Learn Through Play! Easy DIY Felt Eggs that Crack open for Kid’s Pretend play (Free Felt Egg Patterns)

My toddler owns a small set of play kitchen foods that includes a piece of carrot, a broccoli, a burger patty and a pretend egg that cracks open. You can crack the egg open, and out comes a piece of cloth egg that you can fry. Absolutely adorable!

I am a firm believer in the importance of learning through play. Pretend play is one of them, and research has shown that children develop multiple skills necessary to be successful adults through play. These include:

• Cognitive skills and critical thinking – math and problem solving in a pretend grocery store
• Motor skills – running around, stacking blocks (and balancing them), and putting play food on plates and serving it to their pretend customers
• Communication skills – using words to express themselves, what they are doing, what they need, and what they plan to do
• Social skills – interacting with peers to achieve a common goal (i.e. building a castle together)
• Creativity – using blocks to bake a pretend cake, using a rolley toy to “vacum” with mom are all ways to be creative while playing.

Children also develop confidence through play as they learn new things they are able to do all by themselves. This confidence acts as a stepping stone to try new things and explore as they grow.

So…after knowing all these positive benefits of play…is there really any good reason we shouldn’t be encouraging learn through play?? I surely can’t!

Anyway…back to the egg. Like many other innocent toys that travel down the abyss of no return (aka lost), the cloth egg vanished one day and has not made a reappearance. My toddler would crack open his empty egg and say “egg…no more!”in his excited voice tinted with a bit of confusion.

Seeing that the cloth egg was literally a piece of white fabric cut in the shape of an egg (with a round yolk in the middle), I thought it wouldn’t be hard to make. Finally one day, after taking pity on the poor empty egg shell lying neglected on my kitchen floor, I decided to take action.

It’s no fun making just one pretend egg though, so I ordered some extra white plastic eggs on amazon and made a dozen! and then some more! These homemade felt eggs are so easy to make that I am sure you can’t stop at just one. Simply cut out the felt whites and slap the yellow yolks on. I tried three different ways to attach the yolks (glue, straight stitch, and zig-zag appliqué stitch) and they all turned out well.

My favorite look is the straight stitch one. I’m not sure why, but I liked the simpleness of it (compared to the appliqué stitched one. Learn more about How to do Fabric Applique here.). Gluing with craft bond is another great option if you want to make a no sew pretend play egg version.

Storing the eggs in an empty egg carton made these play eggs look even more real, so make sure to save a few for this craft. My toddler was pretty thrilled about his new felt play food eggs. I think the best part was that he gets to finally hold his own carton of eggs since I never let him hold the carton with real eggs inside.

MATERIALS:

• White Felt
• Yellow Felt
• Yellow thread
• White Plastic Eggs (the ones I used are 2.25″ tall)
• Empty Egg Carton – for storing the eggs
• My Free Fried Egg Pattern (available in my free resource library)

TOOLS:

• Sewing machine
• Fabric Scissors
• Fine Pins
• Craft bond
• Glue Gun/super glue

HOW TO MAKE FELT EGGS:

Print and cut out egg pattern (get the free pattern from my free resource library here). Place egg yolks on egg whites.

Straight stitch, zig-zag (applique) stitch or glue the yolk onto the egg whites. Repeat for all the fried eggs.

HOW TO ATTACH CRACKABLE PLAY EGGS:

To attach the two ends of the crack-able egg, apply hot glue over the opening and stick a piece of white felt rectangle (~0.5 inches x 0.25 inches) over the glue.

Happy little toddler frying his egg. Sizzle~ Sizzle ~ These pretend play eggs were definitely a hit, and I also love that he gets to practice cracking open and then stuffing the felt egg back and closing the eggs together (hello motor skill development!)

Want to make more pretend play food? Check out DIY Shareable Felt Fruits Made with Velcro for toddlers to practice sharing!