Let’s make it by hand! A toy made with felt and Velcro
Toys made with felt are soft and safe for babies to play with.
Cloth picture books, pretend-play items, and shape-sorting toys are classics.
In this article, we introduce handmade toy ideas that use felt and hook-and-loop fasteners (Velcro).
There are lots of ideas, like toys you can rip off with a satisfying sound or ones you can stick together and play with.
If you’re thinking, “I want to make handmade toys for my child!” please use these ideas as inspiration and give them a try.
Let’s make it by hand! A toy made with felt and Velcro
[Montessori] A toy for matching colors and shapes
![[Montessori] A toy for matching colors and shapes](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hwNWEgnOglM/sddefault.jpg)
Montessori education is one of the teaching methods attracting attention, and here we’ll try a play activity that incorporates this approach using felt and hook-and-loop fasteners.
First, cut two pieces of felt in the same color and shape.
Make several sets by changing the shapes and colors.
Stick one piece from each set onto a board, and leave the matching piece unattached.
Have the child match the unattached piece to the one on the board by layering and attaching it with the hook-and-loop fastener, and draw their interest by emphasizing the sensation when it is pulled off.
Stimuli such as color, shape, and sound help develop children’s senses.
Mogu-Mogu Cloth Picture Book
Here’s a felt toy that lets kids enjoy the use and feel of zippers and hook-and-loop fasteners.
It’s designed like a lion-themed picture book bag, where children can open and close zippers in order, peel off felt foods with hook-and-loop fasteners to feed the lion, and do matching activities.
We introduced a lion, but it would also be fun to switch to another animal the child likes.
It has handles like a bag, making it very easy to carry around.
Give it a try and make one yourself!
Counting toy
Would you like to make a sushi roll toy out of felt that doesn’t require any sewing? It’s a fun toy that could also be used for pretend play.
First, stick adhesive hook-and-loop fastener onto the black felt for the seaweed.
For the rice and fillings, use strong double-sided fabric tape to attach them.
Make the rice by layering three pieces of felt.
The more fillings you add, the harder it becomes to roll, but it seems great for developing fine motor skills.
Give it a try and have fun making and playing with it!
Strikeout you can play at home
Here’s how to easily make a strikeout target game using stick-on felt.
Write the numbers 1 through 9 on felt and cut them out.
Stick the numbers in order onto square backing pieces, then attach those to a large piece of felt.
Attach adhesive hook-and-loop tape to the outside of ping-pong balls, and you’re done.
Hang the finished target on a wall and throw the ping-pong balls at it.
The number where the ball sticks is your score.
It’s also fun to decide how many throws each person gets and take turns.
ice cream
https://www.instagram.com/p/C8dhanJP4_x/Here’s a puzzle-like ice cream made with felt and hook-and-loop fasteners.
Beneath the ice cream, an embroidered outline shows where each felt piece should be attached.
It’s a lot of fun to think it through and complete the ice cream.
There are adhesive hook-and-loop options, and there’s also a fabric called toy cloth that hook-and-loop fasteners stick to, so if you’re not confident with sewing, using those can save you a step.
Let your child learn while playing with this handmade educational toy.
sushi
Why not make play sushi with felt and hook-and-loop fasteners? Here we made two types—tamagoyaki (sweet omelet) and salmon—but feel free to create any toppings your child likes.
First, form the rice part into a ring and hand-stitch it.
Once stitched, sew a piece of hook-and-loop where the topping will attach.
After sewing it on, add stuffing and close it up.
Next, sew the egg piece, attach hook-and-loop to it, and add stuffing to this as well.
Attach a pair of hook-and-loop pieces to the ends of the nori strip.
Make the salmon in the same way.
It might also be fun to use hook-and-loop in wasabi green instead of white.
nori-maki (seaweed roll; sushi roll wrapped in seaweed)
Would you like to make a sushi roll toy out of felt that doesn’t require any sewing? It’s a fun toy that could also be used for pretend play.
First, stick adhesive hook-and-loop fastener onto the black felt for the seaweed.
For the rice and fillings, use strong double-sided fabric tape to attach them.
Make the rice by layering three pieces of felt.
The more fillings you add, the harder it becomes to roll, but it seems great for developing fine motor skills.
Give it a try and have fun making and playing with it!
rice ball
Why not try making a rice ball that you can wrap with seaweed and fill with ingredients using a puzzle mat? First, cut out two triangle pieces from a white puzzle mat.
Cut out a hollow space for the filling, then stick the two pieces together with double-sided tape and attach felt around the edges.
Put felt on the fillings as well and place them inside the rice ball.
Attach hook-and-loop fasteners (Velcro) to both the seaweed made from black felt and the rice ball, and you’ll have a rice ball with removable seaweed and fillings.
The fillings are small, so please be careful to avoid accidental ingestion.
A rabbit plush made from fleece
Using fleece fabric that looks and feels soft, let’s make a palm-sized stuffed bunny.
The key is how you construct the body: cut the fabric into the shape you want, embroider the facial expression, sew the pieces together, then stuff them with cotton and shape as you go.
The way you stuff it will change the overall roundness and softness, so it’s a good idea to focus on this to create your own unique bunny.
After that, attach parts like the hands, feet, and ears, and finish it so it looks like a bunny, and you’re done.
It can also be fun to change the fabric color and the shapes of the parts to add originality.
Puppet made with felt
Have fun with design! Here are some felt puppet ideas.
When you decide to make a puppet, you might find yourself wondering what motif to choose.
For those people, here are ideas for original human-themed puppets! First, try sketching your puppet design as an illustration.
By incorporating features that resemble yourself or paying special attention to the hairstyle, you can express a sense of originality.
A great perk of using felt is that it makes thread finishing simple and easy.
In conclusion
We introduced toys made with felt and hook-and-loop fasteners. Did you find any ideas that made you want to try making them? Some of them can help promote children’s finger dexterity, so feel free to use them as a reference. You can buy felt and hook-and-loop fasteners at 100-yen shops!