How to Sew a Toy Felt Food Sandwich Set

Making felt food is a fun and addictive hobby. With simple machine and hand sewing skills, it is easy and satisfying to make fake food toys for a toddler or preschooler. Here are instructions for making a felt food sandwich set including sliced bread, lunch meat, sliced cheese (including Swiss), tomato slices, lettuce leaves, condiments, and peanut butter and jelly.

Supplies. You will need a sewing machine capable of straight and zigzag stitches, a needle and thread for hand sewing, some quilt batting, and felt in the following colors: cream, tan, pink, goldenrod, red, green, purple, white, yellow. Felt is available by the yard or in 9x12 sheets at craft stores, or in the craft section of a store such as Wal-mart. Acrylic and wool felts are available; the felt food toys in the pictures are made from Eco-felt, an acrylic felt made from recycled plastic.

How to sew felt sandwich bread slices. To make each piece of felt sandwich bread you will need cream and tan felt (or tan and a darker brown for whole wheat bread). Make a bread slice-shaped pattern out of heavy paper, about 4x4 inches, and trace it twice on the cream felt. Measure the circumference of your bread shape. For the crust, cut a piece of tan felt 1 ½ inches wide by the circumference you measured, adding an inch for seam allowance. (See Picture 2.)

Sew one side of the tan felt strip around the edge of one piece of cream. Sew the two short ends of the tan strip together where they meet and trim any excess. Sew the other side of the tan felt strip to the other piece of cream, leaving a 3 inch gap for stuffing and turning. Be sure to backstitch on both ends of the gap. (See Picture 3

Turn your bread slice right-side out. Cut 3-4 layers of quilt batting in the shape of your slice, and put inside. Make it as fat or flat as you like. Hand stitch the opening closed using a hidden ladder stitch, or a slip stitch.

How to sew felt lunch meat. To make felt lunch meat, use cream felt for turkey, and pink felt for ham or bologna. Trace a circle about 4 inches wide onto your felt using small bowl or roll of masking tape. Cut two circles for each slice of sandwich meat. Make sure that your circle size fits nicely on your bread slices. Put the two circles together and machine stitch all the way around the edge using a similar colored thread. You can use a straight stitch or a zigzag stitch. I used a zigzag stitch around the edges of the circular food. (See Picture 4.)

How to sew felt cheese slices. Make cheddar or American cheese using goldenrod felt. Use cream felt for Swiss or provolone cheese. Cut two rectangles or squares, about 3-4 inches for each slice of cheese. Put the two rectangles together and stitch around all four edges using matching thread. You can use a straight or zigzag stitch. I used a straight stitch for the cheese. For the Swiss cheese, add holes by machine stitching small circles (less than one inch) on the cheese rectangles. Use a straight stitch for this. You can cut out the felt inside the stitched circles, but I left mine in. (See Picture 4.)

How to sew felt tomato slices. To add tomato to your felt sandwich, trace a 3 inch circle onto red felt. Cut out two circles. Using matching thread, machine stitch the circles together around the edge with either a zigzag or straight stitch. I used a zigzag stitch for the tomato. Using a straight stitch, stitch tomato details on the inside of the circle. I did four triangles with curved edges around the outside. You could do more triangles, and even add little tear-drop shaped seeds if you wanted. (See Picture 4.)

How to sew felt lettuce leaves. For the lettuce, cut two blobby lettuce shapes out of dark or light green felt. Make a stem at the bottom, and the leaves similar on each side. Using matching thread, machine stitch the shapes together around the edge with either a zigzag or straight stitch. I used a zigzag stitch for this. To add the lettuce detail, imitate leaf veins by stitching a line up the middle with a straight stitch. Then add lines going from the middle line toward the end of each point on the leaf. (See Picture 4.)

How to make felt sandwich condiments. No sandwich would be complete without condiments. For mayonnaise and mustard, simply cut a single blob shape out of white and yellow felts. Make sure the blobs are a good size to cover the bread slices. (See Picture 5.)

How to make a felt peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Lunchmeat sandwiches are great, but sometimes peanut butter and jelly is what hits the spot. To make a peanut butter blob for your sandwich, cut out two identical blob shapes out of tan felt, about 3.5 by 3.5 inches, and stitch them together around the edge with matching thread. Jelly is simply a single-layer blob out of purple or red felt, depending on your favorite flavor. (See Picture 5.)

Be sure to read How to Sew a Toy Peelable Banana Out of Felt to make a banana to go with your sandwich.