Lately, a lot of play-acting around here seems to revolve around cooking. We have a slew of play food, but up until last week we had no cookies. When we wanted to bake a batch, the play dough would usually come out. Not a bad thing — I love play dough — but while doing some research for another project, I hit on this fun and easy idea from Mirror-Mirror and Laura Bray for making felt play cookies. If you’re not a stitcher, don’t let that curb your own enthusiasm for making a batch of these. The project is fairly simple, and could even be done with a glue gun instead of stitches if the mood strikes. These are not only great imagination-builders for your own play kitchen, but also make excellent gifts and could be a thoughtful donation to your favorite pre-school or school fundraiser.
The Prototype Batch
Since I had some felt and embroidery thread lying around, I decided to whip up a batch to see if these were worth making. A few iterations on the first batch and a couple visits to the craft store later, and I think I’ve nailed the project down pretty tight.
The very tough Test Kitchen
Materials
- Acrylic Felt swatches like these: you can find these in craft stores for about 30 cents a piece (9″ x 12″). Choose colors that you’d like for your cookies and your frosting. Good choices for us were tan, pale pin, dark brown, white, and cream.
- Embroidery Thread to match the felt
- Embroidery Thread for Sprinkles. My variety-pack includes pink, hot pink, yellow, and green.
- Chenille or Embroidery needles. I prefer chenille needles because the eye is a little larger, making them easier for me to thread. Either way, make sure you get something with a sharp point. Stay clear of tapestry needles with their blunt tips.
- Polyester fiberfill stuffing, such as this.
- Pencil or fabric crayon
Directions
Fold your felt in half, or stack two pieces together, and draw your cookie shape. I made circles, but you could make gingerbread men, ducks, etc. My cookies are about 3″ in diameter. I like to cut free-hand, but you could place a cookie cutter or the bottom of a glass on top of the felt to get a clean shape.
Cut the felt out.
Make some frosting. Cut an organic circle-ish shape out of contrasting felt.
Layer the frosting on top of one of the cookie pieces. Select a color for the sprinkles. Thread the needle. Knot off one end, and stitch on some sprinkles. Add a couple colors if you ‘d like.
The back will look something like this.
Layer the bottom piece of cookie beneath the frosted top, and stitch around the cookie with a blanket stitch. Be sure to leave a gap to fill in the cookie with some fiberfill stuffing. Stitch the hole closed.
Place your cookies in a jar for gift-giving, or put them on a plate.
Happy Baking!
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Wonderful photography! And you forgot to mention another important benefit: no calories…
Ack, you’re so right about the calories! One more selling point for felt cookies!
Cecilia LOVES her set of felt cookies, thanks to your creativity. They are played with every day, and are often given — and then taken back — as they are much too precious to share. 🙂 You’ve inspired me to make more. I’ve got my stash of cookie cutters somewhere in a box, and might try those for patterns, especially since that would allow some easy places to stick button “eyes,” etc. We’re big button fans at present.
Awesome update, Alicia! I’m so happy to hear that Cecilia is enjoying them and that you’re inspired to make more. I’d love to hear, and see, how is goes. I also thought about adding sequins, but held off this go-around since there are sequin-sucking babies are on the way 🙂
These look scrumptious! And I bet N loved this one. The jared ones are so sweet.