Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Hot Tamales!

A week of blustery and snowy weather at my house imposed the need to add a little heat and spice into my felt food life. Enter deliciously golden tamales. The corn husks are a must and the most intricate part of this project, but still comfortable for an advanced beginner. I'm breaking this tutorial into two parts, the tamale and the husk. 

The Ingredients:

 For two tamales:
-Four rectangular yellow felt pieces, mine are about 5 inches long with rounded edges
-Embroidery Floss to match
-Stuffing

The Recipe:

 Sew together your top and bottom tamale pieces 2/3 of the way around with a whip stitch,

add stuffing, 

 and sew shut. That's it! Now, on to the corn husks.

The Ingredients: 

-Two cream felt corn husk pieces, these are about 6 inches tall by 4.5inches wide
-Embroidery Floss to match

The Recipe:


With a secure knot, make a running stitch across the length of the husk, giving it a bit of ripple. This gives the husk a little bit of texture. I did three sewn ridges here.

  Next, do a small running stitch at the edge of husk across the width.

 When you get to the end, pull your stitches tightly so the end of the corn husk puckers.  Add a few stitches so that the end is securely closed. Repeat with the opposite end of the husk. 

 Now, wrap up your tamales! I'm feeling warmer already!


Happy Felt Fooding!

~Brittany 

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica

Any fans of The Office out there? In homage to Dwight K. Schrute, I did my best attempt at beets, adding to my veggie collection. For some ideas, I checked out this tutorial that can be found at Cut Out+Keep. But after looking at some pictures of beets thanks to Google images, I thought they should have more of a tail so this tutorial is for that pretty beet there in the center.


The Ingredients:


-two pieces of burgandyish felt for the top and bottom of each beet
-one leafy top for each beet
-Embroidery Floss to match
-stuffing for each beet

The Recipe: 
Starting with our leafy greens, make running stitch "veins" though your green piece. I used the beet colored thread because real beets have veins about that same color. 

  
Continue until all your leaves are veiny.

 
Roll up the bottom of the leafy piece so that you have a stem.
 
Stitch up the stem so it is secured together.  

Next, whip stitch the two pieces of beet together, leaving the top open.

Add stuffing to the beet.

Once your beet is stuffed, do a running stitch around the top edge,

Add your stem to the top, and pull the running stitches tight.

Knot off the running stitch and then sew stitches around to really secure the stem to the beet. 

 
And there you have a completed beet! Good enough to have come from Schrute Farms ;-)

Happy Felt Fooding!

~Brittany








Friday, February 11, 2011

Pasta Making 101


Last week, a mama mentioned that it was hard to find vegetarian play food.  A look around Amazon and Etsy revealed she was right. So, to fill that gap and go with my grilled eggplant dinner, I made some whole wheat farfelle (AKA bowtie) pasta. This is a great project because it is super easy and can be made from tan felt scraps so it doesn't require a whole lot of new material. 

The Ingredients:


-Tan felt rectangle, this one is about an inch by two inches. If you have younger children, you can use bigger rectangles for a more exaggerated size so that your pasta isn't a choking hazard. You can make as many as you like, I made twenty.
-Embroidery Floss to match


The Recipe: 

 First, we need to cut the points at the ends of the pasta. If you have pinking shears, you can use those. Otherwise, fold your rectangle piece in half and cut triangles out like I did here.

Once you have all your points on your pastas, it's time to sew them together. You are going to want to pinch the pasta together in the center: 

This gives the pasta that bowtie look. Now you are going to take tan floss and put a stitch through the center of the pasta piece.

Go through the center of the pasta several times so that the pinched part is really secure. Have your stitches come in and out through about the same place so they aren't super obvious. 


Repeat this process for the rest of your pasta pieces and that is it! Super easy project that only requires a little bit of felt and floss. 


Here are a few more pasta pieces on a plate:


Enjoy! Happy Felt Fooding!

~Brittany

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

One Potato, Two Potato


My Friend Yuliya over at She Suggests has a daughter who is turning one soon. So, I'm making a Russian themed play food set as a birthday present. So far, I have pull-apart cabbage:

And now I'm adding a couple of potatoes. Keep an eye out for some beets to come!


The Ingredients:

-4 kidney shaped tan felt pieces, top and bottom for two potatoes
-Embroidery Floss to match
-Stuffing

That's it! This one is super simple!

The Recipe:


First, we want to make "eyes" for our potato. For simple indents, make small stitches all over the potato, pulling the thread taunt after each stitch so the felt puckers slightly. Do this to both potato pieces. Alternatively, you could also do French Knots for eyes, as well:

After you have all your eyes. it's time to sew the potato together.

When you get most of the way around the potato, add stuffing.

Finish stitching around your potato. All done!


Happy Felt Fooding!

~Brittany

Sunday, February 6, 2011

How to Make a "Mama's Milk" Carton for your Little Lactivist



A few weeks ago, my dear friend Yvonne was visiting us from Washington. I had just started my felt food kick, and though that is not her chosen craft, Yvonne jumped right in. She designing this adorable carton, and at my hubby's suggestion, made the logo for "Mama's Milk" rather than cow milk, which my son doesn't drink. I've never been a huge fan of milk myself, and my mom can attest I went through a phase as a teenager where I didn't consume it. I think she thought I was silly, but obliged me and bought Tofutti Cuties and rice milk that summer. I also think it is important to remind ourselves we are mammals, too, and human babies deserve human milk (even if it's only the felt variety).

Please head over to Cartolina Bella and check out Yvonne's real passion: beautiful handmade greeting cards!


The Ingredients:

-2 white rectangle felt pieces, the front and back panels, 4.5 inches by 2.5 inches
-2 white "house" shaped side pieces, the sides 2.5 inches in length
-1 white square bottom piece, 2.5 inches
-1 white logo circle, 2 inches in diameter
-1 red logo piece, 10.5 inches long by 1 inch wide
-Embroidery Floss to match red and white felt


The Recipe:

First lay out all your side pieces around the bottom square. Attach all four sides to the bottom piece like this:

Next comes the logo. I wrote out free hand with a pen. Be sure to mark gently or use a disappearing ink pen so that the wording doesn't show through once embroidered.

This took me a few tries before I got it how I wanted it, so you may end up cutting out an extra white circle or two. Of course you could also leave off the "Mama's" and just put "Milk" if you feel so inclined.
The first time, my pen lines were too heavy so I made another. Once you have your logo to your liking, it's time to start constructing the carton:

Using white thread, stitch up all four sides, just until you meet the "roof" of the house pieces, leaving the top open.

Measuring to make sure it is even (this is .75 inch from the bottom), pin the red ribbon piece around the carton. Keep the edge of the ribbon in the corner of the house piece furthest from the front rectangle where the logo will attach.

Using a running stitch, attach the bottom of the ribbon all the way around the carton.

Then attach the top of the ribbon to the carton.
Now, we whip stitch the logo to the front of the carton using white thread.


Attach the corners of the ribbon with white thread for a cute accent.

Now that we are done with the decoration, back to construction! Add stuffing to the carton.

Working from the corners of the "roof", stitch the front panel to the side panel, leaving about a .5 inch up top where the front and back panels meet, forming the carton tab. I apologize for the blurriness of this picture. Apparently I took no good photos of this step.

Stitch along the top and sides of the carton tab.

Lastly, do a running stitch along the bottom of the carton tab, even with the tops of the "roof" pieces.


And our carton is done! Perfect for the mama's milk drinker in your life!


Happy Felt Fooding and thanks again for the pattern, Yvonne!

~Brittany

***

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