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It started a few years ago with a box of doughnuts sitting on a counter, uneaten but far from untouched.

No one who entered Sarah Jo Marks' Los Angeles kitchen could resist picking up the felt doughnuts her husband had given her as a gift. From there, her collection grew: plush bananas, sausages, a cuddly ham.

At her friends' urging, she made the move from kitchen curator to the real deal: organizing a plush food show at a local gallery. More than two dozen artists from around the world contributed items ranging from super-realistic cupcakes to Frankensteak, a green felt T-bone with a screw in his neck and a pained expression stitched across his face.

"It was so great, when we're living in very difficult times, to watch people walk into a room and be completely delighted," said Marks, who makes her living handling distribution for documentary films.

Therein lies the chief appeal of plush food: It's cute. And if you're even slightly crafty, it's not difficult to make yourself.

"There's just something fun and cute about a doughnut you can cuddle," said Wendy Bryan, creator of the "Frankenfoods" line, which also features "Night of the Living Bread" and "Count Drinkula."

Though the "Stuffed" plush food show featured one-of-a-kind creations priced as high as $300 for a 10-inch pie, simpler pieces can be stitched together for pennies with bits of inexpensive felt and a handful of stuffing. And while there are plenty of professional artists creating items for the adult market, plush food is also gaining ground among crafty moms in search of lead-free toys for their tots.

"We have a whole box of (plastic) fake food, and they put it in their mouths all the time," said Brynn Perry, a mother of two from Marysville, Wash. "I was looking for something more homemade and better for the environment."

Perry, 27, has made a virtual grocery store for her girls with more than 30 different food items, including at least eight different fruits. An experienced seamstress who sells handmade doll clothing, she came up with her own patterns for the food, enjoying the variety of working with different colors and shapes.

"I have a short attention span, and I don't like mass production," she said.

Hiromi Hughes, 37, of Melbourne, Australia, got her start making a pretend sushi set for her friend's daughter, then branched out into selling her creations online. As demand grew, she switched to selling her patterns and now offers four e-books with detailed instructions on how to make cakes, sushi, tarts and pancakes and Italian favorites like pasta and pizza.

Hughes, a mother of two, grew up in Japan, where she studied fashion design. Having children rekindled her love of crafts, she said, and she enjoys making things for them as well as knowing others are making special gifts with her patterns.

"Most of the toys in the toy stores are so cold, hard, plastic and impersonal. But felt is warm, soft and natural and much nicer to play with," she said. "I also believe that gifts such as these kind of toys that are handmade are even more special as they are made with love, care and attention by someone that loves the lucky recipient and not just bought 'ready made' from the store."

She advises her customers to seek out just the right colors for their creations to make them as vibrant and beautiful as possible. That means choosing a shade as close to real food as possible.

"The other advice that I would give is that because they may be played with by younger children, sew all the pieces of the designs together firmly," she said.

Natalie Zee Drieu, senior editor of CRAFT Magazine, said felt food is part of a larger food trend among crafters. She's seen crocheted sushi, knitted candies and all kinds of plush cupcakes. The magazine featured fruit made from felted wool on its Summer 2006 cover.

"I think some of the idea on using food to craft is how it can be 'cute' in a cartoon-y toy kind of sense and also how real you can make it to mimic the real thing," she said. "You can make it as a toy for kids, but I think it's mostly for adults. It's got the kitsch factor."

Marks, the curator of the plush food show, agreed.

"There's a generation of people who grew up playing with Star Wars who realize that you can still keep on playing with your toys, and it's cool."

In Los Angeles in particular, the plush food trend dovetails with a food culture that celebrates organic, local ingredients, Marks said.

"Foodies are coming out, and they want to have their plush tomato to symbolize the changes they're making in their diets," she said. But in the end, it's the cuteness that gets them, she said.

"We've talked about doing other kinds of shows, like plush office supplies," she said. "It's just not as clever."

DIY: Make your own felt sushi

This is one of the simplest projects in "Felt Cuisine -- Sushi by Design," an e-book written by Hiromi Hughes, but her detailed, clear instructions coupled with photographs of each step make even more complicated designs easy to master.

For Hosomaki (small seaweed rolls), use only one strip of white felt and one strip of colored felt; for Futomaki (jumbo rolls) like the one featured here, use three strips.

Felt is available by the yard, either in synthetic form or the more expensive, higher quality wool felt. Craft stores often sell synthetic felt in 9 inch by 12 inch sheets for about 20 cents each.

Materials:

White, red, yellow, orange and black felt

Ruler

Scissors

Needle

Black thread

1. Cut the felt into the following strips:

* White: 3 strips, each 9-1/2 inches long by 1-inch wide

* Red: 1 strip, 3 inches long by 1-inch wide

* Yellow: 1 strip, 3 inches long by 1-inch wide

* Orange: 1 strip, 3 inches long by 1-inch wide

* Black: 1 strip, 6-1/4 inches long by 1-inch wide

2. Make the filling:

Starting at a short end, roll the red felt and secure with a stitch or two. Repeat with the yellow and orange strips, then secure the three rolls together. The stitching won't show in the end, so don't worry too much about making it neat.

3. Make the rice and seaweed:

Connect the three white strips by sewing them short-end to short-end. Sew the black strip to one end in the same manner.

4. Roll it up:

Secure the three colored pieces to the end of the white strip, then roll tightly until the black wraps around the entire roll. Sew along the edge to secure the black felt. Pass the needle through the core to the other side and back again a few times to stop the inner pieces from popping out.

5. Tie a knot, and cut your thread.

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