Do your children enjoy make-believe picnics and dinner parties with their toy friends?  Needle felting is an easy way to fill such special occasions with lots of homemade (or rather, “handmade”) food.

Needle felted food can be made into whatever shapes and sizes that match your child’s play friends.

If you are not familiar with needle felting, please read one of my recent posts, Needle Felted Flower Brooch, to learn how to get started with this easy and fun craft.  (Note: You will probably find lots of images of amazing needle felted creations on the web, which may make you feel a bit intimidated.  But, basic needle felting is really not that difficult.)

When making needle felted food, you can either keep the individual parts separate, like the ingredients of a cheeseburger in the above photo.  Or, you can needle felt them together so that they stay intact.  The advantage of keeping the parts separate is that it adds to the fun of preparing the food before serving!  However, the parts can be small and thus more easily misplaced.  You and your child can decide what would work best for your pretend meals.

Below are more examples of our needle felted food:

Some fresh vegetables from our (needle felted) garden!

A plate of sushi for an elegant dinner party.

My daughter’s delicious cakes and pies, which are always popular with our guests.

Besides needle felting, there are many other ways to make play food.  For example, you can sew felt food.  Or, check out this site for other creative ideas, such as using a real sponge to make sponge cakes and crocheting fruits and veggies.

I would love to see your needle felted delicacies.  So if you would like to share images of your creations, please visit Muumade’s Gallery.