A DIY Ramen set for my niece. Of course, mine does not look as professional as the one in the link above! But, I did what I could.
My niece loves to eat edamame and nori, so I wanted to make her something that incorporated both of those things. In addition, when eating at restaurants she likes to play with the chopsticks - so I wanted to give her something to practice with.
The ramen noodles were the easiest to make. I used a regular felt rectangle sheet, sold in Michael's, and cut 1/2" strips.
For the shiitake mushrooms - I just cut out the basic 'shiitake' shape from a darker brown felt sheet.
I did the same for the regular mushrooms, using a lighter brown felt sheet. However, I added another layer - sewed two mushrooms together, to help make them a little thicker to pick up with the chopsticks. I did not do this with the shittake, because I had already cut them, and they were a little too thin to sew neatly. But, hey, this can help with her chopstick skills b/c she can learn to pick up thicker or thinner items.
For the nori - I cut out 2 black rectangles, and sewed them together (to help make them a little thicker to pick up with the chopsticks).
For the chasu, I roughly cut out a 'chasu' shape - sort of round. Then I sewed 2 pieces together by making a swirl with the sewing machine/thread.
The kamaboko, I cut out three pieces of felt - 2 white and 1 pink. I sewed the three pieces together, following the shape of the white felt.
For the egg, I roughly cut out 2 white felt pieces, and one yellow circle piece. I sewed the yellow circle to one of the white pieces. Then, I sewed the 2 white felt pieces together - with the yolk on the inside - leaving a little opening to turn the pieces outside in. Last, I hand-sewed the egg shut. I was so happy when my niece opened her present b/c she said "Tamago!" excitedly as she held up the egg!
I roughly cut out 2 green pieces of felt, to resemble the edamame shape. I cut them out a little bigger though, to leave leeway for sewing. Next, I sewed the 2 green pieces inside out - leaving a little opening to turn the pieces outside in. Before hand-sewing the closing, I took a piece of thread and thread it through the top middle of the edamame, then the bottom middle, and pulled it snug - this helped to create more of an indentation (as if there were edamame beans inside).
For the chopsticks, I used disposable chopsticks from a take out order. The chopstick wrapper was folded over and over again until a small rectangle. This was placed between the 2 chopsticks - then a rubber band was wrapped around it all, over and over again, until tight.
My favorite part - seeing my niece feed her best friends, Bert and Ernie!
