Penguin & Igloo Quiet Book Page

Welcome to Antarctica! This is the next quiet book page for Jax’s book! As you can see, I’ve finally started sewing some actual book pages. It is a bit labor-intensive, so I only have 2 double-sided pages done so far. I decided to be thrifty and use plain white fleece with some batting inside and 2 grommets per page. I’d considered using themed fabrics that matched each page, but the cost would be too high.

The page features a stuffed penguin who comes out of his igloo attached to a ribbon. You can pull the ribbon to make him go back into his igloo. A furry baby seal is smiling by a frozen pool. You can see two constellations in the sky (Not accurately placed, I know. But, penguins don’t live in igloos either!)

My materials were: a 9″ white felt square (if your pages are a different size, adjust the white hill and purple sky pieces to match your page width), purple felt for the sky, felt (in white, sky blue, black and yellow), clear vinyl, white fur (I used this), batting/stuffing, white ribbon, star sequins and floss/thread to match.

I started with my white square and used the water shape to cut a hole for the pool. then I layered some clear vinyl over light blue felt and put those behind the opening (I made my light blue cover the page from the hills down so it made the white ground slightly blue.) Using a machine, I stitched all the way around the pool.

The only other thing I did on the machine (beside sew the actual book page) is stitch white-on-white guides for all the lines on the igloo. That made it easier for me to hand-embroider straight lines to show the ice blocks. I used all 6 strands of light blue embroidery floss (I usually use 2 strands for everything.) When all the igloo embroidery was done, I sewed the felt backing piece on to hide the back of the stitching. I then sewed a rectangle of purple to the top of the page to create a night sky, then layered the white, snowy hills on top.

To make Mr Penguin, I made a French knot in brown on each of the white pieces for his eyes. I then sewed the two pieces together with some batting and his feet to make a little naked penguin. I made sure one end of a white ribbon was coming out of his back. I folded the beak over his nose and sewed that on. I layered the two halves of his black “suit” over his back and stitched them on. The last step was sewing the tops of his flippers onto each side. To make a little pull tab for his ribbon, I sandwiched the other end of it between two felt circles and decorated it with star sequins. You could just embroider a star or snowflake.

I cut the baby seal out of white fur then shook off any loose hairs. I gave him a little haircut to help show of his shape and shorten his face fur. His face has a satin stitch nose, straight stitch smile and eyes made from one straight stitch in the outer corner and a French knot. To make whiskers, I knotted a few strands of thread behind his cheeks then again in the front, then cut it to size. I stitched baby seal directly to the pool.

To make the slider ribbon, I took a long piece of scrap felt and  cut it to the width of my igloo. (The picture shows my igloo before I sewed the backing piece on. I ended up moving my strip to the halfway point of the igloo, so it ended up a little shorter than shown.) Pin your ribbon to the page (no pins where the felt tube will be!) then sew the strip of felt like a tube over top of it. Remove the pins then sew your igloo in place. I sewed from the top of the door to where the ribbon comes out of the back, then sewed from below that ribobon opening to halfway across the bottom. This left a flap of igloo that can lift up to let Mr Penguin in and out easier.

I decorated my night sky with star sequins, some of which I sewing into southern hemisphere constellations. You can copy the placement of mine from my photos, or even design your own (your baby’s name, perhaps?) If you aren’t comfortable using sequins, you could use felt or just embroider stars.

What do you think of it?

For more free quiet book patterns, go here! If you use this pattern, please add a comment or link to me. I really would love to see your version!