Front and Back Cover and Binding

I had planned to get a yard or two of felt for the inside of the fleece book cover. However, the lady in the craft section at Walmart unwillingly parted with some advice on the filler. She gave me 2 yards of something that is stiffer and more durable than felt as a filler. Unfortunately, I do not know the name of it, for she did not give it. And as she was oh so kind and generous thus far (going above and beyond her station in the craft department in Walmart) [please notice this as sarcasm], I did not think it wise to ask for anything further. It did turn out to work very well.

I first measured the fleece to be twice as wide as the book and a little longer in height. This way the front and back cover could be one piece to protect the pages inside. I sewed the fleece to the filler on all sides with the filler side by side. Then I folded the fleece over onto itself to create the cover 2 filler thick. Then I sewed the three sides that needed to be bound together to make it one piece. I measured for two sets of grommets to make the binding. I ended up needing bigger grommets for the cover than I needed for the inside pages. I then cut three pieces of elastic, and sewed a loop into both ends and threaded it through the book. I started at the middle page, went through to the back of the book, and then back into the first half of the book. This should tighten the elastic when the book is closed, but it should be relaxed when the book is open. I then threaded the loops through colored key rings. This will allow me to take the book apart when needed, but it won't come apart when Ayven is looking through it.

As is turns out, Ayven has found the rings on elastic great fun. It is an activity unplanned. Finally, I put two buckles (one at the top and one at the bottom) to keep the book closed.

I absolutely had a blast making this book. It was hard work. Especially for someone who has never actually used a sewing machine (except for that one time in home ec in 8th grade). But Ayven loves playing with the book, and it makes it all worthwhile. I believe I will be trying some more things with the sewing machine as well as one craft I saw with a glue gun here. I am very excited to begin something new.

Page 12 - Beehive

The beehive is very similar to the jacket page (Page 5). I sewed the zipper to the yellow felt. I then sewed black ribbon in stripes on the felt to make it look like a bee. When I sewed it to the page, I made sure it made a pocket for the bees.

The bees are made out of craft pompoms. I hot glued them together with a piece of ribbon behind the head, then hot glued googly eyes.

I sewed the bees in the beehive to keep them from being lost. However, with the first use of the zipper, the ribbon was stuck in the zipper. I had to cut them out of the hive. It turned out to be better this way. Ayven loves to have bee fights with them.

Page 11 - Tic Tac Toe

I found felt basketballs and baseballs in the craft section at Walmart. I sewed velcro to a piece of felt, and then hot glued the velcro'd felt to the balls. I then used ribbon and sewed it to the felt square creating the tic tac toe boxes.

I added a pocket on the bottom of the page for the extra pieces for tic tac toe.

Page 10 and 10 1/2 - I Spy

My I Spy page was easier in some ways and harder in others. The hardest part was sewing the small pieces of fabric to the plastic page protector. However, the rice in the pencil pouch was super easy.

I found all the wood pieces for the find and legend at a craft store. I glued the wood pieces in a page protector. Then I sewed the different pieces of fabric around the page protector for some flair. Then I sewed it to the page.

I colored the rice with a teaspoon of rubbing alcohol and food coloring (more or less depending on the exact color you want) in a ziplock bag. I spread it out in a cookie sheet and let it dry. I put the match to the wooden piece and the rice in a zippered pencil pouch. Most of it is canvas but has a plastic window. It already had 3 rings in it for binder use. I removed the tab on the zipper and hot glued the zipper so it could not be opened.

The only problem I found with the wooden pieces is that they are lighter than the rice, so they are usually at the top of the rice instead of mixed in. They also flip over, but I don't see that as a big problem.

Page 8-9 Season Tree

This page took me the longest because of all the different pieces I made for it. I made 10 flowers for spring, 10 green leaves for summer, 10 brown/red/orange/yellow leaves for fall, and 10 snowflakes for winter. I cut out two of each of the 40 tree decorations and sewed them together for strength. Then I added the snaps. (I made sure that I added the same side of the snap to all of the decorations.)

For the tree, I drew this one out instead of using my Word outline. I drew it a lot to get the shape and branches I wanted. Then when I transferred the tree to the felt, the tree changed more because of the texture of felt. It sometimes will fuzz to nothing if cut too thin. I sewed the tree to the page first. Then I added a green hill for it to sit on. This was to be my pocket for the season decorations. However, this turned out to not be big enough for all of the decorations I made. I decided to add a pocket on the other side to hold all of them instead.

For the pocket: I took a full piece of felt, folded and sewed a 3 inch section down to create an edge. Then I sewed it down on the other three sides.

Page 7 - Barnyard

This page was relatively easy. I am not sure if this is because this was the 12th page I have done, or if it was just easy.

For my barn (which is all over the internet for quiet books), I started with my handy dandy Word outline. I took my red felt square and trimmed the top part of the sides to give the barn a pentagon shape. Then I added the top triangle portion of the pentagon. Then I used white ribbon to outline the barn and the barn doors. I sewed on the ribbon before I sewed the barn together onto the page. The doors and the window are two pieces thick for endurance. (See, learned my lesson.) I added a piece of tan felt behind the doors section of the barn to make a pocket for the animal puppets. I sewed the tan piece first, and then sewed the barn doors on top. I added the two buttons and ribbon for closure.

For the window, I sewed the black square down first. Then I sewed the two pieces of red felt together with the white ribbon, and sewed it to the black piece on the page. I decided that I didn't want the chicken to be a puppet, but to be part of the peek-a-boo window in the top of the barn. Then I sewed the chicken together and then sewed it to the window as well. To finish the window off, I added a sunflower button.

Finally, I made the puppets. This turned out easier than I expected as well. I traced around two of my fingers and then cut out two pieces of felt that size. I sewed them together leaving the finger hole. Then I flipped it inside out so the seam was on the inside. I then added all the embellishments to make the animals I wanted. Pink pig, brown dog, and white/black cow.

Page 6 - Balloon Monkey

Balloon Monkey idea came from Serving Pink Lemonade. When I saw it, I felt like it was a perfect way to play with colors and shapes.

I made two of every shape; however, I should have made three. On this page, again, I wish the removable pieces were two ply. I believe I will be able to take this page and sew another layer on the removable balloon pieces. This will make the pieces stronger and keep the stitches for the Velcro and ribbon unseen. I sewed the ribbons and Velcro onto the removable pieces. I then sewed the other matching pieces spread out onto the page adding their counterpart Velcro pieces. For the monkey, I used my Word outline for the body, arms, legs, and tail. I hot glued the head of the monkey over the stitched body on the page. I found the head at the store in the craft section. I hot glued the googly eyes onto the monkey head to add a fun touch. I also learned from the last time, and let the glue cool for a second before adding the eyes to keep them from melting. Finally, I matched all the balloons to their counterparts, brought all of the ribbons together and sewed them onto the monkey’s hand.

***UPDATE*** I did add layers to the shapes. The star got caught in the sewing machine and ended up getting squished a little. But they are all stronger now, and that is what I wanted.

Page 5 - Buckled and Zippered Coat

This page started out with just a zipper and buckle on the page by itself like I saw on Little Hands Big Work. However, I decided to jazz it up a little more. I originally wanted to have a zippered jacket above pants with the buckle. However, with the buckle and ribbon that I have, it made it look like a little girls outfit. If I was making this for a little girl, it would be great, but since this is for my little boy, I didn’t want that. I finally chose to put both the zipper and the buckle on the jacket.

It took me a long time to figure out how to create the jacket and then add the zipper too. So this is what I did. I created the jacket whole out of a piece of felt, made sure the jacket was symmetrical, and fit on my page. I made sure to keep in mind that the zipper would add some width to the jacket. I split the jacket down the middle and then sewed the zipper to both sides.

For the buckle, I put a piece of ribbon through both sides of the buckle. I sewed each side of the ribbon closed as close to the buckles as I could to keep them in place. I pinned the jacket and the buckle (with the ribbon bent around to the inside of the jacket) in place then sewed it to the page. I forward and back stitched the buckle to make sure it wouldn’t come off when tugged. I sewed it all down except for the zipper side. This created a little pocket for Ayven to put something in it if he chooses.

I was very pleased with the way this page turned out.

Page 4 - Elephant Puzzle

For the elephant puzzle (which I got from Made by Me, Shared with You), I started with my ever loyal Word outline. I separated the ovals, circles, cylinders and other shapes I used to create my elephant in Word (which I thought turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself), printed and then cut out the shapes for my stencils. I used the stencils to cut the gray felt used for the elephant and then glued them together to a purple piece of felt. After putting the elephant together, I decided it needed a little bit more, so I made a felt sun and flower to add to the puzzle. I used the sewing glue to put the elephant, flower and sun together first. I decided to cut the piece into squares before I sewed the pieces together. I am new to this sewing thing, so I didn’t want to sew it together first and then cut through my stitches and have them unravel later. I decided on only a 4 piece puzzle to keep it simple for both Ayven and me.

I stitched a blue piece of felt the same size as the puzzle pieces onto the book page. Then I stitched the Velcro onto the blue felt. I matched the Velcro pieces together then pressed the puzzle pieces down to match the puzzle’s Velcro piece exactly with the background’s piece. I didn’t want the Velcro not to match together. (I used Velcro stickers because that was the only thing I could find in the Wal-mart I first went to. The second Wal-mart I tried later had sewing Velcro which would have been my first choice on this project.) Finally, I hot glued googly eyes to the elephant. One more learning experience: googly eyes will melt if the glue is too hot.

Looking back, I should have made the puzzle pieces thicker than just one piece of felt for two reasons. 1) It would be harder to tear up. 2) I was unable to sew the Velcro onto the puzzle pieces. It would have shown up on the front of the puzzle, and I didn’t want that. So I am pretty sure, I will have to redo this puzzle. But luckily it will be only the puzzle pieces and not the page it is on. When I redo the puzzle, I will update this blog with the new pictures. **UPDATE** I ended up not needing to redo the puzzle. I took 2 pieces of felt and sewed on a new piece of velcro then sewed the pieces onto the puzzle piece. Perfect. :)

Page 3 - Football Lacing

My third page I decided to do a lacing page. I saw a lacing page Made by Me, Shared with You that showed a football being laced. I liked that idea since my son loves football, and I had not incorporated any football themes anywhere else. I was going to print the oval from my Word outline, but found a picture of a football via Google and used that instead. There were a billion images online and I just chose the one that I liked most. I printed it in black and white to use as my template.

I used two pieces of felt to make the football thicker. I sewed those two pieces together along with the two pieces of white felt for the stripes on the football. Then I used grommets (I really like these) to use as eyelet holes.

For the lace, I used a shoe lace... in yellow. It was the only color the $ store had. Turns out it matches the background, and it really pops on the brown football. I decided not to use normal shoe lacing. It just didn't look right with it being a football. This is why I laced it as bars. I sewed the lace down to keep it from coming out. That would be a big pain to try to relace it once in the book. I sewed it all down in the book. This page was pretty simple to put together.

Page 2 - Mailbox

I have finished my second page of my quiet book. It is a useable mailbox with readable letters. I started just like I started the first page. I measured and glued the felt to the fabric page. I printed out the template from the document I designed originally in Word. I then cut the felt mailbox and sewed it to my page. I sewed the blue back of the mailbox on first and then sewed the three sides of the mailbox front to create a pocket for the removeable letters. I sewed the front of the mailbox only on the bottom so Ayven can "open" the mailbox.

I also two designed letters to fit into the mailbox. They are both closed with velcro to go into the mailbox. One, I stuffed with felt to make it thicker, and the other I did not. I recommend putting felt in the letter to thicken them up a little bit. I added felt grass at the bottom of the mailbox post just for a little more detail.

I used a grommet and pin to add the felt flag (two pieces of felt to make it thicker) to the mailbox. The flag is moveable with the grommet and pin.

I turned the two pages (front side in) on each other and then sewed the top, bottom and outside (not the side to be binded) together. Then turned the pages right side out.

The only thing that I didn't realize when I was putting this page together was that this would be the back page. The grommets for the page will be on the right side, not the left. I was lucky that I still have enough room for the grommets. I will definitely keep this in mind when I do the rest of my book. NOTE: Some of the pictures were taken before I added the flag. The flag, hopefully, is not easliy removeable.

Page 1 - Lock and Key Heart

For my first page, I decided to do a lock and key. I got this originally from Little Hands, Big Work I added my own touch to it by making it the lock and key to my heart.

Since this was my first page, I had to decide what size pages I wanted and how to go about making them. I liked the idea of cloth pages stuffed with batting. I found out that batting could eventually fall apart and sink to the bottom of the project if not tacked correctly. This is why I decided to use felt to fill the pages. I decided a standard page size would be big enough without being too big. However, the felt is 9x12, so this is the size I decided to go with. I made the binding side 2 inches longer. This will give me 9x12 to work with for the designs and 2 inches to bind the pages together.

The cloth needed 1 inch on each side to sew the two sides together to make a page. This makes my cloth 13x14, the felt 11X12 (which means I need more than one piece of felt.) If I make another book, I will make it with the felt size only. This will make it a little smaller, but this will keep me from having to use two pieces of felt for filler. I took my Word outline, and printed out the heart to use as a template.

I used sewing glue to glue the felt to the cloth, then sewed the heart onto the cloth and felt. Sewing all of the felt to the cloth and felt filler should keep the felt in place. I used a piece of small rope to secure the lock and key. When I sewed the heart, I sewed the rope down under the heart as well. Then I used hot glue to keep the rope knot from coming undone. Hopefully, this will keep anything from coming apart.

Under the heart, I sewed a different piece of cloth to give it some contrast when the heart opens. I used large eyelets or grommets (My first time for these too. Turns out this is very easy.) on the heart to attach the rings to close the heart. Finally, I laminated a picture to put in the heart for a nice surprise.

This is Ayven playing with the lock and key before I even sewed the first two pages together. I am thinking this is a very good sign for the rest of the book.

Ayven's Quiet Book

As I was searching the internet, I came across this blog: Little Hands, Big Work. I thought it was such a neat idea. Then as I looked into Quiet Books, I found that this is a very popular thing! A lot of people seem to make them for their little ones to have something quiet to do during Church. My sister told me that she had never seen this idea as a book, but had seen them as boxes. I spent a couple of days looking at different sites that I found on mainly on Pinterest and YouTube. I figured out which pages I liked and wanted to emulate. Then, in Word, I worked on an outline of I wanted the the pages to look like. And finally, I went to the store to buy some supplies to start this project. Keep in mind, I have practically no experience with crafting projects. (I did make a bag one time in the 8th grade.) So, I had to buy sewing machine, and all of my supplies. There are many bloggers out there where this project cost them hardly anything because of already having most of the supplies. This was not the case for me.

This is a picture of all of my supplies I bought, minus the sewing machine. I did already have the glue gun (can you see it still in the package), but that was all. I spent about $100 on supplies (not counting the sewing machine). As I go through my pages, I will try to recognize the sites that I first got the idea. However, if I found multiple sites with the same idea, I will probably not site anyone. No matter whether the idea came from one site or multiple, I have not used any template except my own to do the pages. If for some reason I do need a template for a page, I will definitely site that page. I am so excited to start this project and share it with all of you!