pasta party |

pasta party

January 15, 2012 by gail

A good percentage of the fun that goes on around here happens in Lila’s play kitchen. The kitchen was a first birthday gift – stocking it has been an ongoing process, and such fun – there are so many fabulous (and amazingly realistic!) play foods and kitchen accessories out there to help fuel the make-believe. I recently sewed up a bunch of felt pasta, and Lila’s been slaving over a hot stove ever since.

Here’s a peek inside the pot:

And the rest of the felt pasta smorgasbord!

I had this pasta on my list of things to make for Christmas, but only managed to get as far as the bowties. Then a few days after Christmas my dear Flickr friend Beth posted a photo of her lovely pasta (we somehow always end up making the same things for our same-named daughters), which inspired me to press on and make the others.

If you’ve got some felt, a pinking shears, a little stuffing, and a needle and thread (or a sewing machine), you’re well on your way to cooking up some play pasta. This stuff was quick and easy. Just google “felt pasta” and you’ll find several tutorials for all of these pasta shapes. I used this one for the bowties and this one for the ravioli. The rigatoni is just a two-inch square rolled up into a tube, whip-stitched closed by hand. And for the tortellini I watched this video (it’s in Spanish, but it hardly matters) – they use glue, but I stitched the sides of the tortellini by machine, then folded them up and held them closed with little clothespins before tacking the ends together with a few hand stitches.

Time for the pasta party! Pasta for each little friend…

And pasta for each little finger.

26 Responses

on January 15, 2012 at 5:15 pm | Reply Lindsey R

oh my gosh that is ADORABLE! Definitely inspired to make my little chef some pasta.
on January 15, 2012 at 5:44 pm | Reply anna

what a cute little kitchen, wow, it’s fully loaded! and the pasta is just so perfect. one of these days I should make felt food, I’m just afraid that the dog would tear it up or the girls would destroy it in about 5 minutes. 🙂 hope you had a fun weekend!
on January 15, 2012 at 6:17 pm | Reply Holly

That looks like so much fun! Lila’s kitchen is adorable – love the backsplash! Was that a customization?
- on January 15, 2012 at 6:40 pm | Reply gail
  
  oh thanks! yes, my sister is responsible for the little mosaic tile backsplash 🙂
on January 15, 2012 at 6:58 pm | Reply carolyn

What? That doesn’t even look like fake food! That is amazing! (and why is Lila’s play kitchen more awesome than my real one? 🙂
on January 15, 2012 at 7:28 pm | Reply aroundeight

I love these! What a shame I don’t have any suitable color on hand, I would make them right away! Thanks for sharing the tutorials!
on January 15, 2012 at 8:27 pm | Reply kristin

confession: when you said you were making pasta, i visualized you cutting lots and lots of strips of felt. OBVIOUSLY i was mistaken! these are way awesome. lila has the best play kitchen in the land!
on January 15, 2012 at 9:28 pm | Reply Nikki

Oh, I love these!! The toy kitchen is going strong here as well, we need some pasta!
on January 16, 2012 at 8:03 am | Reply PendleStitches

My husband and father are currently making a kitchen for my daughter…looks like I need to make pasta to go with it!
on January 16, 2012 at 8:12 am | Reply Whistlepea

Lila has THE BEST toys. We just ordered K a play kitchen but Lila’s is cooler. Did you guys make the whole thing?
Don’t you have family members who gift her everything pink and plastic or is that just my lame in-laws?
- on January 16, 2012 at 8:43 am | Reply gail
  
  Ohhhhh yes, we have plenty of that in-law pink plastic stuff. I try to push it aside so it doesn’t creep into my photos! The kitchen is a customized Target number that looked like this originally – I painted the doors green, made a new curtain, and my sister did the backsplash.
  - on January 16, 2012 at 9:08 am Whistlepea
    
    That is such a great idea! We’re supposed to get Targets here in Canada next year I think.
    I’m glad I’m not the only one who has to deal with the ugliest and noisiest toys known to man.
    K’s getting this kitchen for her 2nd birthday:
    http://www.sears.ca/product/kidkraft-vintage-style-kitchen/616-000455246-53173
    It will probably eat our living room.
on January 16, 2012 at 8:17 am | Reply Trinh

oh how fun! someday when i feel like sewing again i will have to make some for s; but i can just see b pulling apart those painstaking handstictched ones:)…
on January 16, 2012 at 8:55 am | Reply Deb Freeman

I love it!!! I’m SO doing this!
on January 16, 2012 at 9:40 am | Reply Erin

LOVE that tortellini…. My daughter would flip. Thanks for the great idea!
on January 16, 2012 at 6:15 pm | Reply Lucinda

My own Lilah has a birthday next month and has been requesting a play kitchen . . . I was on the fence until I saw this post! Wow! Beautiful customized kitchen and great accessories (the fun part, right?:) Love the pasta!
on January 17, 2012 at 11:46 am | Reply bekah

What a cutie! Smiled when I saw the pasta on the fingers… that’s the best part! LOVE it! I NEED to make some for my 2-year old… she’d love it! Where did you get your play kitchen, love that too.
- on January 17, 2012 at 2:17 pm | Reply gail
  
  thanks 🙂 – we got our play kitchen a couple years back from Target and did some customization – there’s a link to the original kitchen up above in my response to Whistlepea if you want to check it out!
on January 18, 2012 at 6:39 am | Reply Monica

I love how you transformed the original play kitchen into this one! And totally cool and realistic-looking pasta – impressive!
on January 23, 2012 at 10:41 am | Reply Katherine

So cute! I love the variety, and the picture of all the little tortellini with the colored clothes pins is so cute! I think we need to make some of the tubes. The problem is the wouldn’t stay in the kitchen, I would be picking them up all over the house until I gave up!
on January 29, 2012 at 2:43 pm | Reply emily curfew

hi there! i just popped over to your blog after seeing (and favorite-ing) your cute hopscotch skirts on flikcr. I love Lila’s play kitchen, and i’ve never seen felt pasta before! INcredible! My little girl will be 2 in about a month, and i’m thinking about taking the plunge and getting her a play kitchen, and these little pastas would be so cute to make. thanks for sharing your tutorials. 🙂 ps- do you mind me asking where you got her little kitchen?
- on January 29, 2012 at 5:32 pm | Reply gail
  
  thanks! it’s a Target Play Wonder kitchen that we customized a bit. 🙂
on January 30, 2012 at 10:03 am | Reply quilterbell

Wow, fantastic, another one to my to do list!
on October 2, 2012 at 12:32 pm | Reply Annarella

Thanks. I love your blog and your style. I made a lot of those pastas for my daughter, she loves them and they look so real and cute. 🙂 Thanks 🙂
on November 18, 2013 at 8:16 pm | Reply createnic

here are my efforts!: http://createnic.wordpress.com/2013/11/19/felt-pasta/
on March 16, 2015 at 4:18 pm | Reply Mandolynn

Wow, never would had though about this. Thanks for sharing.