Wool Food
Wool Food is a local British Columbia shop based in Delta. They create hand sewn wool felt food for kids to play with or you can even use the wool food to give your home a pop of colour.
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What inspired you to start your business?
When my first child was a baby, I wanted to avoid all the plastic toys. Since I already had a love of crafts, specifically sewing, I decided to try sewing my own felt food. Ten years later in 2018, I started sewing felt food again and made them for my friend’s children. At that time, I decided to try selling at craft markets and put up my website. I joined Etsy in 2020 and my business really took off.
How do you describe your business?
Wool Food is a collection of hand sewn wool felt play food. My items include various fruits and vegetables, but also cupcakes which are my top selling items throughout the year.
What do you do with felt food? It’s for playing: for the play kitchen, the imaginary farmer’s market, for the classroom and also for decor. Many customers buy the felt food for a pop of colour in their kitchen or the pumpkins are popular for fall decor.
I use only the finest pure merino wool felt. I use 100% wool because it is durable and sustainable. The properties of this natural material makes it very soft and suitable for playtime and is in fact certified for children’s toys.
I designed most of the items and use a template to trace out and hand cut each piece that makes one item. Every item is hand sewn or hand embroidered by me. It takes time to make each item, but I enjoy the whole process!
What’s your bestselling product & why do you think it’s so popular?
Throughout the year, my cupcakes are always in demand. But during the fall my pumpkins (large and small) are the only felt food on order.
I’ve been told that my felt food, specifically the cupcakes, are well loved because they are so cute, so soft, and so realistic. My customers love the details and the high quality of the sewing and embroidery. I have many teachers who purchase for the play kitchens in their classrooms and they are impressed with the durability. The early educators also love the vibrant colours and use the felt food for educational purposes. Other customers who purchase pumpkins for fall decor love the variety of colours and sizes for their fall display.
What’s your personal favourite product?
My favourite felt food would be my chocolate strawberry cupcake with the white icing. It looks so delicious and I want to eat it! But the one I am most proud of would be the pineapple. It took me several weeks to perfect the design and I feel lucky that I was able to find the perfect colour felt from my suppliers to make the pineapple look real. I only ever made two of them because they take a very long time to make.
What are your favourite local BC business?
Kinder Books is a local children’s book store. Its my favourite local business because I love the unique selection of books in there. If I need a gift for a child, that is my go to place. They also sell Wool Food cupcakes!
