What do you need?
pieces of felt, in various colours
felt leftovers, in various colours
matching colours of yarn + needles
embroidery yarn & a big needle
snaps and eyelets and hooks
velcro and small coloured buttons
3 matches and a string of raffia
piece of cotton + piece of lining (white)
small transparent beads
½ a transparent printer sheet
scissors, pinking shears, hole puncher
Today we start working on the pages of the quiet book, putting the book together will come later. As said before: it is a big job. Before you start it is useful to consider what you want to show in your book.
We chose Grandpa Pig's miniature train Gertrude - because our youngest mini-monster loves trains the most - which is on the middle pages. On the other pages are the seasons, so toddlers see many familiar activities in the book.
How to make the pages
First pick out fabric and colours for the background, we use felt. Download out pattern or make your own image.
Spring, in Grandpa & Grandma Pig's garden.
- The size of the book pages should be 20 x 20cm, we start with page 2 and 3.
- Each scene covers 2 pages so let the background run through.
Use our template on PDF or draw a scene to your own idea.
We choose light blue (sky) and light green (grass).
Then we cut out the trees and all the other garden parts.
Pin all the items on felt, cut them out and sew together.
Pin the background together as instructed on the pattern then stitch it.
Stitch the seedbeds and the apple tree on the back ground.
Stitch page two together with the henhouse on top.
Page 2
- Veggie patches: give little cuts in the patches so carrots and beanstalks fit in.
- Green beans: string the green beans on embroidery yarn then tie them to a matchstick.
- Carrot green: stick embroidery yarn though the carrots, knot the yarn then seperate it into threads.
Page 3
- Hen house: make details on the hen house by embroidering it with yarn.
- Sew the roof on (only on the top, like a flap) so the henhouse can be openend to hold the chicks and eggs.
- Flowers: cut out circles using pinking shears, give a cut in the middle then sew little buttons on the stems.
- Rake: cut the rake's teeth with your pinking shears.
- Broom: wind a thread of raffia around two fingers, fold in half, place the stick in the middle then tie it off.
Think about were you want to attach what, using buttons, snaps or velcro.
Put everything in it's place, sew on snaps, buttons and velcro.
With page 2 and 3 ready we now can start on page 4 and 5.
These are the first pages of our 10 (excluding the cover, front and back) but 4, 6 or 8 pages is fine too. You can continue working in the same way because the patterns for each page are on the PDF on top of this blog.
- On page 5 the tent is a storage place for loose items, put in a small zipper.
- Leave the top side of the muddy puddle open on page 9 for the same reason.
- On page 11 the snow covered mountain has a pocket to keep the loose parts.
The Summer theme is going camping, on pages 4/5.
On the middle pages 6/7: Grandpa and his train Gertrude.
Then follows Autumn, with toadstools and muddy puddles on 8/9.
Finally Winter on pages 10/11 with snow, sleighing and ice skating.
We'll see you again next week, then we sew the pages together and we make the book cover.