Gift Idea: Homemade Felt Food Toys

Are you looking for a frugal, but fun toy to give your child for Christmas? Felt play food is easy to make and very inexpensive. And you do not need to know how to sew. Here are some ideas, tips, pictures, and instructions if you want to make your own felt food for a gift!

Felt is very inexpensive. 11×9 felt sheets are $.29 at Jo-Ann, or you can buy 1/4 yard of 60″ felt by the yard (use a 40% off coupon to save even more). If you choose to sew your felt food, you will need some polyfill stuffing or quilt batting. Even with a 40% off coupon, I've found this to be much cheaper at Wal-Mart, if your Wal-Mart carries craft materials.

Here are many of the felt food items I've made for my daughter along with a basic explanation of how I did it. I machine-sewed as much as possible, using straight and zigzag stitches – nothing fancy. I've also provided links to no-sew instructions, or details sewing instructions if you're interested. Warning: making felt food is a very addicting hobby.

No-Sew Pizza and Sandwich Kit
I provided instructions for making simple no-sew pizza or sandwich sets here. I haven't made these myself because I have a sewn version, but if you can use scissors, you can make these!

Felt Sack Lunch Set
This felt lunch set uses the sewn version of the lunch items I talked about above as well as a peelable banana. The lunch sack itself was an idea I found on Skip to My Lou.

Felt Breakfast Set
The breakfast items are pretty self-explanatory. To sew felt pancakes, eggs, and bacon, just cut shapes from felt, and add a little batting in between the pancake layers and inside the egg yolk.

Felt Build-Your-Own Pizza Set
Here is the sewn version of the felt pizza set. The pizza crust didn't turn out as well as I would have like, and I would try something different if I did it again. If you don't sew, this would be so easy to make one dimensional. Just cut everything out of felt with scissors, and you're done!

Felt Hot Dog
I made this felt hot dog and bun set as a stocking stuffer last year. I had to make up my own pattern for this, but I am really pleased with how it turned out. The hot dog is just a rectangle sewn up on the long side, and gathered on each end. The bun is made from two rounded rectangles, and I sewed a line down the middle after turning and stuffing, to help it stay closed. I grabbed some red and yellow ric rac from the by-the-yard trims section at Jo-Ann to serve as ketchup and mustard.

If you're interested in seeing the rest of my daughter's growing homemade play food collection, included a few crocheted items pictured above, you can find it all here.

I also saw this play stove idea that would be great for storing a felt food collection in if you don't have a play kitchen.