World Dishes: Middle Eastern/Mediterranean Cuisine - Part 2: Felt Dӧner/Shawarma

Part 2: Felt Dӧner/Shawarma

The Greek Gyro and the Syrian Shawarma are descendants of the Turkish Dӧner. The three words mean “turn”, which refers to the meat turning and cooking until crispy. The meat in all three of these dishes is shaven and served in a pita or a pide bread (thicker in texture) with some veggies and a sauce of some sort. All in all, these are mouth wateringly, delicious dishes, and packed with flavor. Our World Dishes series stop in the Middle East and Mediterranean meant a project where we could reimagine this delicious meal as felt food.

Growing up in Germany and also having Lebanese cousins, shawarma and Dӧner became a quick favorite for me. In Germany, you can find Dӧner shops everywhere, a testament to the major culinary influence of Turkish and other Middle Eastern immigrants (some who have been in Germany for generations). My daughter obsessed over her Dӧner experience in Germany last year and asked me to create one she could build and play with in her kitchen. This project tutorial features hand stitching but could easily be completed using a sewing machine.

Materials Used

• Felt – all felt used for this project is from The Felt Store
  • Pide/Pita Bread – Viscose Felt Tan 1094
  • Meat
    • Dӧner meat – Viscose Felt Chocolate Brown 1143
    • Chicken – Viscose Felt Tan 1094
  • Red Onion
    • Viscose Felt Dark Red 1074
    • Premium Wool Blend Craft Felt Sheets – Value Packs - Mushroom Meadow (Cream felt)
  • Tomato – Premium Wool Blend Craft Felt Sheets – Value Packs – Mushroom Meadow (Red Felt)
  • Lettuce – Acrylic Craft Felt Assorted Sheets - 9" Wide x 12" Long, (Apple Green felt)
  • White Garlic Sauce - Acrylic Craft Felt Assorted Sheets - 9" Wide x 12" Long, (White felt)
• Thread – pick thread colors to match your felt. I used colors I had on hand, so some are not exact matches, and that is ok.
• Doll stuffing or fiber fill
• Scissors, ruler, felt pen and pins or Cutting Machine like Cricut Maker
  • IMPORTANT – you can hand cut your pieces or use a machine cutter like a Cricut Maker

• Optional – you can get brown butchers’ paper to wrap your completed Dӧner for a fun addition. I used bakers twine in black and white to secure the butcher paper around the finished product.

Measurements for each element

I have included sizes here for guides, but you do not need to be exact. The pita will be the largest piece and all the others will fit inside.

Pide/Pita Bread – (2) Ovals - 8 inches wide x 9.5 inches in length.

Meat – For each meat type, you will need (12) rectangles measuring 3 inches long x 0.5inches wide. You will have a total of (24) rectangles.

Red Onion –

• (6) Dark red pieces – 4 inches long x 0.3 inches wide
• (6) Cream pieces – 4 inches long x 0.3 inches wide

Tomato – (30) 0.5x0.5 inch squares

Lettuce – 6 Total leaves approximately 4.5 inches in length. You can hand draw them to create a variety of imperfect leaves.

Garlic Sauce – This is a free hand blob which is pictured in white. It will lay flat in the pita and represent the white garlic sauce. It should be slightly smaller than the pita bread.

Instructions:

Cut all your felt pieces to size using the measurement guide above. You can hand cut by using a ruler to measure, felt pen to create the shape and scissors to cut. You can also use a cutting machine and input the above measurements to create machine cut pieces. I advise against using the machine to cut the Garlic Sauce or the Lettuce as you want these pieces to look imperfect and close to nature.

Pide Bread/Pita Bread

7. By manipulating the felt pita, you can now create ridges and lumps that make it appear to be cooked and have the air pockets.

Meat

1. Matching the Tan felt with the Tan felt strips, and Chocolate Brown felt with Chocolate Brown felt strips, you will begin to double up all your cute rectangles for "meat". You should end up with 6 pairs of each color.

 

2. You will stitch the pieces together using a running stitch, tugging tight at various points to create a ribboning effect for the shaved meat. A running stitch down the center will also allow for the edges to fray a bit, which provides some additional texture.

3. Repeat this step for each pair until all (12) pieces of meat are completed.

Note – they do not need to be uniform. They should be a bit varied.

Lettuce

1. For each of the six individual leaves, complete the following steps to create our six pieces of lettuce.

2. Fold the felt leaf in half the long way and firmly press at the bottom (stem area) to crease. 

3. While holding the bottom of the leaf together (or using a pin), stitch from the bottom of the leaf up about an inch.

4. By stitching the bottom together, you will achieve a more realistic leaf that folds out from the stem.

1. Take two red squares and place one on top of the other.
2. Using matching string, you will do a French Knot (medium sized about 4-6 turns) in the center of the square stack.

You can also choose to stitch them together in another fashion. The goal is to have a little diced tomato cube.

 

1. Take a Dark Red felt rectangle and place it on top of a Cream felt rectangle.
2. Stitch the two pieces together using a running stitch in the center.

Once all of your pairs have been stitched, you can begin to form the onion slices. This half circle shape is achieved by taking the strip, with the dark red on top, and wrapping it around your finger. Once you unwrap it, you can mold into a cut onion slice shape.

 

1. This is a freehand design. The goal here is to have a white layer of sauce inside the pita.
2. Place the pita on top of the 9x12 inch white felt sheet, to see how big the sauce needs to be.
3. Using your felt pen or pencil, you will roughly trace the pita outline on top of the white felt. Then using your scissors, cut out the oval shape.
4. You now have a white oval which needs to look more blob-like to appear like sauce.
5. Using your felt pen or pencil, create the design of your blob, and then cut it out.

1. First Step – Have Fun! There is no perfect way to build this pita. We used the following steps...
2. Lay the pita/pide bread flat
3. Add the garlic sauce layer
4. Add lettuce leaves
5. Add your meat layer
6. Sprinkle onions and tomatoes on top
7. Roll the pita
8. Enjoy!

I hope you find this project fun and easy to recreate. Our favorite part is that while this felt Dӧner is super fun to play with as is, you can also use the same pieces to play lots of different ways – flat bread pizza, salad, burrito, the list is never ending. Please share your versions of this Felt Dӧner/Shawarma on social media by tagging @The_Felt_Store and @thewayshefelt_ on Instagram.

If you missed Part 1 on how to make felt Baklava, you can find the full tutorial here.

Happy Crafting!