Felt Food Recipes

Here is one of my favorites of all time!

I recently made these over-the-top-cute felt foods for Ignacio's nieces. They love playing around in their little wooden kitchenette, sporting white butcher aprons and matching toques, so I thought we could give them something to cook up. These felt cheeseburgers with McDonald's-style french fries are the perfect gift for littles. Probably for anyone, actually, since the adults (and I use that word loosely) each wanted a set for themselves.   These are totally adorable and a WAY lower-cost alternative to the usual Toys R Us go-tos. Felt and string cost close to nothing, and you're already halfway there on materials. If you're like me, you can bang out a few ingredients a day in front of the TV.
This recipe yields two cheeseburgers with the works (no pickles) and two sets of eight french fries in red cartons.
Ingredients:

1. Felt in sheets (1 white, 2 off-white, 1 tan, 1 dark brown, 1 light green, 1 dark green, 3 red, 1 maroon, and 3 or 4 yellow)
2. Embroidery floss separated into single strips (1 white, 1 tan, 1 dark brown, 1 dark green, 1 red, and 1 yellow)
3. Sewing needle (sharps work best)
4. Sewing pins
5. Pen, paper, and old cartons and cardboard boxes (I used thin and thick cardboard from empty beer cases and shipping boxes)
6. Quilt batting (I picked up a crib size roll because it was the smallest one at the craft store)
7. Pillow stuffing (the smallest bag at the craft store)

First,  I sketched out a life-size burger, layering each ingredient on top of the bun so that I could determine the size of each piece.
In this very rough sketch, you can kind of make out the bun, patty, cheese, onion/tomato, ketchup, and lettuce.

After the initial sketch I used cardboard boxes to make templates for each ingredient.
 I shared templates between similarly-sized ingredients: the two types of cheese; the tomato and onion; and the mayo, mustard, and ketchup.  

Next, I got to work on my bottom buns.Cut two off-white felt rounds, two cardboard rounds, and four batting rounds using your burger bun template.
Then cut two tan circles about a 1/2 in. larger than your burger bun template.

Next layer one large tan round, one cardboard round, two batting rounds, and one off-white round for each bottom bun. 

Pull up the edge of the tan felt to meet the edge of the off-white round and pin along the seam.

Using tan string, hand sew a seam between the off-white felt and the tan felt, all the way around.

The top bun should look much fluffier than the bottom bun.
Cut two off-white rounds, four batting rounds, and two thick cardboard rounds using your burger bun template.
Then cut two tan rounds about 3/4 in. larger than the burger bun template.Layer the larger tan round, one batting round, one cardboard round, one more batting round, and the off-white round.

Pin along the seam where the tan and off-white pieces meet. Using tan string, hand sew along the pinned seam.
 
Nice buns..

Next up: Burger PattiesCut four dark brown rounds, four batting rounds, and two thin cardboard rounds the size of your patty template.

Stretch a 1 in. thick strip of dark brown felt long enough to fit around the circumference of your patty. Pin along the seams where the felt round meets the strip. Using dark brown string hand sew along both seam edges.

 Looks a bit dry - shall we add some toppings?

Cut four light green and two dark green pieces using your lettuce template. To achieve a stem look, I drew and cut a void in the middle of each light green piece of lettuce. 

 Layer one light green, one dark green, and one more light green felt piece. Pin along the seams and, using dark green string, sew along each seam.
When sewing the middle voids, pull the string tight to get a wavy leaf look instead of a flat piece.
 Mmm, looking good but the best has yet to come!

Cut four red rounds and two maroon rounds using the tomato/onion template.

I drew on and cut out these block letter "c" shapes from the red felt pieces for a real-life tomato effect. 
Layer one red, one maroon, and one more red piece. Pin along the seams and use red string to sew along each edge.

 
Look how beautiful the contrast is!

For the onions, cut two off-white rounds and four bright white rounds using the tomato/onion template.  Cut the bright white rounds in graduated sizes.

 Lay the circles on each side of the off-white round, allowing it to peek through. Pin along the edges.Using white string, hand sew the seams together.

The detail on the tomato and onion makes them my favorite pieces in this project, but the Swiss cheese is a close runner-up...
Cut four yellow and four off-white pieces using your cheese template. I traced a quarter to draw and cut matching voids through each set of two off-white pieces.


Pin along the edges and, using white string, sew along the seams.  Double cheese! Now cut your condiments of choice using the condiment template. Use red felt for ketchup, yellow for mustard, and off-white for mayo - no sewing required.

This burger looks good enough to eat!
I made huge steak fries.

Each fry was about an inch wide and as long as the cheese template.

 I sketched a quick french fry template and made sixteen fries all together.

Use the new template to cut thirty-two pieces of yellow felt and sixteen pieces of batting.
Layer each piece of batting between two pieces of yellow felt.  Stretch your yellow felt into half-inch strips to cover the entire exposed area. You will need to cut sixteen strips.

 Pin and use yellow string to sew along all of the edges.

Cut two french fry cartons from thick cardboard. Then cut four pieces of red felt - just enough to cover the cartons with a little extra felt on each end.
 
Cover the exposed cardboard with red felt and sew along the edges with red string. Cut single strips of red felt to add sides to your carton.  I bent the front fries to look smaller for staging purposes, but every fry is actually the same size.

Now that's a value meal! All you need to make this inexpensive gift is some quality time.

Bonus: It looks a lot harder to make than it actually is.For cute gift packaging, I wrapped each burger in yellow tissue paper (just like they do at the fast food joints!) and served the fries standing alongside in a paper bag.

Variations: Think of all the felt food you can make using the techniques above! I've made pizza with tomato sauce, cheese, mushroom, pepperoni, green pepper and black olive toppings, and served it in a real (unused) cardboard pizza box I got from a restaurant.

 

Cupcakes and cookies would make super cute gifts for little girls, and you can add different beads for sprinkles and decorations. (Just be careful that the gift receiver is old enough not to eat the beads! That's a hazard anywhere from age two to age twenty, depending on the recipient.)

 

Imagine a little spatula and tongs with grill-marked meats for boys.

 

I've also made ridiculously cute banana splits in felt ice cream boats, with interchangeable chocolate, strawberry and butterscotch sauces to go with chocolate, strawberry and vanilla ice cream scoops, puffy whipped cream pinwheels, two bananas and (of course) a cherry on top!  I wrapped them up and served a plastic spoon on the side.

The possibilities are endless... just have fun with it and dig in!