Fortune Cookie

I made this little guy to sneak into John's computer bag. I hope he found it!

This was very easy to make. I made a magic loop, then did three rows without joining rounds: DC 12 in loop and draw up, DC 24 (2 in each stitch) and DC 36 (2 in every other stitch). Then I folded the cookie in half, stitched the edges together most of the way around (gotta leave room for the fortune!) and stitched the folded edge to itself halfway down. Voila!

Crocheted Sweets

Over the past few weeks I've spent a bit of time crocheting. I made some fake food for Maggie to play with. I think fake food is the most fabulous of toys, but all Maggie has is half a lemon and a stick of butter. Seriously. So I made a frosted donut, a strawberry ice cream cone and two Oreos. I'm especially proud of the frosted donut (with sprinkles!). More to come.

Oops, I forgot to post the patterns I used. Here they are:
Crocheted ice cream cone
Crocheted Oreos
Crocheted frosted donut (This one wants me to sign in to view it, but I didn't have to before. Luckily I wrote it down, I guess.)

Here is a great site which helped me find these patterns:
Crocheted Food List