Have you felt food?

I know I have!

In a sudden surge towards Valentine's Day, I was gripped by one of the strangest and most clutching urges of the Lolita: to wear cake on my head. It can happen without warning, without symptom. I had always been the kind of girl who said - that's a cake. It's on your head. What are you doing.

But one day I realized that cake on my head was the only way to truly celebrate a holiday like Valentine's Day - sugary, crazed, and sweet.

Project Cake Hat is a go.

After hunting around looking at various cake hats, I decided to make mine out of felt. A few sheets of 25-cent felt are both cheap and sturdy and easy to work with. For the base of the cake I chose pink, for a fondant look - then attached white scalloped cotton cluny lace to the top and bottom as decoration. After looking at other felt cake tutorials and images, I also figured out how to 'pipe' whipped topping around the edges.

Strawberries were easy. They're naturally made in bulk - each pattern yields two strawberries. The half-circle shapes are run through the sewing machine for a good seal, then turned inside out, stuffed, and gathered at the top. Rather than use seed stitches of embroidery, I hand-stitched on a multitude of pearl beads for seeds. Then I spent a few hours watching television and rearranging the strawberries on the commercials.

Of course, little did I know that I had slipped down the rabbit hole into a veritable world of felt food.

Cakes and berries were only the tip of the iceberg. From there I found felt cookies, truffles, bacon, eggs, sandwiches, fruits and vegetables... ice cream cones, banana slices - the list is endless. I even found and ordered a great book on the subject - My Favorite Felt Sweets, by Joie Staff. The book boasts patterns for a birthday cake, macarons, tarlets - up to 106 projects.

Final verdict? Felt food is not only adorable, but easy and fun to do. I hope to have enough for Valentine's Day!

Labels: crafty loli

posted by Victoria Suzanne @ 11:55 AM