DIY Play Food: Felt Cupcakes

Welcome to the first week of November, and to the third installment of the DIY Play Food series. After the box of doughnuts and the bag of candy, today I bring you the felt cupcakes!

And even though I guarantee these are free of calories and don't cause cavities, to avoid a sugary overload (even a pretend one) I promise to share something healthier next week. It's already in the making!

There are lots of play cupcakes patterns and tutorials online, but most require more time to make than I want to dedicate them. So I have developed along the years (since my now five year old daughter was old enough to play with her play kitchen) an easy way to make felt cupcakes which requires me to cut only two pieces of felt and then add whatever embellishments I want. 

They may not be perfect, but they come together pretty quickly and, bottom line, they are for the kids to play with, so sheer perfection is not required anyway.

An additional challenge: use felt scraps! 

To make these cupcakes you need to cut two circles of felt. Mine were about 10 centimeters in diameter and I used a plastic yo-yo maker as the template for the circle. But you can make them larger or smaller, whatever you prefer. These were actually the biggest I've made so far. 

Join the two circles (I would say wrong sides together but felt does not really have a wrong and a right side...) and sew a couple of stitches around the edge of the circles, as shown below. Leave a small opening.

Fill with polyester filling through the opening and them pull the thread slowly, to create the cupcake shape. My only advice is to use a strong thread (embroidery thread for example), otherwise it will break with all that pulling. 

Close the opening and add a few more stitches around the edge if necessary. Your cupcake is finished. 

 

This first one I made using felt in the same color (trying to get rid of scraps, remember?), but you can use different colors too. Here's one make with a darker base. 

Now you can embellish the cupcake in a lot of different ways. With pieces of felt and small pom-poms...

 

...with buttons...

 

...with glittery material (my daughter's favorite)...

...or just embroidering some motives (if you're embroidering, it's easier to do it before sewing the cupcake together). 

And then, get them all together and have fun!

 

Oh, and my daughter wanted me to take pictures of the one cupcake she decorated herself. A total pom-pom overload!

You can actually make a batch of these cupcakes and then have the kids decorate them. It's a perfect activity for a rainy afternoon, or even for a birthday party! 

For the other posts in the DIY Play Food series so far, click the pictures below:

Have a great week,