Long before I had a blog, I made this quiet book for my daughter. It took me a very long time:) but I think it turned out great - and so far it has held up!
I recently took pictures of each of the pages that I made - since I love to document all my crafts, past and present!
Each page is about 10" square - finished. So, I started out with 11" square pieces of fabric.
The base square is cotton fabric, and the shapes sewn on are all made from felt.
I made each page front and back, before I sewed them together, so that the sewing lines would be hidden. The only thing I did after the pages were sewn together (front to back) was add the grommets for the book rings.
For the letters on the cover, I took foam sticky letters, laid them out, and sewed through them to hold them down...it was a long time ago - so I don't remember - but I probably gummed up my needle a bit doing that:)
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| Page 1 & 2: Hang the Laundry & Chicken and Chicks |
For this page, I cut out a tree shape from green felt, and sewed it onto my square of fabric.
I cut out a basket shape, sewed decorative lines on it, and sewed it along 3 sides to create a pocket for the "clothes."
The clothes are also made out of felt.
I punched 2 small grommets (kits can be found at the fabric store) to string the "clothes line". Before stringing the clothes line, I glued on mini clothes pins. I used glue to secure the string to the back of the square of fabric after I had put the ends through the holes.
For the chicken, I cut a chicken shape from white felt, cut and sewed on the red parts, cut and sewed on the beak (you could also use fabric glue to put these parts on the chicken). I also glued on a googly eye. I sewed the chicken to the fabric, all around the TOP half of the chicken. I left the BOTTOM half unsewn so that it could be flipped up to reveal the eggs!
The eggs I cut jagged 2/3rds of the way up the egg, placed them under the chicken, and sewed them only along the outside of the egg - not along the jagged edge. This created a pocket for the chicks!
The chicks are 2 pieces of felt, sewn together EXCEPT at the bottom of the chicks, so that they make finger puppets. The beak and googly eyes are glued on with fabric glue.
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| Page 3 & 4: Tie the Shoe & Fish Tank |
The words "Tie the Shoe" are again foam sticky letters that I sewed down. The shoe is made from a black shape on the bottom, an orange shape sewn onto that, and 2 half circl-y things made out of blue felt, sewn onto that. The blue pieces have 3 small grommets punched into each, in order to thread the shoe lace. These grommets are the same size as the ones used on the "Hang the Laundry" page - and were put on
before the blue pieces were sewn to the shoe.
One thing I would say about this page - is that it might be a little out of place. I know that tons of quiet books have a "Tie the Shoe" page, but really - my kids are not even close to being able to tie their shoes, and compared to the other pages, this one might be a bit advanced.
This page is a little more complicated, but still pretty cute:)
1) The blue bowl is made from felt. I cut the top of the blue piece to look like waves, and then glued it onto a small piece of fabric (the same color as the background) to make a nice straight edge at the top. I also folded over and sewed the top edge of the fabric to make a clean top edge.
2) Over the blue felt is clear vinyl - which I got off the roll at the fabric store. I cut it the same shape as the "bowl", but included an extra notch at the bottom to sew the velcro to. I sewed 1 side of the velcro to the bottom part of the vinyl. Then I sewed this vinyl piece to the blue bowl, only along the top.
3) I sewed the blue bowl (NOT INCLUDING THE VINYL) down to the fabric square. I sewed only along the sides and the bottom - not along the top, so that it created a pocket.
4) I sewed the opposite side of the velcro down where it met the velcro on the vinyl.
5) Finally,
the pieces to fill the fish bowl... I found clipart that I liked, and using my inkjet color printer, printed the pictures onto iron-on transfer/t-shirt paper. I then cut the pieces out and traced them onto white felt, twice. I sewed the 2 coordinating pieces of felt together, sewed the hook side of the velcro onto the back, and ironed on my printed picture.
The hook side of the velcro sticks to the blue felt, and allows you to place the pictures wherever you want.
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| Pages 5 & 6: Count the Sheep & Vegetable Garden |
The sheep were made in the same method that I described making the fish bowl pieces, except instead of putting velcro on the back, I put snaps. I found a sheep in clip art, added a number 1-6 over the picture, and printed all 6 out on the t-shirt iron-on paper.
I sewed one side of the snap onto the fabric square, and the other side of the snap onto the doubled up felt sheep-shape before ironing on the actual sheep picture.
The green and white felt are cut and sewn together to make grass and a fence, and then sewed to the bottom of the page along the 2 sides and the bottom to make a pocket to hold the sheep when they aren't jumping:)
Garden Vegetables is pretty simple. I found a bunch of veggie clip art that I liked, and made the pieces using the same method described above in the "Fish Bowl" page. The only difference is that there is no velcro on the back of these pieces. They simply live in the pocket, underground, until they are harvested, and the kids get to try to remember what each vegetable is called.
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| Pages 7 & 8: Piano Music & Jonah & The Whale |
This one was a doozy - that's all I'll say about that:) I totally made this one up, because I love music, and thought it was original and cute...but it was hard to get the piano shape to look like a piano - and make the keys on such a small piece of felt!!
Anyways...the piano is black felt with white thread lines to add definition, and the piano keys are black thread on white felt, painstakingly sewn in tiny lines and zig zags.
I made another bit of black felt the same shape as the top, to put underneath the flap - otherwise the base fabric square would show through when you lift up the flap.
You can sew or glue this extra black piece down, and then place the piano over it. I sewed the piano down along all the edges, leaving the top unsewn to create a pocket. If you look closely, you will see that the piano has a top rhombus piece that is completely separate. This rhombus is sewn
ONLY along the top, so that it can be lifted to allow easy access to the pocket.
Jonah and the Whale - pretty simple again:) In fact, this is another one I would probably forgo if I did it again. It is a little boring:) Whale shape, zipper added, googly eye glued, whale sewn around the edges, with yarn sewn into the top for a spout. Jonah finger puppet made for hiding inside the whale. Done.
The words are foam sticky letters, sewn down again - except for the "& the" which is fabric I cut and ironed on with heat n' bond, because sticky letters wouldn't fit;)
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| Page 9: Noah and the Ark |
The ark is 2 different shades of brown felt, sewn together in the pattern I liked best. In the "windows" are clip art pictures that I printed on the heat transfer/t-shirt paper and ironed down to a back piece before laying the pieces with holes over the pictures and sewing right near the edges. This page has many layers!
The bottom of the boat is sewn to the page along the bottom to create a pocket. It also has another brown piece the same shape sewn underneath, so that you don't see the fabric underneath when you open the pocket.
I filled the pocket with finger puppets that I got from Ikea.
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| Page 10: American Flag |
For some reason, I primarily glued this page instead of sewing it. I glued the red lines onto white piece. I glued the blue square on as well. I did
sew the squares of velcro where the stars get attached.
Finally, I glued the flag to the fabric square -
leaving a square section at the top unglued to create a pocket!
I cut stars out of felt and sewed tiny pieces of coordinating velcro to the backs.
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| Page 11: Puzzle Page |
I found an image I liked, and made it into a puzzle. Again, the image was printed onto iron-on t-shirt paper. I traced the image onto my fabric square and sewed the outline in a dark/contrasting thread to give a guide for the puzzle.
I arbitrarily cut the image into pieces of relative equal size, with bumps and divots, to make puzzle pieces.
I ironed those pieces onto doubled up felt (just as I did in the "fish bowl" page), with velcro on the back of the puzzle pieces.
I sewed the opposite side of the velcro into the proper position for each puzzle piece.
The pocket opening was made with a cut in the fabric, and the edges folded down and sewn. A square of fabric in the same pattern was cut and glued all along the edges on the back of the fabric, over the hole, to create a pocket.
After the pages were finished, I decided which order I wanted them in.
Then, I was able to sew them together.
For example, the front cover, and first page, were placed right sides together.
For the FRONT AND BACK COVERS: I also placed half of a shoelace facing in, along the outer edge, so that it would be sewn in and become the tie closure for the book. Make sure to sew over this shoelace many times to reinforce it.
I then sewed them along
THREE edges - leaving the 4th edge unsewn. The unsewn edge is the side that I wanted to become the
inside edge of the book - where the grommets would end up.
Then, turn the pages right side out, fold and iron in the 4th edge, and sew it closed on the outside. You could make a smaller hole for turning and hand sew if you wanted - but I don't mind the look of the inside edge being sewn on the outside.
Finally, add the grommets along the inside edge, a couple of inches from the top and bottom (but the same on each page), according the directions, and insert onto the book rings.
Now, because of all the things I have in pockets - this is a very fat book. The Noah's Ark page is particularly fat with the finger puppets. But it is all very cute, and the girls really like to play with it!
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