Food without Calories or Kilojoules

After Christmas and the party season ...?











But it has been a while since I made some play-food for my grandchildren - see these posts for the felt-food I made previously:
Cakes 
Fruit&Veg (& some food I bought)
Mugs of Coffee, Tea etc (scroll through towards the end of that post).

They both still love playing with all that fake food so out came the patterns and bits of felt and I've been stitching up some more vegetables ...

Mushroom and brown Onion

I'm particularly proud of the onion - added lots of machine stitching and used the thread ends to make some dry 'roots'.

 A big green capsicum or sweet pepper. 






























And a couple of lettuce leaves - and these do look good put between the 'slices of bread' that I'd made before.

All the patterns for those vegies are from the very clever Etsyian Umecrafts ...

The pattern for this tart is also on Etsy - FairyFox
I used plastic rather than card as the stiffener so the 'food' can be washed. 

Here is the slice o'tart base  sitting on the plastic that is all cut for the rest of the tart - lots of holes punched through so that I can stitch through the plastic to the top layer of felt - see those cute dimples?

And here are all the parts for the slice o'tart ...  I had to dye the 'custard' myself as the shops had only really bright 'fluro' yellow felts! which would not be very appetising.  I'm quite proud of the colour I managed to dye :-)

I also added embroidered 'seeds' to the strawberries and I made some slices of apricot - didn't use those ... I might have to make some play Peach Melba??


OK - who can resist an opportunity like this?!

So here is the slice all "plated up" ...

And the rest of the tart - with all the blueberries & the 'cream' on ... Pretty with all the different shades of purple ...

One last picture of the finished tart 

With all that food around I don't understand why my dear ole' Cornish Rex was sitting by her plate & giving me her best "I'm being really really patient but ..." face.

"My plate is empty ..."

Toy Food - let them eat cake

So what did I make for little boy's 4th birthday? I gave him the white & blue striped summer shirt seen in this post (he got the tartan one earlier) and I made him some more felt food. Both grandchildren love playing 'shops' and 'cafe' with the food I made previously (see these posts & post for some pics). Once again I used Umecraft's great patterns, slightly adapted so the food can be 'made'.

Here is the slice of Lemon Meringue Pie - made & in parts












The piece of Chocolate tart with cream & slice of Passionfruit Cheesecake share a base - I embroidered the passionfruit seeds :-)











those cats would like some cake...

And talking of cake - here is my granddaughter wearing the "Marie Antoinette" dress-up dress I made for her ...

Cute huh! and what about the other Blythes? Well I always take Lillian to Melbourne so she can catch up with BiBi - and we found that my daughter has created a lovely little woodland scene for the dolls to stroll about in.

Pressies for Grandchildren

YEA - we're off interstate tomorrow visiting our daughter and grandchildren :-) :-) :-)

So I've been frantically trying to finish some of the things I've been making for them ... granddaughter is 9mths now and she is getting a couple of dresses - green cotton cord. with ric-rac and yellow gingham binds and daisy (a bit bleached out in photo)

And vintage 70s rayon with purple contrast bits -

there is a matching hat













This knitted cross-over cardi has turned out rather large though I had the correct guage - oh well, as we are approaching summer this is probably just as well - it should fit by autumn!












The possum is just the right size :-)
I used yarn made of possum fur - which is a bit spooky I suppose but also very realistic! (it is lovely and made by Touch Yarns of New Zealand, where possums are feral pests) Because the grands are very young I've not used buttons for the eyes as suggested by the pattern (Cleckheaton's "Wildlife in 8ply" - very clever patterns by Barbara Lennon) nor have I used those "safety eyes" meant for toy-making as I don't think they are safe at all - they break very easily. SO - I used black felt but perhaps they are a little too large and rounded as this possum looks like it has a thyroid problem!


I've made more felt play food for grandson - guess it is never too early to learn how to be a wonderful Barista like his mummy :-) I've slightly adapted some of umecrafts lovely patterns to make felt 'cups' with inter-changeable 'beverages'. Have made 3 main bevs - Hot Choc, Coffee and Tea - then lots of extra 'tops' for the different variations.
Here is "Hot Choc" in the front and "Choc with MarshMellows" at the back - (not sure about those marshmellows!)



Here we have the coffees - from the left - Cappuccino, Latte (a 'top' sitting on the table), Flat White, then the other photo - Long Black (the main coffee base, don't you love the 'crema'?) and Mocha








And here is the whole lot - up-side down because I've stitched what they are ...






And finally - something for my daughter's Blythe Doll (well, she is almost another granddaughter!) It is being modeled by my Blythe Doll, Lillian.

Playing with Food

Another current crafting obsession has been making (and buying) felt play-food for my grandson ... he loves cooking.

I bought some great pieces from a fellow Etsyian FeltFoodCreations - a wonderful Banana and this fantastic Breakfast Set ...
just love those eggs!



I've also been making some myself - and I certainly appreciate how much time-consuming hand-sewing goes into this play-food !!
I bought some really good patterns from another Etsyian Umecrafts ...

Here are some vegies:




and some fruit - very proud of the strawberries:
Then I got really enthusiastic and thought sandwiches would be fun to play with ... here is the bread, wholemeal of course


Took ages to make as I hand embroidered all the 'grains' - there is a kitchen sponge (new & unused) inside the slices. I've also made the butter, some peanut paste (crunchy), nutella and vegemite ... some of those are in satin fabric as I thought they needed to be shiny. Am currently making some strawberry jam - with felt lumps :-) No patterns - they are just triangles with wobbly edges.