Frugal Friday: Homemade Christmas #2

With a December baby in the family now, Christmas and Birthday shopping is becoming quite a challenge. Only four days apart, it's hard to come up with one good idea, let alone two. But I still want to make Baby Girl's birthday special and give her something she'll enjoy, love, and will have some meaning for her.

I was first introduced to felt food via Frugal Granola around this time last year. She was making some pieces for her, then, two year old daughter's birthday. Since then, the idea stuck with me and continued to ruminate in the back of my mind. Until I couldn't stand it any longer and had to make some myself. These are just a few of the pieces I've been working on.



My first was tackle was this sandwich set. I used this PDF as a starting point and adapted it from there. I found that I didn't like the tomatoes so I adapted those and will include them next Friday. But the pattern was good for the bread, lettuce and cheese.



First I cut out the pieces for the bread from dark brown (we eat whole wheat. I pinned them together and machine stitched 3 1/2 sides, remembering to back stitch ever so far. I then stuffed the bread and finished the stitching. If you'd like your stitching to be cohesive, simply stuff while the piece is still on the machine and continue the stitching.



I then used the lettuce pattern for the lettuce, peanut butter, and jelly. The original instructions call for doubled felt and stuffing. I only cut one of each and stitched around to finish it off. It will serve it's purpose; however, the stitching puckered a single layer of felt. If you want a truly finished look, you would need to at least double the material, if not add stuffing.

I followed the same directions for the cheese.



Finally, for the bacon, I used 1 in strips of dark brown felt, cut in a slightly wavy pattern on each side, but not the top and bottom. I tried the pattern on the ends, but didn't like the look. I then cut light brown strips of felt and stitch them to the top of the bacon. Three strips will fit nicely in a BLT sandwich.

So that beginning of Baby Girl's frugal fun birthday set. This week, I'm working on tomatoes, pancakes, and eggs. Look for photos and directions next week.

For more Frugal Friday ideas, check out Life as Mom.