Quiet Book Cover

I used fabric that I had on hand from a project I never started. I can't even remember what I had planned for it as it was too long ago. :/ I added one layer of felt between the two fabric pieces to give a little weight. I didn't want too hard or structured of a cover as I have so many bulky 3D pages. 

 

The most important advice I can give is to measure five times and sew once. Get your book rings in your pages before you plan your cover so you will be measuring around everything that will be in your book. I used 3" book rings and this definately requires more space that needs to be included in the planning. You want a cover with a one inch margin around all of your pages. More than that can make the finished project look floppy/sloppy. Less than that and you risk having a cover that looks like it shrunk in the wash. And get a plan for what kind of closure and/or handles you may want for your book. I used a Velcro closure and added two handles.

 

 

• Measure the pages lengthwise making sure there will be an inch on each side after seam allowances.
• Measure the height of the pages making sure there will be an inch on each side after seam allowances.
• Mark where the book rings will be attached on the inside of the cover.
• Mark where your book closure will be sewn onto the back cover and attached on the front and pin into place.
• Mark where the carry handles will be sewn into the cover and pin into place.

 

First I stitched around all of the edges with the right sides of the fabric together inside making sure to leave an opening to turn it inside out. Sew the opening close and add a finishing stitch completely around the edges.

 

 

 

 I then sewed two vertical lines evenly spaced on either side of where the book rings will be attached to give the look and feel of a spine. There is enough stability and width it can stand on its own.

 

  

On the inside of the 'spine', I sewed two reinforced loops that the book rings can link through. I chose the book ring option for a few reasons. You can easily remove a page for repair, can take a couple of pages out for fun on the go, and I also think it is important to rotate pages. Just like toys, kids become excited to see a page again that they haven't played with for a few weeks. Book rings give you all of this flexibility.

 

 

This is one mega book - finished and ready to gift!

 

 

Don't forget the finishing touch on the front inside cover. :)

 

 

 

Binding the Pages

 

Everyone has their own technique for finishing and binding the pages. Here's mine. All of the designs were created in landscape form on the page. The width of felt is 9 inches give or take so I made sure the length of each design was 9 as well. Make sure you alternate left and right margins when you create pages. You will need to sew together pages with a left and a right open space to create a binding. Here are my tic tac toe and Bingo pages as they went together. I folded over the edge of the open margin making sure to measure one inch in from the edge of the fold. Pin, pin, pin and sew. Once this is done for each page, I sewed around the four sides to connect the two pages.

 

 

 

Make sure all of the ribbons, tethers, whatever you have on the page are placed correctly and out of the way as you sew the two pages together.

 

 

To help make sure all the grommets are in alignment, I used one finished page as a template. I took a fine line Sharpie pen and poked it through the grommets of a finished page to mark the spots I need to place grommets on the page I am working on.

 

 

 

This doesn't leave a big obvious mark at all. It is just enough guidance. Many grommet directions want you to cut a hole. I was too chicken. I poked instead of cutting.

 

 

I used a meat fork to make the initial puncture through both pages. If it needed to be enlarged, I pushed through one blad of my sewing scissors. I was then able to push through the grommets, and with four light taps of a regular hammer the grommets were set. I used the regular Dritz brand that is sold at Michael's/Joanns and had zero problem with them holding. Perhaps it is because I have four layers of felt where each grommet is placed?

 

 

My finished binding has two grommets and one straight seam. Easy peasy.

 

 

Christmas Shape Matching

 

This page has a 3D Christmas tree for shape matching. To the left is a pouch holding all of the ornament shapes that the tree needs to be decorated with. There is red outline of each shape the child needs to match. I did them all in red so the focus is on the shape and no clue is given with color.

 

Shapes I included: circle, oval, octagon, pentagon, triangle, rectangle, star, diamond, cross, square, heart, trapezoid (make sure to include this one...your child's Kindergarten teacher will thank you!)

 

 

 

The square and regtangle shapes are gifts under the Christmas tree and the trapezoid is upside down for the tree base. The star is on top of the tree (of course!).

 

 

 

 

I Spy Transportation

 

This is my take on an I Spy Page. I made a round pouch using PVC vinyl on the top and white felt on the back. Inside are ten different transportation theme buttons and white paper circles punched out from regular typing paper. I wanted to use something relatively light rather than beads or rice. A second set of buttons are sewn below the I Spy window so the child knows what they are looking for. I have boat, train, tractor, dump truck and plane in place. I searched three Michael's store in my vicinity for the second set of matching transportation buttons (police car, motorcycle, freight truck, etc.) to match with...but alas. Everyone is out of stock! But Christmas is coming so I completed the page without them. I'll sew them on the early part of next year.

Circus Tent

 

The circus is in town. The main purpose of this page is hand eye coordination and practicing zipper skills. When the circus tent is zipped open...

 

 

there are two circus acts inside. The elephant is balancing on a ball that rotates on a brad. The lion is tethered to the page and can jump through a ring of fire. The ring was cut from a thick felt coaster I purchased in a four pack at Michael's. I cut out the Christmas design in the middle and kept just the outer red ring. Then I sewed on orange and yellow flames. The base of the ring is sewn to the page itself but there is plenty of give to allow the ring to be raised vertical for the lion to perform.

 

This brings me to character design. As I have said earlier in this blog, I do not use templates. I search the Internet for images that I think are attract. Then happily I have enough skill to freehand cut something similar. I am not artistic enough to dream up a cute animal on my own.

 

Here is the lion artwork I used as inspration for mine. It is not an exact match but gave me enough of a template to work from. Google whatever you are looking for and then the word 'cartoon' or 'illustration' to find options.

 

 

 

 

Picnic in the Park

Who doesn't love a picnic? This page has a woven picnic basket in the bottom right corner that folds down. Inside is a picnic blanket that snaps onto the grass. There is a hot dog, a piece of sheese, a carrot, a slice of watermelon and a chocolate ice cream cone.

 

 

 

 

After the picnic you can fly a kite on the hill (elastic cording attached to the kite) or you can go down to the pond to watch the duck and the frog.

 

 

There are two fabric wave pockets that the duck and frog can jump into. Or when they want to rest or hide, they can head back to the lilypad or reeds.

 

 

And every good picnic has some problems. Here come the ants! It is a pull out tab that has ants marching towards the picnic lunch! The ants have vinyl sewn over them which allow the tab to be pulled out and pushed back in without effort. The tab also has a small T shape at the base which prevent the tab from being pulled out of the button hole completely.

 



Fish On!

 

This is another crazy 3D page but a favorite with my 21 month old. It is a magnetic fishing game that helps to teach colors. The 'aquarium' is poly vinyl that pops up/folds flat. Around the base are different colors of sea grass: (or is it coral) red, orange, yellow, white, green, brown, gray, black, pink, purple and blue.

 

At the top of the page I used an iron-on transfer in black font to create the page title COLORS as I didn't want anyone to match a sea critter to the title. just below the title are two button holes that hold the fishing rod.

 

 

This is made from a 6 inch piece of craft balsa wood, a ribbon, mesh fabric sewn into a pouch, and a magnet strong to pick up all of the sea critters.

 

What are the sea critters? Red crab, orange clown fish, yellow angel fish, white squid, green turtle, brown treasure chest, gray shark, black boot, pink octopus, purple starfish, blue dolphin. Each has two paper clips sewn into them.

 

 

As each is caught, they can be matched with the corresponding sea grass at the base of the aquarium.

 

 

 

And Bingo Was His Name-O

 

This was the last page I did before calling this quiet book finished. It is based on the classic children's song Bingo. (There was a farmer had a dog and Bingo was his name-o)

As each verse of the song is sung, the child claps a letter instead of spelling out Bingo. Each of the letters on this page are loose and tethered by ribbon. When singing along with this page, each letter can be raised above the page/turned over.

 

 

 

 

The haystack on the page is a pocket for two farm fingerpuppets - a cow and a duck.

 

 

The haystack has surprises hidden in it as well.

A snake is on the lower tier, a mouse is in the middle tier, and in the top tier is a needle. That one is for all of the sewing Moms out there. :)

 



Jungle Tic Tac Toe

 

This page is pretty straight forward and self explanatory. I used Felties brand frog and monkey faces and then sewed twig-like branches for the tic tac toe grid. In hindsight I wouldn't use Felties again. They are very thick and add unnecessary bulk to the finished quiet book. They didn't save me much time either. As each has sticky adhesive on the back, I had to sew on a Velcro piece to neutral colored felt and then stick the felt to the back of each trimming away excess. I also chose to not add the fuzzy Velcro to the tic tac toe grid fearing it would be unsightly. I wish they made Velcro in a rainbow of colors!

Old Glory

 

This is a twist on alot of the cute weaving pages I have seen in quiet books. The idea is from a craft we did last 4th of July at Camp Wilderness at Disney. The stripes are reinforced with stitching as I wanted to make sure there was some durability.

Daddy's Wallet

 

Mommy's purse and/or wallet have

 been ransacked numerous times. When is it going to be Daddy's turn?

 

Finally here is a chance for your child to see what is in Daddy's wallet! This is a tri-fold felt wallet sewn flat onto the page. A photocopy of the hub's actual driver's license adds an air of authenticity. Every time my little one saw this page the first thing he did was tap Daddy's face and smile. If you go this route, please protect his identity in case the book gets lost. I scribbled out his birthdate and driver's license number before I sewed it in. Before I posted this photo I took it over to Microsoft Paint and added black rectangles to further protect. Enough said.

 

I cut out a color copy of his license on paper and then sewed it under a piece of poly vinyl. I added gold ricrac to frame the photo. I had a set of plastic photo holders from a cheap fabric wallet laying around that I sewed in on the right side of the wallet. A copy of my little cutie's passport photo was put in there. You can add siblings, photos of your house, pets, anything you may imagine Daddy might have in his wallet. (Yes, I was tempted to put in all sorts of joke items for my kid to 'find' in Daddy's wallet...but in the ended it needed to be rated G. ;) )

 

 

On the left side is a small zippered coin pouch that holds toy coinage. Behind that are three credit card slots. Each card has had a hole punched into it and is sewn with a tether to the wallet. I used an expired Visa, a used gift card and my VIP card to Legoland. Behind this is bill slot. Everything here has been covered in clear contact paper for durability. There is a ticket for a hockey game, three one hundred dollar bills (What's in Pimp Daddy's wallet?!) and a biweekly paycheck that has been dummied up in the amount of $10,000. For the Ben Franklin's I printed out a jpg I found online. For all of three seconds I felt like a counterfeiter. The back of the bills are blank so I don't think the Feds will be knocking on my door anytime soon.

 

 

But wait, there's more. Behind the plastic photo sleeve there is a HIDDEN POCKET. In this pocket there is a tethered key and a slip of paper that seems to be a combination to a safe. What is the key to? What is in Dad's safe? Is Dad a secret spy? Consider adding some element of surprise to your page. After all, Dad is a man of mystery.

 

 

 

 

 

For the Sports Fans

 

This is my version of a counting page. I used dark green felt and white ribbons to give the visual look of a playing field. I was inspired by adorable soccer ball and football beads I found in a craft store. Each matching number is sewn on below and a stadium full of fans with pennant flags are on the top of the page. I added a goal post and a soccer goal for additional play value.