DIY Felt Ramen Set

Looking online (http://www.etsy.com/listing/105145742/diy-felt-colored-ramenjapanese?ref=exp_listing), I found inspiration for my next project:

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!

More Felt Food

Later on, a friend of mine mentioned her love for felt food (Her desk is covered with them!)  She had also mentioned she liked the ones with different expressions, and that she did not have felt bacon, yet.  So, using felt, a little stuffing, and a wire hanger, I created a mad bacon with a happy bacon on the other side!

I made her some felt musubi, too.

Felt Food

To start, here are a few pictures from my felt phase.  I had wanted to make felt food for my classroom, for a while now - Especially, to save money on buying toys and learning materials.  Why spend $20 on 1 food set, when you can have a few sets for less than $5 altogether?!  

First I made a hamburger set - great for stacking, pretend play, color identification, and so on.  I also made a watermelon (although I don't have a picture of it now), as that is one of my favorite fruits.

 Here are pictures of the counting cookies I made, too.  On one side of the cookie is a number.  And on the other side there are chocolate chips, corresponding to that number.  Students can use them for counting practice, number identification, sequencing, pretend play, and so on. 

After, I made a birthday cake with candles.  This is something I wanted to buy in the store, but could not justify spending $30+ on it - especially when most of the sets had tiny candles that could be a choking hazard for my students.  For the cake, I used felt with foam on the inside (leftover from a DIY project my husband had made).  The candles are made of felt and leftover batting from other projects.   

I use the cake in the classroom for birthday celebrations.  We count the number of students in the class, and then count out that many slices of cake.  Then, the birthday student puts on/counts the candles, we sing, and the student pretends to blow the candles out.  After, the birthday student passes a slice of cake to each of his/her classmates, and everyone pretends to eat it - A healthy way to celebrate birthdays in the class, while sharing, counting, and pretend playing!