As promised, here are the Quiet Books I made for the grandkids this Christmas. Many of the ideas came from others blogs, but any patterns I had seen were overwelming, so the book was done mostly freehand. One of the blogs I checked out before I started was: http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com/2009/06/finished-quiet-book.html
This was one of the first pages I started and one of the last to be finished. All the little pieces are attached to the book with ribbon. I didn't want lost pieces wandering around everywhere. I discovered that stick-on velcro doesn't stick well to most felt, and that sewing through 'stick-on' stuff makes the sewing needle sticky and the sewing machine rebel. So the ones that weren't sticking (particularly the red and blue felt in my case) got a slip of wide ribbon sewn on the back, to which the velcro sticks perfectly well. Next time I would use ribbon for a backing for all of them and avoid the issues.
I went back to the web to find the blog that gave me this house idea with the child's picture inside when you open the door. But I can't find that site! If I find it, I will add it. The plastic sleeve allows for the picture to be changed as the child grows.
A little girl with braids for Haley and a horse with a braid for Josiah.
Matching shapes and colors for the snap fastener page. This page also gave me grief because I first tried the heavy duty snap fasteners that you hammer on. But when I couldn't open or close them without a lot of pushing, pulling and grunting, I realized the grandkids would never be able to operate those snaps. So I revised and bought large sew-on snaps. Much easier in the end.
I purchased these little closures, and thought I would have a page with a teddy bear and use them for a belt. But my books are missing all the pockets than many have added to their books for pieces, because I attached all the little pieces that would have ended up in pockets. So making the backpacks was a way of putting a pocket in the books. They can put little treasures into these backpacks if they want to.
Since many of my supplies were from Thrift Shops, the zipper was also something that I realized needed to be kid-friendly. Some of those nearly invisible zippers did not glide well. Fortunately I had bought several kinds, and these seemed perfect. I considered all kinds of secrets inside the tent, but ended up keeping it simple with just a bed and pillows.
One of my favorites... the button page. Flowers for Haley and a snowman for Josiah.
Shoes! I needed a lace-up page, but had no idea how to do it without a pile of work and artistic ability that I don't have. So I picked up a pair of second hand shoes at the Thrift Shop and cut them in a way that they would lie flat, and sewed them onto a felt sole. It works.
The blue pages are a heavier fabric, so I didn't think they needed any backing. The white cotton pages have iron-on interfacing, and then I've always sewn one white page to one blue page, so the weight is consistant. I used a thin cotton quilt batting layer in each page. I took the page pictures before adding the grommets, but every page also has three grommets. I suspect two would have been sufficient. This way pages can be taken out to be shared, or added as time goes on. Originally I was making all my pages with extra space on the left side for the grommets. It didn't occur to me until I was almost ready to put them together that half of them would have to change. Poor planning! So I had to add a piece to several of the pages to fix that.
I would love to make another one. Now that I've made every mistake in the book, and know how to fix it, I wonder how quickly I could do the next one.
I may not be able to find my original inspiration, but this site had some great ideas, and even has a pattern to download. http://modestmaven.blogspot.com/2009/05/sew-quiet-book.html
What a great idea! I love it!
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