Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Play with your food

Felt kitchen toys fun and easy to make

Felt faux food is a fun alternative to plastic for a child’s play kitchen. These strawberries, the banana, sandwich, lunch sack and fortune cookie were made either using Bugga Bugs patterns or by following free tutorials online. Special to  (Megan Cooley Special to / The Spokesman-Review)

A growing number of parents are making toys for their children rather than buying them, and there are all sorts of reasons why.

Some have concerns about the safety of products made in countries with looser safety regulations than the United States.

Others are trying to save money or avoid exposing their children to too much commercialism.

Many of us, though, just can’t help ourselves. Making toys is loads of fun.

One type of toy that’s popular to make right now is felt faux food. Fried eggs. Bananas. Sandwiches. Cupcakes. Even sushi is popping up in play kitchens everywhere.

Sure, you can buy a fridge full of plastic food for about $20 at most superstores, but felt food looks more authentic and most of it is easy to make. Many projects don’t even require a sewing machine.

The key is to use wool felt instead of craft felt. It costs a bit more, but you’re going to want a finished product that feels good in a child’s hands. Plus, if you’re taking the time to make felt food from scratch, you’ll want something that lasts a long time – perhaps from one generation to the next.

It can be difficult to find 100 percent wool felt in a variety of colors at conventional fabric stores, so there might be times you’ll have to settle for a wool blend or order online, such as through Prairie Point Junction, at www.prairiepointjunction.com.

If you sew and you excelled in geometry class, you’ll likely have no trouble figuring out your own patterns for making felt food. In fact, I challenge you to go into a grocery store now without conjuring up ways to sew milk cartons, apple slices and cookies. Once you get the faux food bug, it’s difficult not to view the world in felt.

For those of us who are three-dimensionally challenged, there are patterns available.

Annika Rau, a mother in Bend, Ore., sells her original patterns on Etsy ( www.etsy.com) through her company Bugga Bugs ( www.buggabugs.etsy.com).

Rau began writing patterns when she couldn’t find felt food available for sale.

“After many attempts and lots of hair pulling, I finally had … drum roll please … a donut!” she wrote in an e-mail exchange. “I was so proud of myself that it was all I could do to keep from submitting my work to the Louvre (Museum, in Paris).”

Bugga Bugs’ pattern offerings are extensive, and include instructions for making tea cakes, pineapples, pizza and a campout set that includes a hot dog, s’mores and a bag of chips.

Rau’s customers hail from as far away as Australia and Germany. She’s heard from crafters who nervously gave the felt food they made as birthday gifts, then were pleasantly surprised to see their creations become the hit of the parties.

She also heard back from a customer who sewed felt food with her sisters in a hospital waiting room.

“Her niece was born with heart problems, and while she was having surgery the sisters sewed to keep themselves calm,” Rau wrote. “The nurses even used the smaller pieces … to prop the baby up and keep her comfortable during her recovery.”

Rau shared her instructions for making strawberries, an easy entry-level project.

•Cut a half circle, with a diameter of about 3 inches, from a piece of red felt. That will be the body of your strawberry.

•Cut two four-pointed stars from a piece of green felt. Those will make up your stem.

•Optional: Using white thread, create seeds by making five or so French knots on the middle of the red half circle.

•Fold the half circle in half to form a cone shape. If you made seed knots, fold so the wrong side of the fabric faces out. Using red thread, sew up the side of the cone, starting at the tip and working your way to the opening at the top.

•Turn the cone right side out, fill it with a small amount of stuffing, then stitch around the cone’s opening using a running stitch, tugging as you go to gather the fabric at the top of the strawberry.

•When you’ve made it all the way around, sew across the strawberry’s top to hold it shut and knot off.

•Using either green thread or embroidery floss, stitch the two green stars onto the top of the strawberry, one on top of the other.

So next time you’re sitting through a ballet lesson or standing on the soccer sidelines, put down the latest issue of Peoplemagazine and pick up a needle, thread and some felt. By the time junior is done with practice, you could have grown a pint of felt berries or cooked up some other felt food creations.

For more felt food resources and other crafty fun, visit Megan Cooley’s blog, www.pennycarnival.typepad.com. Megan also can be reached at (509) 326-6024 or megan.cooley@comcast.net.