Friday, January 25, 2008

Fabulous Felt Food









So... A few months ago I discovered children's felt play food. I was instantly addicted. I made a few pieces in November, thinking I would give my girls an entire supermarket full of food for Christmas. Well... as December came around I found myself at my parents house working on the Barbie dream house that I was building. (That post is yet to come) Needless to say.... I never finished all the foods that I wanted to give them, so I put it all away under my desk for another time. Another time came this week. I decided to give the foods that I had made to my girls and see if they liked them enough for me to make more. Indeed they did!!! They immediately went about taking orders from whoever may be in the house at that moment. They also started to list off more things that I just “Had” to make. Over the past week I've added lots of fruit, veggies, breads and bags to store it all in. I still have a list as long as my arm of items to make.

I love how easily felt works up. It's very forgiving, and because these things are for my kids to play with, I'm not trying to make them “perfect”. They are fine with them being sewn on the machine. Which makes me happy, because when dealing with projects like felt foods I need instant gratification. I think these foods have been appealing to me because of the diversity of colors and items that I'm making. I've never been one to sit and make 20 of something in a row. I've always needed a change of scenery. That's definitely why my knitting basket has 5 things that I'm working on all at once. Anyways... I'm getting off track. Here's a list of the items that I've made so far. (no particular order)

6 Slices bread, 3 pancakes with syrup, 3 pieces butter, Bow tie pasta, Spaghetti sauce, 3 meatballs, hamburger patti, 2 strips bacon, 2 fried eggs, 2 slices mystery sandwich meat, 2 slices cheddar, 2 slices swiss, peanut butter & jelly glops, 1 bag doritos, 1 bag potato chips, 6 sprinkled sugar cookies, 4 tea bags, 4 slices of oranges, 4 slices of apple, 5 cherries, 1 stem of grapes, 4 slices banana, 2 slices kiwi, 5 beaded strawberries, 3 slices of lemons, 3 slices of limes, 6 soybeans, 3 slices cucumber, lots of lettuce, 4 slices pickles, 5 baby carrots, 2 whole carrots, 3 slices tomato, onion slices..... Whew.... and to think I still have lots to go!!! I also made up 6 lunch sack style bags to hold it all in. I cut out color full felt squares and free cut the letters. I then used free motion sewing to sew down all the letters using a rainbow thread.

I'm currently crocheting up some cupcakes to go with all this. Eventually I want them to have a whole bakery full of sweets.


Oh!! I forgot to mention that I didn't really use patterns for anything. I just sorta winged it.

10 comments:

Kii said...

Everything is sooooo beautiful and colourful. I just love felt food and I am really surprise that you didnt even follow any pattern or template. You really deserve every craftster's respect and salute!!

April said...

Love this!! I love that you "winged" it. That's my kind of people!

Glad I stumbed onto your Blog...I'll definately be back.

Peace ~ April

bperry042 said...

Thanks so much!! I usually have to have patterns for everything. It took some effort to "free form" these.

brighteyes said...

What a fabulous craft! I love all the colors and variety of items. It makes me hungry just looking at them. Bow tie pasta. Italian, yum my favorite ethnic food! You certainly are talented and do a beautiful job! What an imagination. Kudos to YOU!

Anonymous said...

LOVE your felted food. I'm wondering... I just accepted the challenge to make felt food (one type) for a felt food exchange. I don't know how to work my mom's sewing machine (which I have at my house), but I can probably hand stitch ok...what food do you recommend for my first try??

bperry042 said...

Thanks!! You can sew all of these foods without a sewing machine. I would suggest starting with simple flat things like, pancakes,cookies, veggie and fruit slices... things like that. Have fun with your challenge, it sounds like fun!!

Beth said...

Oh, I love that you made so many different foods. I love the bag of chips too, and it is amazing that you did it without a pattern!

bperry042 said...

Thanks Beth!! I had so much fun making everything.

denisemichelle said...

Thanks so much for the inspiration, I've recently made a couple of sets of food as a gift. One thing I struggled with however, was with my pinking shears. I obviously need them sharpened, however I did try using a couple of other shears, and my felt just gets so fuzz at the ends when I've pinked them. Are there any other sort of tricks of the trade you'd recommend? Do you use shears or a pinking rotary cutter?
Link to my attempt
Thanks!

bperry042 said...

Thanks! Unfortunately I don't have any grande ideas for an alternative to pinking sheers. I've never tried the rotary style ones before. I just use the scissor style ones. And they have to be very sharp otherwise they do just leave a fuzzy mess behind.

So, I guess my best advise would be to omit the pinking sheers and just use your scissors to cut out your felt foods. The felt won't fray, so the pinked edge is just there to look pretty. And... Have Fun!!