Felt Play Food - How to Make Felt Bread - Free Template

Learn how to make felt play food - felt bread using this free PDF template. Who's up for some cute little felt food? Actually, for sliced French loaf bread made out of felt. I promise, it's totally easy, these bread slices can be made really fast and look how adorable they've turned out!

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Felt Bread

This felt bread is one of my 7 Favorite Felt Play Tutorials. Scroll down to the tutorial and a few practical tips on working with felt and on stuffing. And there's a free PDF felt bread template waiting for you!

When I was making felt play food {Yes, this crazy mom has made an entire collection of play food for herself her kids!}, I wanted to make the kind of bread we regularly eat, and the toast form is just not so common where I live. 🙂 So there was again room for some good old improvisation {Don't you just love new little projects like this one?}

Actually, these French loaf slices turned out to be even easier to sew than those toast slices, and I love love love that! {No need for precision!}

You can combine these bread slices with some other felt food, like sunny-side-up eggs, cheese, carrots (free carrot template here), broccoli and tons of other felt food. Wouldn't this make a wonderful DIY present for a child? {A collection of my favorite free felt food tutorials is here!} But first things first, let's make some bread!

Supplies

• 2 pieces of light brown or beige felt
• 1 strip of dark brown felt (I used an inch wide strip)
• matching thread
• sewing machine or a needle
• pins
• my free felt bread slice template - See the end of this tutorial

Bonus Tip on which felt to use for French loaf bread slice:

Don't repeat my mistake. Use the right thickness of felt: the darker felt you use for the crust part should be stiff, while the lighter color felt should be soft. It's easier to sew this way! For more felt tips, you can visit my post on felt play food or how-to make simple felt letters. It's important you use just the right type for your project. If you scroll down the post about felt, you'll find a simple explanation of what type of felt exactly you need for your project.

Tutorial For How to Make Felt Bread Play Food

The printable French bread loaf slice template already includes a ¼" (0.6 cm) seam allowance.

Step 1 - Print The Free Felt Bread Slice Template

See the end of this tutorial to get the page with the free bread template.

Step 2 - Cut Felt Bread Pieces

Using the template, cut out the pieces as indicated on the printable template:

• 2 pieces of the sliced bread from light brown or beige felt
• 1 strip from darker felt, length approximately 16" (40"), width 1 inch (2.5cm)

Step 3 - Attach One Side Of the Strip

So after you've cut out the pieces, start by sewing the dark brown strip of felt around one of the bread pieces. All the way around. You've probably noticed I had to sew together two of them to make the 'crust' long enough. It's OK.

Step 4 - Finish Sewing The Strip

Here's how to finish sewing the strip - how to join the start and end of the felt strip:

When you get back to the start, let the ends overlap a bit. Even half an inch will do. Trim any excess strip. You've just attached the 'crust'!

Step 5 - Attach the other main piece

Then start sewing the dark strip to the other light brown piece of felt. This looks tricky at the start, but you'll manage. Start exactly where you started with the first piece:

Continue sewing until you have 3-5 inches left, backstitch to secure. You are about to leave an opening for turning the bread.

Step 6 - Turn Right Side Out

Turn right side out. Go slowly to avoid any seam ripping, right? (Don't ask...)

Step 7 - Stuff

Stuff it really modestly with a few scraps of soft fabrics (minky or whatever is at hand), but make sure you just add as much as is necessary to get a nice 'flat' piece. Not empty, but still quite flat. (Read on, this post covers several tips on which materials to use for stuffing - applicable only to felt bread!)

Step 8 - Stitch opening closed

Topstitch the opening closed. Done!

Should I hand stitch felt?

You can sew the pieces together using a blanket stitch (oh that would turn out so lovely!), but I was running out of time (my baby's nap time was nearly over!) and I just used my sewing machine (again). It was made so quickly! So it's up to you: 

• machine stitching = really quick!
• blanket stitch = really cute! Whatever you choose.  

And one more thing: there's no need for the crust to be sewn totally straight. I played with a minimal seam allowance, and then again with a wider one, hence so some of the slices are thicker and some are thinner. It will look like the chef has cut a bit uneven slices of bread when cutting them from a loaf. This happens more often than not, when cutting a real French loaf bread, right?

BONUS TIP: WHICH STUFFING MATERIAL?

In my first attempt, I overstuffed this play felt food piece with soft toy stuffing, and it looked nothing like what I wanted.

So if this happens to you too, just remember:

• No soft, fluffy stuffing, that's for a soft baby toy like this one. Use scraps of soft fabric instead. Think terry cloth, minky, or felt. These can be folded nicely and will stay put - nice and flat.
• If it gets too bulky, take out half of the stuffing and check if it's ok.

MORE BONUS HINTS:

Now, if you'd like to make your own template, I'd like to give you a few hints that should help you make your own size of felt sliced bread pieces:

• When choosing the size of these felt bread slices, it's best to make it fit into what you've already got sewn. You'll want to make a sandwich now and then, won't you? So you'll need matching sizes (if you've already made some felt cheese or bacon slices for example!).
• But if bread is your first felt item to sew, great! You're free to choose!
• Anyway, if you're making a toy for a child, you'll want to think of the size of a child's palm. You want to make it just the right size to fit into a child's hand.

And you can use this pretty free basket pattern to make a pretty bread basket for the play food. Or to store them in a nice place!

Pin for Later:

See More Felt Play food tutorials

As always, I'd love to see if you've made bread play food using this tutorial. Please post a picture to Instagram and tag me @applegreencottage or #applegreencottage - so I can take a look!

Free Bread Slice Template

I’ve created a simple French loaf slice template that you can download for free. To download the FREE French bread slice TEMPLATE, click the button below: