How to Make DIY Play Food for Kids

Make an adorable set of DIY play food for kids, including all kinds of felt fruits and vegetables!

I’ve been working on a huge project behind the scenes. I first drew sketches for this little play grocery store for my daughter’s play room close to a year ago. I finally built it last month. I’ll have a full post about that with all the details soon.

But first, I’m so excited to share how to make all this super cute DIY felt food for kids! I’ve partnered with Crafter’s Edge to show you how you can use their Crossover II die cutting machine to cut felt to make a zillion different things. 

You can get your kids involved with crafting process by letting them pick out colors and crank the machine. That will make the little felt fruits and vegetables feel like an extra special toy for them!

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How Do You Make Felt Fruit?

This is one of the most commonly Googled questions about making pretend food. And you guys — it’s shockingly simple to make so many things from one single shape!

You don’t even have to know how to sew if you want to make a no-sew version with fabric glue. Read on for all the instructions on how to make felt fruit and veggies!

How to Make DIY Play Food for Kids

I suggest prepping everything at once by cutting all your felt. Then you can sort it by which fruit or vegetable it will be used for. Once you do that, you’ll be able to just pick up and start sewing when you have time between parts of your undoubtedly hectic day.

Supplies

• Felt
  • Red
  • Light green
  • Dark green
  • Off-white
  • Pink
  • Purple
  • Yellow
  • Brown
• Crafter’s Edge Crossover II Machine
• Crafter’s Edge Dies  
  • Beach Ball Maker
  • Fruit Wedges
  • Beautiful Succulents Set 1
  • Beautiful Posey Flowers Set 2
• Needle
• Thread
• Embroidery floss
• Fabric Glue
• Optional: Fabric markers or paint

I made these on my sewing machine, but if you don’t have a machine, you can hand-stitch them fairly quickly since they’re small. You could even try a no-sew felt food version by using fabric glue for all the seams instead of stitching. Just be sure to wait for it to dry until you turn them right-side out.

Note that since I’m outlining the steps for every piece of DIY play food for kids below, there will be a lot of redundancy from one section to the next. Once you make one or two, it will get much faster as you get the hang of it. 

I used the Crafter’s Edge Crossover II machine and dies to cut most of the pieces for these fruits and vegetables. They have a great tutorial for how to get started with the die cutting machine.

Apple and Orange

Cut six wedges of the smaller beach ball die in orange, red or green felt.

Stitch them together with a ¼” seam allowance, right sides facing each other. Leave a 2” gap in the last section. Be sure to backstitch at the beginning and end of all your stitches.

Flip the ball right side out, and fill it with stuffing or fabric scraps.

Use a ladder stitch to close the remaining seam.

Roll a brown felt rectangle into a stem, gluing along the end.

Cut a posey flower leaf in green. Glue it onto the bottom of the stem.

Poke the stem and leaf end – coated in fabric glue – into the top of the ball. Poke a needle and thread through the ball and stem in a few sides to hold it in place.

Cut a tiny posey flower from brown felt for the apple or green for the orange. Knot a double-length of embroidery floss onto a large needle, and sew it through the posey, into the ball, and up through the top (stem end). Cut the floss, and tie a tight knot, pulling the ball into a fruit shape. Trim off the loose ends.

Onion

Cut five wedges of the smaller beach ball die in tan felt.

Stitch them together with a ¼” seam allowance, right sides facing each other. Leave a 2” gap in the last section. Be sure to backstitch at the beginning and end of all your stitches.

Flip the ball right side out, and fill it with stuffing or fabric scraps.

Use a ladder stitch to close the remaining seam.

Wrap white or off-white embroidery floss around two fingers several times, and tie another piece around the loop tightly. Cut the opposite side of the loop to make a tassel.

Hand-cut a 1” starburst shape out of the tan felt.

Knot a double-length of embroidery floss onto a large needle, and sew it through the tassel and starburst, into the ball, and up through the other end. Cut the floss, and tie a loose knot. Trim off the loose ends.

Use a brown fabric marker to draw vertical lines at each seam and in between each seam.

Eggplant

Cut four wedges of the larger beach ball die in purple felt.

Stitch them together with a ¼” seam allowance, right sides facing each other. Leave a 2” gap in the last section. Be sure to backstitch at the beginning and end of all your stitches.

Hand-stitch through the wedges about 2” from one end.

Flip it right side out, and the end you stitched through should be flatter. Fill it with stuffing or fabric scraps.

Use a ladder stitch to close the remaining seam.

Roll a green felt rectangle into a stem, gluing along the end.

Hand-cut a plus-sign shape with pointy ends like in the picture. Draw a rough outline on it with a dark green fabric marker, and glue it to the top of the eggplant.

Glue the stem onto the top center of the plus-shape. Poke a needle and thread through the plus-shape and stem in a few sides to hold it in place.

Pineapple

Cut four wedges of the larger beach ball die in yellow felt.

Stitch them together with a ¼” seam allowance, right sides facing each other. Stop stitching ½” from the top of each wedge. Leave a 2” gap in the last section. Be sure to backstitch at the beginning and end of all your stitches.

Flip it right side out, and fill it with stuffing or fabric scraps.

Use a ladder stitch to close the remaining seam.

Cut four wedges of the larger beach ball die in green felt. Nest them together, and stitch through the bottom a few times to hold them together.

Poke the stitched end of the leaves into the open top of the pineapple. Tuck the tips of the yellow wedges inside, and stitch through the yellow and the green across to the other side in a few different places to hold it together.

Drawn lines all over the yellow with a brown fabric marker.

Potato

Cut four wedges of the larger beach ball die in tan felt.

Stitch them together with a ¼” seam allowance, right sides facing each other. Leave a 2” gap in the last section. Be sure to backstitch at the beginning and end of all your stitches.

Hand-stitch through the wedges about 1” from each end.

Flip it right side out, and the ends should both be flat instead of round. Fill it with stuffing or fabric scraps.

Use a ladder stitch to close the remaining seam.

Triple-knot a double-length of embroidery floss onto a large needle, and sew it through a random spot and out another random spot. Without cutting the floss, pull it tight to form a dent in both sides, and tie a tight triple-knot. Sew back into the same spot and out a new random spot, repeating the process a few time to create the “eyes” in the potato.

Color brown around the eyes with a fabric marker.

Apple Half

Cut three wedges of the smaller beach ball die in red or green felt.

Stitch them together with a ¼” seam allowance, right sides facing each other. Don’t leave a gap anywhere. Be sure to backstitch at the beginning and end of all your stitches.

Cut a circle in off-white felt, and stitch it to the wedges, right sides facing each other. Leave a 2” gap in the middle of one of the wedges.

Flip the half-ball right side out, and fill with stuffing or fabric scraps.

Use a ladder stitch to close the remaining seam.

Cut four seeds from the fruit slice die set in brown felt. Glue them on with fabric glue.

Roll a brown felt rectangle into a stem, gluing along the end.

Cut a posey flower leaf in green. Glue it onto the bottom of the stem.

Poke the stem and leaf end – coated in fabric glue – into the top of the wedges. Poke a needle and thread through the ball and stem in a few sides to hold it in place.

Cut a tiny posey flower from brown felt. Knot a double-length of embroidery floss onto a large needle, and sew it through the posey, into the ball, and up through the top (stem end). Cut the floss, and tie a tight knot, pulling the ball into a fruit shape. Trim off the loose ends.

Apple Slice

Cut one wedge of the smaller beach ball die in red or green felt.

Cut a circle the same size in off-white felt.

Sew it together with a ¼” seam allowance, leaving a 2” opening on one side.

Leave it with the stitching on the outside, and fill with stuffing or fabric scraps. Use a ladder stitch to close the remaining seam.

Stitch along the top of the slice as close to the edge as you can.

Knot a double-length of embroidery floss onto a large needle, and sew it through the slice. Cut the floss, and tie a tight knot, pulling the sides together. Repeat in one more spot. Trim off the loose ends.

Cut four seeds from the fruit slice die set from brown felt, and glue them over the knots with fabric glue.

Tomato Half

Cut three wedges of the smaller beach ball die in red felt.

Stitch them together with a ¼” seam allowance, right sides facing each other. Don’t leave a gap anywhere. Be sure to backstitch at the beginning and end of all your stitches.

Cut a circle in red felt, and stitch it to the wedges, right sides facing each other. Leave a 2” gap in the middle of one of the wedges.

Flip the half-ball right side out, and fill with stuffing or fabric scraps.

Use a ladder stitch to close the remaining seam.

Cut four shapes like the picture in darker red felt. Glue them on with fabric glue.

Add yellow dots with fabric paint.

Watermelon Slice

Cut eight pink pieces from the fruit slice die set.

Lay them out in a circle with their edges touching on off-white felt so you can decide how big to cut your  circle on the white felt.

Cut the white circle in half.

Cut a 2” piece of dark green felt long enough to go around the round side of the white half circle plus an extra ½”.

Cut a 2” piece of pink felt long enough to go across the pink fruit slice pieces plus an extra ½”.

Cut a couple 2” pieces of off-white felt about 1” long.

Stitch a white piece to each end of the pink rectangle with a ¼” seam allowance. Trim the off-white ends so that the whole piece is the length of the off-white half-circle plus ½”.

Sew the half-circles onto the green strip with ¼” seam allowance, leaving ¼” of green at each end.

With right sides facing each other, sew the pink and off-white strip onto the half-circles, leaving one short end open.

Flip it right-side out by pulling everything through the open end. Fill with stuffing or fabric scraps.

Use a ladder stitch to close the remaining seam.

Knot a double-length of embroidery floss onto a large needle, and sew it through the fruit slice. Cut the floss, and tie a tight knot, pulling the sides together. Repeat in two more spots. Trim off the loose ends.

Glue the pink fruit slice pieces on with fabric glue.

Cut eight seeds from the fruit slice die set in brown felt, and glue them on with fabric glue.