Tag Archives: Patterns

Animals of North America for the Montessori Wall Map & Quietbook with Printables

If you haven’t been introduced to our Montessori wall map and quiet book yet, you can read all about it here. This post will be for the second continent in the series: North America! Every continent will have landmarks and animals. Some, like Europe, have more landmarks than animals. North America has a good mix of animals and landmarks.

Overview and Map Patterns • Africa • Antarctica • Asia • Europe
North America • Oceans • South America

Those of you who follow along on Facebook or Instagram have been seeing the animals and landmarks I created for North America. I’m so exciting to be working on this project! This will be an amazing resource for Jax throughout his school years.

Animals of North America for the Montessori Wall Map & Quietbook with Printables

I am posting this project in segments instead of all at once so that you can sew along with me! You can head to the Facebook page right now to choose which continent (or the oceans!) I should start next.

Materials I Used

The Pattern (see the first post for the main patterns)

Felt from American Felt & Craft – orange juice [orange], ice [blue], pastry [tan], doe [brown], cactus [gray-green], chocolate [brown], cilantro [green], white, black, gray, chai [beige] and fresh linen [off-white]. From Benzie Design – swan [blue] for the water.

Hook & Loop – I used white snag-free Velcro on the backs of all pieces, including Africa. I used the soft loop side of orange hook & loop on the front of Africa. I used once piece of aqua blue loop where the narwhal attaches.

Felt glue to tack down the pieces before sewing, printer fabric for the continent label, embroidery floss in colors to match the felt and micro tip scissors.

My North America page is not sewn around the edges yet, as I still need to sew the page behind it!

Sewing the Pieces

North America: (Felt used: orange juice orange and scraps of swan blue for the water) For the North American continent puzzle piece, I started by gluing then sewing the water down to the front side. Then I sewed down pieces of orange loop Velcro. (I worked from my stash, so I only had light orange left. American Felt & Craft sells normal orange too!) On the back, I sewed strips of white snag-free Velcro to correspond with the Velcro on the wall map and quietbook. I finished it by sewing the two sides together around the edge with a blanket stitch.

Label: (Felt used: orange juice orange) For the continent label, I folded under the edges (just a tiny bit to hide the rough edges) and creased it with my nails. The printer fabric held the folds nicely without ironing. Then I stitched the label to some green felt and trimmed it down to be a border. I cut a matching felt rectangle for the back, sewed snag-free Velcro to it and then sewed both sides together.

For all of the animals & landmarks, I started by gluing the pieces down to a scrap of background felt with a very light amount of felt glue. I glue several animals at a time to give them time to dry. I sewed them down, trimmed the background and cut a matching backing piece. I sewed snag-free Velcro to the back and sewed both sides together with a blanket stitch.

Eagle: (Felt used: chocolate brown for the body, white for the body, orange juice orange for the beak and feet and sparrow blue for the background) I glued down the all the parts, then sewed around the edges. I gave him a black French knot eye and made some long brown stitches for the feathers on the wings.

Caribou: (Felt used: chai beige for the body, chocolate brown for the overlays and hooves, fresh linen off-white for the antlers and fresh cut grass green for the background) I glued everything down, then stitched around all the edges in the appropriate colors. I used a brown French knot for his eye and a long stitch for his mouth. A tiny stitch made his nostril.

Iguana: (Felt used: cilantro green for the body, salt and pepper for the body shading and limeade lime green for the background) I glued and sewed down all the parts, with his neck beard the bottom layer. On the beard, I made long perpendicular stitches to look like the ribbing. He has a French knot eye and long stitch mouth.

Narwhal: (Felt used: chai beige for the body, chocolate brown for the overlays and fins and swan aqua blue for the background) Oh, narwhals, I love you! A bit of a guilty pleasure, as narwhals are one of my favorite animals (my most favorite will be in the Ocean post.) “Most of the world’s narwhals are concentrated in the fjords and inlets of Northern Canada and western Greenland,” so for this map, I’ve included them in North America After gluing and stitching around the edges, I gave him a French knot eye and made diagonal stitches along the tusk. To make the spots, I just made lots of little stitches. The tiny spots are just one stitch. The larger ones are a few stitches side-by-side.

Polar Bear: (Felt used: white for the body, soap sud for the background [discontinued]) For the polar bear, I glued the back legs and body down, then glued the ear on, only pushing one side down so it stuck up. I used a French knot to make the eye, a long pink stitch for the mouth, and black satin stitch for the nose. I stitched all around his body, making longer stitches on his toes for claws, and made one stitch to secure the ear to his head. The background felt I used was one of my last scraps of a beautiful off-white color called “soap sud” which is now discontinued. Fresh linen is another open. It is more taupe then lavender, though.

Beaver: (Felt used: chocolate brown for the body, black for the tail and four leaf clover for the background) The beaver’s tail, back legs and body were glued down, then I sewed all around them. I attached the ear the same as with the polar bear. I used a French knot for the eye and some straight stitches for a stick in his mouth.

Alligator: (Felt used: salt and pepper for the body and cilantro green for the background) I glued his body down and stitched all around. I used olive green to do a French knot eye and a long stitch mouth. I made two lines of tiny dashed stitches to show the bumps running down his back.

SafariLTD provided me with these beautiful World Landmarks and Around the World TOOBs. I am working with them to make this project as amazing as possible. All opinions of these products are honest and my own. We are planning an exciting giveaway for you at the end of this project!

Sewing the Landmarks

For all the landmarks, I started by sewing the front piece. Then I cut out a backing felt to match the final shape and added some snag-free Velcro to it. I finished sewed around the whole edge, switching colors where needed.

Statue of Liberty: (Felt used: rainy day gray-blue [discontinued] for the statue, pastry tan for the base and sparrow blue for the background) I used a pretty gray-blue felt that is now discontinued. It’s one of the problems with using scraps on a project! Blueprint looks like a good option.

For lady liberty, I glued all the parts down. There are some tiny ones! I used a light tan thread to stitch the designs on the base. I used a dark aqua thread to sew details on the statue itself. Don’t worry about too much detail! The overall effect doesn’t really need it.

See the photos for a sample of what stitches to do. I worked from the lovely SafariLTD replica.

Mt Rushmore: (Felt used: gray flannel for the mountain and gray for the details) For Mt Rushmore, I glued the lighter gray details down, then stitched a light gray design to give them some faces. Very simple stuff like their hairlines, eyes/nose/mouth and some shirt details for Washington.

Temple of Inscriptions: (Felt used: pastry tan) I think the temple came out pretty for having only used one color of felt. I glued the stair overlay down, then started stitching rows of back stitch. When I’d get to the overlay, I’d do one long stitch across it. I did an additional long stitch in between rows to make small stairs. At the top, I stitched little brown triangles to make the arched windows. I didn’t pull the stitches super tight, which let them have the curved shape of an arch.

Montessori North American Animals 3-Part Cards

Jax just started his world continent unit with the world continent 3-part cards I made up for him. I finally ordered a Montessori globe after saving up for it, so I’m not really rushing the lessons. However, he saw me working on the cards and asked to have a lesson. He is loving them! I created these cards to be used along with SafariLTD’s TOOB figurines. North America’s animals use a wide range of TOOBs: Arctic Toob, Whales and Dolphins Toob, and River Toob.

Click here to download my free pdf file to make your own. To make mine, I cut them out, glued them to orange construction paper (to match North America’s Montessori color) then laminated them. I love my new laminator! It makes everything so shiny and strong!

North American Animal Silhouettes

Another activity that will help Jax with him reading and writing skills is the North American animal silhouette match. Drawing lines between the matches help with writing skills, and recognizing the similarities between the photos and silhouettes helps build visual skills needed for reading. Silhouettes from All-Silhouettes.com, 2, 3.

Activities:

Introductions and Matching: There are so many activities that can be done with all of these materials. You could start with the SafariLTD figurines and introduce the name of each animal to them. You can then present the felt versions for them to match up. Once they are comfortable with the animals and know them by name, you can show them the labeled photo cards and have them match them. Once they have advanced some, you can use the unlabelled cards and have them match the right words to each card or figurine.

Starting Sounds: For a great language activity, have your child tell you the starting sound for each animal. To make games like this extra engaging for Jax, I call them “letter races” and have him run to our movable alphabet and grab the right letter. For correction of error, match your 3-part cards to see if the answers were correct.

On the Map: You can move the wall map to the floor and have your child place the right SafariLTD figurines on each continent. While you are still introducing them, you can stick to one continent at a time and match the names or photo cards. Seeing the animals on the maps is a great way to help them remember!

And of course your child can match the correct felt animals and landmarks on the wall map or in the quietbook while on the go.

Animal Videos: After Jax matches his animal, I like to have him choose one and then I queue a video about them on YouTube. I like the NatGeo and BBC clips. Seeing the animals in motion really captures his interest and helps him remember them. He was really taken by the mandrill video when we did your African animal cards.

I hope you are enjoying this project as much as I am! I’ve gotten see the maps a few of you have started! If you are sewing along, tag me on Instagram @iolstephanie (I can’t see your photo if it you are private, but I can request to follow you temporarily) or share photos on Facebook. You can also email me.

I’m very late for Montessori Monday this week, but I hope you’ll check out the other great links!

Animals of Africa for the Montessori Wall Map & Quietbook with Printables

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If you haven’t been introduced to our Montessori wall map and quiet book yet, you can read all about it here. This post will be for the first continent in the series: Africa! Every continent will have landmarks and animals. Some, like Europe, have more landmarks than animals. Africa is heavy on the fun animals!

Overview and Map Patterns • Africa • Antarctica • Asia • Europe
North America • Oceans • South America

Those of you who follow along on Facebook or Instagram have already seen the animals and landmarks I created for Africa. I’m so exciting to be working on this project! It was YOU who voted on the Facebook page to make a world map the next quietbook project, and I’m so glad! This will be an amazing resource for Jax throughout his school years. I am posting this project in segments instead of all at once so that you can sew along with me!

Materials I Used

The Pattern (see the first post for the main patterns)

Felt from American Felt & Craft – jungle vine [green], pastry [tan], doe [brown], cactus [gray-green], chocolate [brown], cilantro [green], white, black, gray, chai [beige] and fresh linen [off-white]. From Benzie Design – swan [blue] for the water.

Hook & Loop – I used white snag-free Velcro on the backs of all pieces, including Africa. I used the soft loop side of green hook & loop on the front of Africa.

Felt glue to tack down the pieces before sewing, printer fabric for the continent label, embroidery floss in colors to match the felt and micro tip scissors.

Sewing the Pieces

Africa: (Felt used: jungle vine green and scraps of swan blue for the water) For the African continent puzzle piece, I started by gluing then sewing the water down to the front side. Then I sewed down pieces of green loop Velcro. On the back, I sewed strips of white snag-free Velcro to correspond with the Velcro on the wall map and quietbook. I finished it by sewing the two sides together around the edge with a blanket stitch.

Label: (Felt used: jungle vine green) For the continent label, I folded under the edges (just a tiny bit to hide the rough edges) and creased it with my nails. The printer fabric held the folds nicely without ironing. Then I stitched the label to some green felt and trimmed it down to be a border. I cut a matching felt rectangle for the back, sewed snag-free Velcro to it and then sewed both sides together.

For all of the animals, I started by gluing the pieces down to a scrap of background felt with a very light amount of felt glue. I glue several animals at a time to give them time to dry. I sewed them down, trimmed the background and cut a matching backing piece. I sewed snag-free Velcro to the back and sewed both sides together with a blanket stitch.

Lion: (Felt used: pastry tan for the body, doe brown for the main/tail and cactus gray-green for the background) For his ear, I put glue on the entire back side but only stuck it down where it attached to the head. The glue dries to stiffen the ear. I made one stitch across the bottom of the ear to keep it secure. I sewed around all the edges, then made some long stitches in the mane and tail. His eye is a French knot with a black stitch going vertically through the center. His mouth is a long stitch and his nostril is a little stitch.

Camel: (Felt used: doe brown for the body, pastry tan for the background) I started sewing the camel from the SafariLTD figurine before I’d done anything more than check where in Africa camels were located (northern and the horn). Once I started researching for the 3-part cards, I learned that African camels have one hump – Asian camels have 2! Oops! I’ve included patterns for both, so you can take your pick. I sewed all around his body. His ear is done the same as the lion’s. He has a French knot eye and a long stitch for his mouth.

Elephant: (Felt used: gray for the body, fresh linen off-white for the tusks and cactus gray-green for the background) The elephant’s ear is glued down on one side. I actually forgot to put some stitches in, so I have to go back to that. I added some back stitching to make the wrinkles around her legs and a French knot eye. I used gray floss to stitch a line over the eye for an eyelid. The mouth is a long stitch.

Giraffe: (Felt used: pastry tan for the body, doe brown for the spots, chocolate brown for the hooves and mane and cilantro green for the background) I glued down the mane and body (with the body on top), then glued the hooves, tail end and spots on. I stitched all the way around, making longer stitching in the edge of the mane and tail to look like hair. I used a few small stitches to sew each spot down. There is a French knot at the top of the horn and for the eye. I stitched a little nostril and a mouth. The ear is attached the same as the lion’s.

Zebra: (Felt used: white for the body, black for the hooves/muzzle and doe brown for the background) The zebra has the most intricate stitching. After I sewed all around her body, hooves and muzzle, I made a French knot eye, white long stitch mouth and attached the ear the same as the others. Then, using black floss, I stitched on the stripes, using my SafariLTD figurine as inspiration. The stripes were stitched almost in a kind of satin stitch (where you fill in an area with stitched that all go in one direction). I just kept added stitches to widen the lines, often at angles to make them slightly triangular. At the neck where the mane would start, I made sure to start a new stitch in the stripe at a different angle to show the neck’s edge.

Rhinoceros: (Felt used: gray for the body, chai beige for the background and fresh linen off-white for the horns) The Rhino was stitched very simply, though I did add some back stitching to show the wrinkles at the tops of his legs. He has a stitched mouth and nostril and a French knot eye.

Animals of Africa for the Montessori Wall Map & Quietbook with Printables

Pyramids & Sphinx: (Felt used: doe brown and pastry tan) I combined two landmarks into one felt piece for the pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx, as they needed to be at the same spot on the map. I will eventually make 3-Part cards for the world landmarks, and there will be two for these to make the beautiful SafariLTD figurines.

I started by gluing down the layers: the pyramid sides onto the pyramids, then the sphinx, torso, face and finally the features. You may need tweezers for those. Goodness, they are small! I made some small stitches in the features to keep them secure, but didn’t sew down anything else. I cut out a backing felt to match the final shape and added some snag-free Velcro to it. Then I sewed around the whole edge, switching colors where needed.

Montessori African Animals 3-Part Cards

Jax just started his world continent unit with the world continent 3-part cards I made up for him. I’m saving up for a Montessori globe at the moment, so I’m not really rushing the lessons. When we start on his Africa unit, I will present these cards. I created these cards to be used along with SafariLTD’s TOOB figurines. My African animals use the Wild Toob and Monkeys and Apes Toob. I also need to pick up an okapi figurine. It will be a larger scale than the TOOB animals, but it is worthwhile for Jax to have something 3 dimensional to look at.

Click here to download my free pdf file to make your own. To make mine, I cut them out, glued them to green construction paper (to match Africa’s Montessori color) then laminated them. I’m still loving my new laminator! It makes everything so pretty and durable!

Africa Maze

Jax is really into mazes right now, and they are great for pre-writing skills! I’ve designed two mazes for him – one basic and one advanced. Grab them here! We’ll most likely laminate them so we can reuse them. I’ve included an answer key page on this if you want some correction of error. Silhouettes from All-Silhouettes.com.

African Animal Silhouettes

Another activity that will help Jax with him reading and writing skills is the African animal silhouette match. Drawing lines between the matches help with writing skills, and recognizing the similarities between the photos and silhouettes helps build visual skills needed for reading. Silhouettes (except for mandrill) from All-Silhouettes.com.

Activities:

And of course your child can match the correct felt animals and landmarks on the wall map or in the quietbook while on the go.

I hope you are enjoying this project as much as I am! A number of you have told me you’ve already begun the huge wall map. I’m really excited to see how they turn out! Tag me on Instagram @iolstephanie (I can’t answer on your photo if it you are private, but I can try to comment in a different place) or share photos on Facebook. You can also email me.

I’m a bit late for Montessori Monday this week due to vacation, but I hope you’ll check out the other great links!

Montessori Continents Map & Quietbook with 3-Part Cards

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I am so excited to introduce you to make latest big project! Those of you who follow along on Facebook or Instagram have already seen a lot of fun sneak peeks. Plus, it was YOU who voted on the Facebook page to make a world map the next quietbook project!

This project will be presented a little different than normal. Because it is SO BIG, I’ll be giving you a chance to sew along with me by posting a great deal of the patterns today. I am creating each piece by hand and then drawing up patterns from the finished product, so some elements will be provided in later posts.

Overview and Map Patterns • Africa • Antarctica • Asia • Europe
North America • Oceans • South America

The Plan

Today I am giving you the massive pattern for the world wall map and the continent puzzle pieces that can be attached to it. I also included the cover text for quietbook stores all the pieces. Here is pattern. [The pattern was updated 07/24/13 to add the water beside Baja California on North America. Sorry I forgot it!] And here is a pdf with the continent and ocean labels that get printed onto printer fabric. There will be additional posts for the other continents that will include patterns for regional animals and landmarks.

Materials

Felt: I am mainly using scrap felt to create the continents and smaller pieces of this project. The beautiful wool blend felt I get from American Felt and Crafts is just too good to waste! So I am digging into my scrap basket and using all I can. However, this project does require some larger cuts of felt. I ordered 1 yard of “Swan” blue felt from Benzie Designs. This was used to make the 34″ x 18″ wall map and then three 12″ x 18″ pages for the quietbook. I also ordered a 12″ x 18″ sheet of “Peacock” aqua blue felt for the cover, 2/3 yard of white (you only need enough for the long strip version of Antarctica, but I bough extra for other projects) and 1/3 yard of “Peppercorn” tan for the wall map continents. The continents are in traditional Montessori colors including: white, orange, pink, red, green, yellow and brown. I will eventually buy some backing felt or fleece for the back of the map to finish it off, but I have a few little bits to finish sewing first. Note – Antarctica is sewn down to the wall map due to the map projection. But I did also make a continent piece in its actual shape. You just can’t place it on the map.

Other: If you plan to print out the continent and ocean labels, you’ll need printer fabric. I use a roll that I can cut down to use in my 4″ x 6″ photo printer when I just have a little bit to print. I’ve also seen sheets for sale. For the pockets in the back of the book, you’ll need clear vinyl. I get mine in the home decor department of the fabric store. I am using felt glue this time around to lightly tack down small felt bits before sewing them. It is working out great! I have that exact kind, but found a better price in the craft store. I will be adding some closures to the quietbook – two buttons and some elastic cord loops. I’m still looking for the right ones. The big thing you need… hook and loop! I use snag-free Velcro inside the quietbook and on backs of all the loose pieces. It won’t fuzz up your felt when you close the book or store the pieces together. I also use a lot of colored hook and loop. I use the soft loop side on the fronts of the continents (for the animals and landmarks to stick to). For a stronger hold on the wall map, I used the hook side. This means I will have to put some tissue paper over it if I ever roll or fold it for storage to avoid fuzzing up the felt. I got this turquoise hook and loop for the ocean. The tan Velcro is sold with black and white Velcro in the store. All the novelty colors are available from AFC. I didn’t have the best match in orange, but I am using pieces from my stash.

Felt Wall Map

This piece is not yet finished (it needs a backing and loops at the top), but it is almost there! To make it, cut out all the large pieces and arrange them on the blue backing. Use a thin layer of glue to tack them down. Too much glue will make it tougher to sew through. Then cut out the zillion little islands and glue them down as well. I cut mine free-hand. I didn’t feel like it had to be super accurate at that scale – the overall effect when they are all in place is good enough! Once everything is glued down and dry, sew around all the edges. I used “Dual Duty Button & Carpet” thread in tan. Worked great!

I updated this 8/6/13 to add one more ocean Velcro piece in the Pacific near Hawaii!

After that, sew strips of hook and loop on to the map where indicated in the above photo. The ocean ones are for sea animals, the land ones are to hold the continents. I will eventually sew a backing on with some hang loops at the top.

Quietbook

I have started this, but it is only about half done. To start the book, I stacked the 12″ x 18″ sheets with the cover piece on top, then sewed a dashed running stitch through the center. I then folded along the stitching to make the book. Once the sewing is done, each page is made by sewing two layers together. I have the first and last (cover) pages done in these photos.

I will go into more detail later, but the cover has the title letters sew on (“of the” is back stitched), and the last inside page has two clear vinyl pockets sewn on – one for animals of the world and one for labels and landmarks.

The pages will be sewn with dotted outlines and snag-free Velcro so you can match and store the continents. Some pages will have more than one continent, as shown.

I came back to this post after finishing the continent pieces so I could share the final positions of the loop Velcro. Africa’s and North America’s are already posted in their patterns. See the rest above.

Montessori Continent 3-Part Cards

Jax just started his world continent unit with these 3-Part cards I made up for him. Click here to download my free pdf file to make your own. To make min, I cut them out, glued them to card stock then laminated them. I’m loving my new laminator!

So far, I am presenting them to him to introduce the names and shapes, and we are matching them and finding them on the felt map. As he learns the names, he can start matching the labels to the pictures. Once all the felt continents are done, we will use them with the cards as well.

World Animals & Landmarks

One of the most exciting parts of this project is still to come… I’ll be making little felt animals and world landmarks that can be placed on the continents and matched to the beautiful miniature replicas made by SafariLtd! I’ve been slowly collecting each TOOB I’ll need whenever I have 50% off coupons or store credit. They are so neat that I want to play with them myself!

Shopping List

√ Wild TOOB
√ Arctic TOOB
√ Around the World TOOB
√ World Landmark TOOB
√ Rainforest TOOB
√ panda cub
√ Whale TOOB

Ocean TOOB
Land Down Under TOOB
√ River TOOB
√ Pets TOOB (hedgehog only)
√ snow leopard cub
√ peacock
√ leopard seal – other brand

I’ll be working with SafariLtd to bring you a great giveaway at the end of this project, so stay tuned!

I hope you’ll sew along with me!

I am giving you these patterns totally free, despite the days of work going into them. I think it will really help out teachers and homeschoolers alike! If you’d like to contribute in some way, you can read more here. Also, Jax’s wishlist is where I add homeschool items I need to buy. One easy way to help? Share this project and Imagine Our Life with your friends! Thank you!

For more great Montessori ideas, visit:

Bumble Bee Lacing Maze Quiet Book Page

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Want to sell items sewn from this pattern? A commercial license is available!

I’ve been a busy bee, so it’s taken a while to get this latest free pattern up for you! Seems fitting that it is a page about a very busy bee!

This page came about because I wanted to do a page about spring flowers and bees, but I also wanted to do something to help Jax with his manual dexterity. A lacing activity was the perfect combination! Since Jax is in to dot-to-dots and mazes, I numbered the flowers so the bee needs to follow the correct path to collect pollen and bring it back to the hive.

This two-page spread is a scrap-buster. All the flowers are made from my scrap felt from American Felt and Craft. Their felt is way to pretty to throw away even the smallest scraps. But my scrap bucket is overflowing! This was a perfect way to use up a bit of it.

What I used:

The Pattern
Two 12″ x 9″ felt sheets in jade
Felt (in gold nugget, cilantro and white)
Wool-blend felt scraps from American Felt and Craft
10 D-rings (3/4″ size)
Green cord (mine is Wright’s Creative Classics 1/8″)
Ribbons (Mine were two little dollar bin spools – chevron from this pack and dots from this pack)
Pony Beads (two black and one yellow)

Starting Leaf: Back stitch a vein on the top leaf piece then sew both layers together. Stitch one end of your cord to the page, then sew the leaf to the page one each end, leaving the center open to hold the extra cord. My cord is sewn to the page under where the leaf is sewn down.

Hive: Stitch the ground piece to the page on the ends. The rest will get sewn down under the hive. Sew the leaves down one at a time by back stitching a center vein.

Cut the center slit in both hive pieces, then sew a running stitches (dashed lines) to show the layers of the hive. Pin the two layers of the hive together and sew both sides of the slit using a blanket stitch. Pin the hive onto the page and sew it down around the outside edge.

Leaves and D-rings: For each flower, cut about 3.5″ of ribbon and fold it in half through a D-ring. Stitch through the ribbon just below the D-ring to hold the ring in place at the end of the folded ribbon. (Zoom in to the above photo to see!) Place each ribbon and D-ring where it will be on the page, and pin a leaf over the end. Stitch the center vein of the leaf, making sure your stitching goes across the end of the ribbon to secure it to the page.

Flowers: You can definitely get creative with your flowers. I’ll tell you what I did for each, but go for it and make this page your own!

For each flower, I used a stem stitch to embroider the number on (using a thread that matches the petals.) I also made French knots in floss that matched the centers – the number of knots corresponding to the flower number.

Flower 1: I layered the petals evenly under the center and stitched the center on. Then I back stitched the center line of each petal.

Flower 2: The petals on this flower were evenly spaced around the center.

Flower 3: I centered the center on the flower petal piece and stitched it down. I made some straight stitches around the center.

Flower 4: I overlapped the petals under the center so they were evenly spaced.

Flower 5: The center is just sewn down over the middle of the petal piece on this flower.

Flower 6: The two petal pieces are layered with the top one rotated. The center was sewn down on top.

Flower 7: I sewed the center down onto the evenly spaced petals. Then I made long stitches in the center of each petal (but not the page) and pulled tight to ruche the petals up.

Flower 8: The petals on this flower are evenly spaced under the center.

Flower 9: The petals are spaced evenly, each one overlapping the petal to the right.

Flower 10: The four petals on the past flower were evenly spaced.

Bee: I melted the loose end of the cord in a candle flame so it couldn’t unravel. I threaded on a black pony bead, yellow pony bead, the wings (with a tiny hole cut in the center of the base) and a black pony bead. Using black thread, I made stitched through the cord and around the black beads to hold them in place. (Look closely at the above picture to see the black thread.)

Here is a quick overview of how I sewed the two pages together.

: Lay the two pages facing each other.

: Sew two seams a couple inches in (I use the edge of the plate on my machine as a guide.) Sew two more seams along the edge.

: Add grommets in between the two double seams. I wait until I have a few pages and do the grommets in a big batch.

: Here is the finished center seam.

Jax is thrilled with this page and started playing with it before it was even finished! He begged me every time I finished a flower to let him lace the bee through. I think this page with be a big hit right now.

Stop by my Instagram or the Facebook page to see updates of my current project. It’s a fun one!

Felt Fire Station – Cover

7 Replies

This fire station project is a full stand-alone quiet book, just like the dollhouse book, but using full size 9″ x 12″ sheets of felt for each page. The fire fighters are made from the same pattern as the dollhouse dolls, so they will be interchangeable. To see the other sections of the project, go here: Felt Fire Station – Fire Truck & Dalmatian, Felt Fire Station – Garage & Locker Room, Felt Fire Station – Kitchen and Felt Fire Station – Office & Bedroom.

This tutorial is for the cover and assembly. I had to sew my book together as I went in order to have better pictures for the blog. I’ll do my best to explain!

What I Used:

The Pattern
Felt from American Felt & Craft (in beet [2 full sheet plus extra], leather, banana cream pie, elephant, big apple, doe, sparrow and gray.)
Additional Felt Scraps (in cilantro, pink tutu, orange juice, chocolate, and pastry.)
Clear Vinyl
Snag-Free Velcro (in white)
Black Sew-On Velcro (I used 1 loop coin)
Sew-on Snap
5/8″ Yellow Ribbon (Or felt strips. I used gold twill ribbon.)
1/8″ Wide Ribbon Scrap (in gray)
Mini Ric Rac (in olive)

To prep your interior pages, sew each set of facing pages together at the middle seam. I just put right sides together and used a blanket stitch. You will have these sets: garage/locker room and the kitchen/office (with the bedroom already sewn to the top of the office.) You then pin the locker room and kitchen together, wrong sides faceing, and sew around 3 sides (leaving the binding edge open for later.) It will look like an accordion of pages at this point.

I started by sewing everything that goes on the front an back cover to the beet (burgundy) felt sheets and the leather (brown) roof.

Front Exterior: I pinned the garage door in place with strips of ribbon tucked under the sides. I sewed the ribbons down, then sewed around the sides and top of the garage. I sewed the door down beside the garage, leaving space to the right for a piece of snag-free Velcro. I sewed the door emblem onto the upper window, then sewed both windows down. I finished the door by sewing down the handle.

I added 4 pieces of snag-free Velcro to the front, as shown in the above picture. Line it up with 3 matching pieces of Velcro on the top of the bedroom (add those now if you didn’t already.) At this point, you can sew the front exterior to the garage (wrong sides facing). Sewed 3 sides, leaving the spine open for later. (I sewed all 4 sides then had to sew on top of my stitches when sewing the binding closed.)

Back Exterior:

Hydrant: I sewed the fire hydrant down on the far right and sewed a black Velcro dot (loop side so the hook on the hose can attach) to it.

Sunflower: For the sunflower, I made a zigzag stitch that went across the ric rac stem, then added some leaves by stitching a line up the centers. I pinned the flower and flower center in place and sewed around the center, leaving the petals loose.

Dog House: I pinned the two layers of the red dog house together and sewed around the door. I pinned the roof in place and sewed them together along the bottom of the roof. I pinned the doghouse in place on the page, and sewed around the sides and top. This makes a nice pocket for the puppy to go into.

Grill: For the grill, I pinned the grilling surface to the grill body then made long stitches for the grill bars. I made tiny stitches at the end of each long stitch to hold everything tight. I pinned the grill to the page, sewed the top down, and laid the clear vinyl pocket in place. I sewed along the bottom of the pocket, then added a sew-on snap just under it. I sewed around the sides of the grill, making sure to catch the sides of the pocket in my stitches.

For the lid, I sewed a matching snap to one side, then sewed the front and back together with a ribbon handle stretched across and tucked between the layers at each end. I pinned the lid to the page with it already open, and sewed it to the page. Sewing it down while it is open helps it stay open on its own while you are playing.

Hotdogs & Hamburgers: (Veggie dogs and Gardenburgers for us!) Fold each hotdog lengthwise and sew around the edges. Place each one in the center of a bun. Wrap the bun up around the hotdogs and make small stitched through all layers along the length of the hotdog to hold them together. For the hamburgers, stitch tiny sesame seeds to the outside of the top of the bun. Place each patty on the inside of the bottom of each bun, fold over the tops, then make a few tiny stitches to hold them closed.

Side Strap: Sew some snag-free Velcro on to one side that matches the Velcro by the front door, then sew the two sides together.

Roof: Sew the roof emblem to the center bottom of the roof, as shown above.

Pin the back exterior to the office (wrong sides facing) with the side strap caught in the side (Velcro on the interior side). Briefly pin the roof to the bedroom, aligning it to the top (wrong sides facing) to find where it needs to be sewn to the back exterior. Unpin the roof from the bedroom and sew the bottom edge down to the back exterior. Pin the roof back in place and sew the back exterior and roof to the office/bedroom, taking care not to sew the bedroom floor flap when you go past it on each side.

At this point, the book is all sewn together except the side binding is open. With the roof flap open, Sew through all the layers of the book to close the binding. I used a blanket stitch, and used floss that matched the roof to start with, then switched to floss to match the walls.

I didn’t pin mine, as it was so thick. I just went slowly and pinched the layers close and all lined up as I went. Excuse the phone photos here. Jax was napping on my lap and I used his lap as my sewing table. Shh, don’t tell him!

As you can see, the edges came together nicely. This quiet book actually isn’t as thick as I expected it would be all finished.

This is a view of the bottom edge of the book.

Here is a view of the right side. I matched my threads to the exterior (roof and brick colors) when sewing the pages together. But that is just personal preference. I like the clean look on the outside. Since the interior rooms are already busy, the contrasting floss around the edges isn’t really noticeable.

Stay tuned for an fun add-on pattern to be released soon, because firefighters need to have fires to put out! I hope you had fun visiting our little fire station quiet book! Jax will be bringing this along on our week-long vacation in California. We are renting part of a Spanish bungalow so he won’t have any toys but what I bring him.

Are you making the fire station from my pattern? I’d love to see! Email me photos, or stop by the Facebook page to share!

Come back soon!

Felt Fire Station – Office & Bedroom

9 Replies

This fire station project will be a full stand-alone quiet book, just like the dollhouse book, but using full size 9″ x 12″ sheets of felt for each page. The fire fighters are made from the same pattern as the dollhouse dolls, so they will be interchangeable. To see the other sections of the project, go here: Felt Fire Station – Fire Truck & Dalmatian, Felt Fire Station – Garage & Locker Room and Felt Fire Station – Kitchen.

This tutorial is for the fourth interior page of the fire station – the office – plus the inside of the roof flap – the bedroom! Fire stations simply have to have a fire pole to slide down, so I knew I needed a second level. I realized the inside of the roof flap that closes the book would be perfect!

What I Used:

The Pattern
Felt from American Felt & Craft (in white, ice, sunshine, monkey, chai, pool party, elephant, wild blueberry, black, doe, chocolate, big apple, banana cream pie,)
Additional Felt Scraps (in cilantro, pink tutu, orange juice, beet, spanish olive, and hot pink.)
Gray Parachute Cord
Clear Vinyl
Snag-Free Velcro (in white)
1/8″ Wide Ribbon Scraps (in turquoise)
Photo fabric
Mini LED Key Chain Light (optional)
Pinking Shears
Velcro (in red) (optional)
Fray Check

Upper Floor/Hole for Fire Pole: To make the floor of the bedroom, I sewed two 12″ x 2.25″ rectangles together along their sides and bottom. I cut out an oval hole through both layers and sewed around the hole edge. I took the wall felt for each room and placed the bedroom wall above the office wall (as it will be in the book) but overlapping them about .25″. I laid the floor on top of the overlap (so the top of the floor lines up with the top of the office wall) and sewed through all the layers along the top of the floor. I also sewed the top .25″ of the sides of the floor down for strength.

Desk: I pinned the floor of the office in place, then sewed the two desk pieces together along the top. I sewed the desk chair piece to the page so it would stick out from behind the desk. I pinned the desk to the page and placed the clear pocket piece at the top. (Don’t pin vinyl! It leaves holes!) I sewed the sides and bottom of the desk to the page, making a pocket for the dolls to sit in.

Fire Pole: I cut some paracord, left over from the fire truck, long enough to stretch the height of both pages. I ran it through the hole in the bedroom floor, then sewed it to the page with the pole bases over top of each end.

Dog Bed: I sewed the two sides together along the top, then pinned it to the page and sewed around the remaining edges. Where it overlaps the desk, I made sure to only go through the top layer of the desk so I didn’t sew through the pocket.

TV & Plaque: My tv screen is printed on photo fabric, as I had some extra space when I was printing out my Valentines. Because it is fabric instead of paper, I can easily spot-wash the quiet book without worrying about wet paper. If you print yours on paper, You will need to make the tv into a pocket like the picture from in the dollhouse kitchen. To sew mine, I basted the screen image to the page, laid the clear vinyl over it, then sewed the black felt frame on the top. The place was sewn together off of the page, then I sewed it down to the wall.

Beds: I started by sewing the sheets to the gray bunk bed piece. I only sewed the top and left sides of the sheets. I pinned the blankets in place and sewed a diagonal line where I wanted the top corner of each blanket to fold over. This also keeps you from seeing that the sheets don’t go all the way down. I made a stitch in the corner of each blanket to hold the folds down, then I sewed the blankets to the bed along their tops. I sewed the pillows to the page. I pinned the bunks to the page then sewed the bottom of each “mattress” to the page. This makes the bottoms of the two bed pockets. I sewed the two vertical bed posts to the page, then sewed the sides of the blankets down. I left the bottoms of the blankets loose.

Nightstand & Lamp: The nightstand is sewn to the page. (I sewed through the floor flap a bit with both the nightstand and the bed legs, as I sewed the sides of the flap down a bit anyway. You could sew carefully and only sew them to the top layer of the floor.) I added French knots for drawer pulls. I sewed the red lamp base to the page, and added some red hook (soft side) Velcro. The Velcro is optional – I added it so I could have the optional working LED light that detaches from the page. I cut the top and bottom of the lampshade with my pinking shears, and sewed just the sides to the page. If you are not doing the optional LED lamp, you can sew the little flame emblem to the shade before attaching it.

LED Lamp: I sewed a little strip of red Velcro to the bottom insides of the two red felt pieces that make the LED case, and a large piece of hook (hard) Velcro to the outside of one piece. I sewed the sides together, then sewed around the opening at the top – just for added strength.

I sewed the flame emblem to one of the lampshade pieces, then sewed them together along the sides, catching the top-sides of the red LED case in the bottom stitches to attach it. I put my LED keychain light in without the jump ring, making sure the side with the button was on top. My LEDs have a tiny switch you can slide to have the light always on. It is hard to slide through the felt, but gives you another option for having it on when playing with your little one. I don’t plan to keep the LED light in the book when Jax has solo access to it. It is something I will bring out when we play together.

Uniform: I sewed the little shields to the front chest area, then placed the collar on the shirt. I made a stitch across the center of the collar to attach it, then sewn a line of French knot buttons down the front. I sewed a strip of white snag-free Velcro to a matching white backing, the sewed the two sides together. I sewed each pant cuff to a shoe, then cut out a matching white felt backing, added some white snag-free Velcro to to the top of it, then sewed both sides together around the edges.

Smoothies: Jax requested smoothies while I was working on these pages, so I whipped some up. I cut a little bit of blue ribbon and coated the ends with Fray Check to keep it from unraveling. I layered colored felt and the ribbon (on an angle so one end gets caught in the edge seam) between two pieces of clear vinyl and sewed around the sides and bottom. Jax asked for strawberry and mango, in case you’re curious!

Cacti: I sewed the cactus with arms by sewed all around the edges. For the flowering cactus, I layered the hot pink petal between the two link pink ones and placed that between the tops of the green felt before sewing around the edges. For both pots, I layered the pots and pot edges on either side of each cactus, then sewed around the edges, going through the cacti at the tops.

Laptop: I sewed the screen to the front felt piece, then sewed the two sides together along the sides and top. I made a couple rows of dashed stitches on the front keyboard piece, then sewed the two sides together along the sides and bottom. I laid the screen and keyboard together, and sewed the edges together. This lets the laptop fold open.

Clipboard: I sewed zigzag lines of gray stitching on the white paper piece, then placed it on the top red clipboard piece. I didn’t worry about it laying totally straight. I sewed the gray clip to the top then sewed the red back on all around the edges.

All done! Jax is dying to place with this book, so I’ve let him have a few sessions with it already. He loves helping the fire fighters down the pole and cooking feasts.

My pages are partially sewed together into book form, simply so I have better photos in between. I’ll go over constructing the book in the next post. The next post will also cover everything sewn to the cover. As you can see in these photos, snag-free Velcro will be sewn to the top of the bedroom, as it is the inside of the cover flap.

Stop by the Facebook page if you are sewing along with this project. I’d love to see photos of your progress!

Felt Easter Eggs

2 Replies

Easter is almost here!

I wanted to do a quick and easy project for Easter that I could share with you all. The hardest part is already done – figuring out the pattern to sew a 3d egg! (I used a plastic egg, paper and tape to draft it out.)

For this project, I used some extra eco felt, plus some pretty trims and buttons. Many of my embellishments were from the Target dollar aisle!

What I used:

The Pattern
Eco Felt
Trims: felt flowers from Target, buttons, Wrights daisy trim, assorted ribbons & ric rac
Stuffing

I started by cutting out the felt and choosing some pretty trims.

I then sewed all my decorations on before constructing the egg. (For my pink egg, I added a flower after sewing the egg, as it landed on the final seam.) Make sure your ribbons line up when you fold the felt into a tube.

When sewing the egg together inside-out, I left the two flat ends open (middle side of the egg) and just sewed the triangle sections closed. I used a very small seam allowance (included in the pattern) of around 1/8″ (4mm) and hand sewed with a back stitch.

Once both ends were sewn shut, I turned it right-side-out.

I filled it full of stuffing.

Using a ladder stitch, I sewed the opening shut.

Ladder stitch is most easily done with a curved needle. I don’t have one, but didn’t have any problems. Make a stitch across the gap you are closing, then run your needle through the felt in a small dash perpendicular to the opening. Repeat on alternating sides as shown. (In the diagram above, the lavender parts of the thread are under the felt.)

I finished my eggs off by stitching a loop of ribbon and a little embellishment to the top so they can be hung up.

There are so many possibilities with how you can decorate these eggs! If you make some, you are welcome to stop by the Facebook page and share a photo of your work. Have fun!

Felt Fire Station – Kitchen

5 Replies

This fire station project will be a full stand-alone quiet book, just like the dollhouse book, but using full size 9″ x 12″ sheets of felt for each page. The fire fighters are made from the same pattern as the dollhouse dolls, so they will be interchangeable. To see the first section of the project, go here: Felt Fire Station – Fire Truck & Dalmatian and Felt Fire Station – Garage & Locker Room.

This tutorial is for the third interior page of the fire station – the kitchen!

The Pattern
Felt from American Felt & Craft (in white, honeydew, chai, banana cream pie, doe, chocolate, gray, gray flannel, favorite jeans, ice, big apple and pastry)
Additional Felt Scraps (in key lime pie, cilantro, black, pool party, pink tutu, orange juice, monarch butterfly, elephant, butter cream and hot pink.)
Clear Vinyl
Snag-Free Velcro (in white)
Sew-on Snaps
1/8″ Wide Ribbon (in silver and yellow)
3/8″ Red Gingham Ribbon
Tiny buttons (in black)

Background: I started with a background sheet of honeydew green felt. I pinned down a 12″ x 2.5″ strip of chai felt for the ground. Don’t sew anything important about 1/4″ from the center edges of the two-page spread to allow for sewing the binding. But having the floor go to the edge is fine!

Fridge: I sewed the white background down, catching clear vinyl pockets in my stitches as I went around. I sewed the bottoms of the pockets closed. (You can add more pockets, but I staggered mine between the doors and interior so that the fridge didn’t get too bulky. I then sewed the gray line down between the freezer and the fridge. This hide the white when the doors are closed. I sewed four small squares of snag-free Velcro on the right edge (as shown above.)

I sewed the doors around the top, right and bottom edges with the gray outside, white inside, and clear pockets layered together, then added matching Velcro squares to the corners. I positioned the doors in place on the fridge and sewed the fourth side while attaching them to the page.

Lower Cabinet/Oven: I started by sewing the dark brown cabinet interior down, followed by the counter. On the counter, I sewed the sink, taps, faucet and burners. I added 3 tiny buttons left over from my Snowman page. I sewed a clear pocket down where the cabinet would be, and added snaps for the cabinet and oven door.

I sewed a silver ribbon handle on to one of the gray oven door pieces and a matching snap half on the other, then sewed the two sides together with clear vinyl sandwiched between. I did a running stitch (dashed line) around the window to keep it from stretching. I sewed it down to the cabinet along the bottom.

For the cabinet door, I sewed the matching snap half to the corner of the inside felt piece, then sewed the two sides together along the top, right and bottom. I sewed the last side while attaching it to the page.

Upper Cabinet: I sewed the cabinet interior down tot he page along with the clear vinyl pocket. I added snaps, then did the cabinet doors the same way as with the lower cabinet.

Table & Chairs: I sewed the chairs in place on the page. Only the tops show from behind the table, so that is all I used. I unpinned the floor and basted the interior of the table in place along the floor. (See above photo showing the inside of the finished table pocket.)

I decorated the table front felt piece with some red gingham ribbon. I pinned the table front to the page, lined up with the table bottom, and sewed it to the page around the sides and the bottom. Sewing only through the two table felt pieces, I sewed along the top.

Window: I sewed the blue glass felt piece down, catching some clear vinyl in the bottom to make a pocket (for potted plants included with the next page.) I sewed the white window sill down over the bottom. I sewed the red curtains in place, leaving the bottoms open, then added some more of the gingham ribbon as tiebacks.

Clothes: This page includes casual clothes for the fire fighters. The dolls are sewn like the one included in the Dollhouse.

Logo T-shirts: I sewed the yellow emblem to the pocket area of the heather gray tees, then sewed them to a white felt backing with a bit of snag-free Velcro sewn to it.

Tee with Apron: I sewed the top of a red apron (only one thickness of felt) down to the white t-shirt, catching two yellow ribbons in my stitching. I sewed only the t-shirt part to a white backing with Velcro, catching the other ends of the straps between the two layers.

Jeans: I decorated the jeans with a yellow dashed line of stitching at the crotch, a gray French knot button, four light indigo stitches as belt loops and 2 slanted long stitches as pockets. I stitched shoes to the bottom cuffs (decorating the white ones with red stripes) and sewed the whole thing to white backing felt with Velcro at the top.

Food: I’ve included a lot of food in this pattern, and will be adding a bit more when I do the back cover with a grill. You can also use food from the Dollhouse Kitchen.

Coffee Mugs: I sewed the two handle pieces together, then layered it and the coffee felt between the two sides of the mug. I sewed it together along the sides and bottom, then trimmed the extra handle inside the mug so it was less visible.

Muffins: I sewed the muffin tops (hah) together, then sandwiched them in place between the muffin liner pieces. I sewed along the sides and bottom of the liners, then made a couple tiny stitches at the top to hold the muffins in.

Fruit Plate: Each little piece of fruit is sewn separately, but stitched to the top of the plate at their bottoms. The exception is the cherries, which are appliqued to the banana. I added stitched brown stems to the cherries and pear, and caught a bit of green felt in the top of the strawberry to make the green leafy top. I sewed the back of the plate on once I finished the fruit.

Pizza: I sewed the cheese to the sauce and the sauce to the top of the crust, then sewed the back of the crust on. Note that I didn’t center the sauce on the crust – I had it closer to the back to created a foreshortened look.

French Bread Loaf: I sewed slanted long stitches in brown to make the slashes in the crust on both sides, then sewed the sides together.

Stock Pot: I sewed the sides and bottom of the pot together, catching folded scraps of gray felt in the sides to make handles. I sewed along the curved top of the lid, catching a folded bit of gray felt in the top center ans a handle.

Donuts: I decorated both sides of the tan “blueberry” donut with periwinkle French knots and sewed the sides together. I decorated both sides of the “strawberry” donut with stitched sprinkles, then sewed the two sides together. I decorated the top of the “chocolate” donut with a curvy white line of stitching, then sewed both sides together.

You could sew the donuts to the platter as with the fruit, but I decided to let Jax have some loose food to “feed” to the dolls. So I sewed the platter separate, added a clear vinyl pocket to hold the food.

Tacos: I sewed scraps of red felt to the lettuce felt, then added brown French knot “taco meat”. I placed the toppings inside the folded taco shell felt and made tiny stitches to hold it closed. Note that the taco shell is folded so the front is a bit shorter than the back.

I did the platter with a pocket the same way as for the donuts.

Cake: I first stitched a curving running stitch (dashed line) on the frosting pieces, then stitched them each to a cake piece. I stitched together the candle pieces with the flame caught in the top. I placed the candle between the two sides of the cake and sewed around the edges.

Dog Kibble: Puppy needs to eat too! I sewed brown French knots on both sides of the kibble felt,, then sewed the sides together along the top. I layered it between the bowl pieces and sewed along the sides and bottom. I added a couple small stitches along the top to hold the kibble in the bowl.

I’d almost say this is Jax’s favorite in the fire house so far – he’s always been a fan of play food. But, He’s been so excited about the whole thing that it is too close to call. I’ll be hiding this book away once it is done so it is new and fun during out California trip in May.

Have you been sewing along with me on this Fire Station book? I’d love to see your progress! Stop by the Facebook page and post a photo!

The next two pages in this series will be the office and bunk room. So close to finishing! Happy sewing!

Felt Fire Station – Garage & Locker Room

11 Replies

This fire station project will be a full stand-alone quiet book, just like the dollhouse book, but using full size 9″ x 12″ sheets of felt for each page. The fire fighters are made from the same pattern as the dollhouse dolls, so they will be interchangeable. To see the first section of the project, go here: Felt Fire Station – Fire Truck & Dalmatian.

This tutorial is for the first two interior pages of the fire station: the garage for the fire truck and the locker room.

What I Used:

The Pattern
Felt from American Felt & Craft (in chai (x2), white, black, gray, elephant, banana cream pie, orange juice, big apple, bisque, sparrow, spanish olive & doe.)
Clear Vinyl (12″ x 5″ for pocket, plus what is on the pattern)
Small Star Sequins (3 gold)
Craft Mirror Sheet (cut to 2″ x 4.5″)
Thin Yellow Ribbon, 1/8-Inch Wide
Brown Ribbon
Sew-On Snaps (I used the small ones for the equipment, larger ones for the lockers.)
Black Satin Rattail Cord (just a scrap)
Ribbon/ Ric Rac Scraps (in aquas)
White Snag-Free Velcro

Background: I started with two background sheets of chai felt. I sewed down 12″ x 2.5″ strips of elephant gray for the ground.Don’t sew anything important about 1/4″ – 1/2″ from the center edges of the two-page spread to allow for sewing the binding. But having the floor go to the edge is fine!

Bench & Towel: The bench is simple sewn down to the page with the seat overlapping the legs. To make the towel bar, I folded the towel felt around the strip of gray towel bar felt. I sewed a line of stitching through just the towel, making a channel that holds it on the “bar”. I attached the bar to the page with a small criss-cross of stitches on each side, topped with French knots.

Lockers: To sew the lockers, I started by embellishing the yellow door piece. I sewed down two strips of yellow ribbon to make it look like three lockers. Long stitches made the vents, and the gray panels made the handle/lock area. On the light gray felt that backs the door, I sewed down the bottoms of the clear vinyl pockets. I then pinned the door front and back together and sewed around the edges, being sure to catch the sides of the vinyl pockets as I went.

I sewed down the interior felt to the page, catching the sides of the two curved pockets in the edges. I sewed the bottoms of the pockets closed, then sewed the left side of the door down to the page. To finish, I added sew-on snaps to the open corners of the locker to hold it closed.

Mirror: I cut the 2″ x 4.5″ mirror out of a sheet of craft mirror. I also cut some clear vinyl slightly larger. I layered the mirror under the vinyl, and sewed the vinyl down to the page so that it held the mirror in place. I then covered the edges with folded brown ribbon. You could use strips of felt or even some bias tape.

Shower: The shower was one of the rare times I went up to my sewing machine. In 5 minutes, I was able to sew a grid of squares of the shower background that look just like little tiles. Love! I sewed it down to the page, adding the bottom pocket as I went around that edge.

Hi, puppy.

I made the shower head by folding some scraps of aqua blue ric-rac and ribbon and stitching them together at the fold. Then I layered the fold between the two shower head felt pieces and sewed around the edges. I sewed it to the center top of the shower and sewed the shower curtain on along the top.

Garage: The garage side of the spread is very simple. I sewed the sides of the clear vinyl pocket onto the wall, then sewed the shelf down along the bottom. The shelf holds any equipment that isn’t being used. Each piece of equipment has a snap on the back so you can mix and match what is on the fire engine.

Equipment: For the instructions on how to sew the safety cone and the axe, see the Fire Engine tutorial.

Fire Extinguisher: I started by sewing a snap to the back of the extinguisher body (making sure I used the side that would fit into the fire truck.) I sewed the front and back together. I took a scrap of black satin cord and sewed through one end of it to attach my thread. I layered the funnel piece over the end and sewed it securely to the cord before sewed the sides closed. I left the mouth of the funnel open. I repeated that with the other side of the cord and the handle of the extiguisher, attaching it to the top of the body.

First Aid Kit: I sewed a snap to the back and the cross to the front, then sewed both sides together.

Dolls: For the instructions on how to sew the dolls, see the Dollhouse tutorial. I didn’t include a pattern for the undies. For those, I just cut little V’s or U’s out of a piece of Velcro to make the necks of their shirts, then cut the sides of the shorts to fit their hips.

Protective Uniform: I started the uniform pieces by stitching the yellow ribbon on as the safety stripes (see above photo for placement.) I sewed a line of brown back stitch to make the front opening, then sewed the collar on with a few stitches on the right and a French knot on the left. I stitched the gloves and boots in place with more back stitch, then laid the tops and bottoms down on white felt and cut out backing pieces. Before I sewed the backings on, I added some of the snag-free Velcro to hold them onto the dolls.

Fire Helmets: I started by sewed the yellow felt emblem onto the front of the hat with a gold sequin star on top. I then sewed the back on along the top edge of the hat.

Ventilation Mask/Breathing Apparatus: I started by sewing a scrap of clear vinyl to the back of the face mask opening. I then sewed the gray circle onto the bottom of the front and added crisscrossed stitches to make it look like mesh. I sewed the back on along the outer/top curve of the mask so the dolls’ head can slip through the strap in the back.

That’s it! Now your little fire fighters are ready to go fight some fires!

Stay tuned for to upcoming parts of this series: the kitchen, the office, the bunk room, the building exterior/cover and a bonus building on fire!

Stop by the Facebook page to say hi and follow along as I post my progress pictures! I’ll be working on another MLP plush for my niece, then finishing up the kitchen and office pages.

Felt Caterpillar Coin Purse

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I can hardly believe that my little Jackson will be turning 3 on February 5^th! It feels like yesterday we were bringing him home. He is finally able to understand our party planning and birthdays in general. When I ask what to add to his wishlist, he tells me, “a teddy bear, a car, chomping teeth and a lollipop.” Chomping teeth?? Where does he get these ideas?

Over the Christmas holidays, I suggested many party themes to him, and we ended up on bugs. I made an inspiration board with Photoshop, and even planned out his cupcakes. (He is SO excited for those!) Since Jax is not in school yet, he doesn’t have many friends his own age to invite. He loves his grown up friends, and I wanted to have a handmade favor for them beyond the treat bags full of candy. And so I designed these little felt caterpillar coin purses!

This project would work really great with a Very Hungry Caterpillar party as well! Check out the felt board set I made for a friend’s son here.

What I Used:

Green felt from American Felt and Craft (For 12 pouches, I used 6 sheets. I used both jungle vine and jade.)
1cm felted wool balls (I got mine from US Etsy shop TaDaaStudioFelt. There is a European seller of that size ball here. I didn’t want to risk slow international delivery.)
Green hook & loop tape (Sew-on. Sold at Joann’s Fabrics.)
Brown ribbon (.5″ wide grosgrain from AC Moore Crafts.)
Leaf Pattern

I started by cutting out my leaf shapes – 2 for the outside and two for the inside. I stitched the center vein of the leaf on the two outer pieces using a running stitch. The second photo above is a backside view.

I then cut strips of hook & loop tape and sewed them onto the inner leaf pieces. My hook & loop was nice and wide, so it made nice, thin strips.

I still had a lot of thread on my needle after sewing on the hook & loop, so I ran the needle through the felt to get it in position to sew the inner and out leaf pieces together along the top purse opening. I ran the needle from the back of inner leaf piece through both layers, then back the other way in the exact same spot. Before pulling it tight, I ran my needle through the loop to start my blanket stitch.

I sewed the inner and outer leaf pieces together along the tops, catching a loop of ribbon for a handle in between the layers on one side. I made sure the stitching lined up on both sides.

I sewed the caterpillar next – attaching him to the outer layer of the the side of the purse without the handle.

To start sewing his features, I attached my thread to the bottom of the head (using this thread technique.) I then ran my needle up to one eye and made a French knot, coming out at the bottom of his head. I repeated that for the other side.

To make his mouth, I came up at one corner and down at the other, coming out at the bottom of his head. Before pulling the thread tight, I came up at the the bottom center of where I wanted the curve of his smile to be. I went through the loop of thread and made a tiny stitch to lock the smile in place. I ended up at the bottom of his head, ready to attach him to the leaf.

I attached the head to the leaf with several strong stitches through the base, sewing him to only the outer layer of the leaf. I came up diagonally through the base of his head and out the center back. Running my needle through about 1/3 of another felt ball, I sewed it down behind his head with several strong stitch. I continued this way for a total of 4 balls.

I then reinforced them by stitching up, through and down two balls at a time. So on this example, I sewed red and blue, blue and green, then green and orange.

I ended up under his head again, and came straight up through it to where I wanted the first antennae. I tied a knot in the thread flush against his head, then tied another knot where I wanted the end of the antennae to be. I trimmed the extra and restarted a thread under his head to repeat it for the other side.

I then pinned the two sides of the purse together. Starting where the top blanket stitching ended, I sewed around the ends to the other side.

All done!

These are coming out so cute, and only taking about 30 minutes each to sew (with Jax distractions!) once all the pieces were pre-cut. I’ve been letting Jax chose the colors for the felt balls – he loves helping out!

I have 5 of these cuties sewn so far, with 7 to go before his party in early February. I better get stitching this weekend!

I’d love to see your finished project if you make one of these coin purses! Stop by our Facebook page and post a photo.

Felt Valentine Play Set

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I really wanted to make something cute for Jax to play with this Valentine’s day. He loves checking the mail with me (and our post box!), and he loves putting things into other things. Simple pleasures, I guess! While I’ve already made him a mail box quiet book page, I wanted to make him something 3 dimensional that he can have for his playroom. As a bonus, it will help him learn about the process of writing and sending letters.

Big, big thank-yous to reader Jill, who gifted us with a roll of photo fabric. Thanks to her generosity, this project is so much more personal and special.

The full set.

What I Used:

The Pattern
Wool blend felt from American Felt & Craft (in elephant [2 sheets], black, lipstick, white, fresh linen [you can use more white], pomegranate, bubble gum, purple haze, sparrow, pastry and pool party.)
Plastic canvas (size 7ct)
Photo fabric
Colored hook & loop (in red, light blue, pink and lavender.)
Red button
Felt heart trim (mine was from Target’s dollar aisle)
Daisy lace trim (used on a stamp)
Assorted ribbon (mine was from Target’s dollar aisle)
White mini ric rac
Pinking Shears

Mailbox: I started but stitching the MAIL letters down to the outer layer of the mailbox top piece. I cut a piece of plastic canvas 1/4″ smaller all around than the felt, and sandwiched it between the two layers. I pinned it well, then sewed along the long edge by the L, pausing halfway to insert a folded piece of red hook (soft) Velcro.

I cut some plastic canvas 1/4″ smaller all around for the mailbox base, and layered it in between the felt pieces, pining them in place. I pinned the mailbox top on top of the mailbox base with a long edge of the base matched up to the MAIL edge of the top, and I sewed them together. I bent the top up to form a tunnel and sewed its short edge to the other long edge of the base. You may need to trim the inside layer of the mailbox top after pinning it, as it is the inside curve and is slightly smaller.

I cut two pieces of plastic canvas 1/4″ smaller around than the mailbox door/back pieces. I pinned them between the two sets of felt and sewed around the curved edges of one, catching a folded loop of red hook (hard) Velcro in the middle of one. I sewed the one without Velcro to the back of the mailbox all around. I sewed the door with Velcro to the front, laying inside the mailbox and sewing it along the bottom before pulling it out.

I cut some plastic canvas to go inside the mailbox flag, but you might be able to get away without it. I didn’t have the canvas go all the way down the post – I left room at the base so I could cut a small hole through the whole flag after sewing the layers together. I stitched around my tiny hole with a buttonhole stitch. You could perhaps use a tiny eyelet, but you really only want the hole big enough to sew a button though it. If it is too large, the flag will just flop down. After I sewed the edge of the hole, I very carefully sewed a button to the side of the mailbox, running the stitched through the hole in the flag to attach it. I took some red scrap ribbon and wound it between the mailbox and the button until the flag stopped flopping but could still move, then tied the ribbon in a tight knot and trimmed it to hide it.

Envelopes: I cut one piece of felt for each envelope. With the wrong side up, I folded the top part down and the bottom part up, and pinned to find the positions of my Velcro. With them unpinned, I stitched Velcro in place to close the envelopes and some loop Velcro on the front corners to hold stamps.

I used my machine to sew scraps of ribbon and ric rac on as the address, then refolded then and sewed along the sides and the edge where the top is folded down. I finished them with a little felt heart (cut from a trim I got at Target) to the envelope flap.

Heart Envelope: I decorated the front with ribbons and ric rac the same as the envelopes, and I added some Velcro for the stamp. I sewed on a little felt heart to look like a sticker. Then I sewed around the edge, leaving the top open.

Sugar Cookie: I sewed the pink icing down to the top cookie piece, the added a felt heart and some long stitches as sprinkles. Then I sewed the front and back together.

Letters: I did some prep work before creating the letters. Using my hand-me-down iPad 1 and the app iFontmaker, Jax and I made handwriting fonts. I used those to type out small Valentine messages in Photoshop (you could even use Word). I just chose a font I had for my husband’s letter. I asked Jax questions to figure out what to write on his letters, as he doesn’t understand Valentines yet. Then I had him draw me a picture (rainbows are the only thing he draws besides squiggles) in our Drawing Pad app, and I added that and some little photos.

I cut my photo fabric down to fit my 4×6 printer – the only one in the house that currently prints black ink (I’ve been printing pattern is pale gray for months!) It worked great, but I did get smudges of ink on the rainbows both times I tried printing it.

I cut out the printed fabric after peeling off the paper backing. I didn’t worry about the size except to make sure they fit in the envelopes. I zigzag stitched them to pieces of white felt.

Stamps: I didn’t follow a pattern for the stamps. I just sewed bits of felt and ribbon onto off-white felt (you could use white) then trimmed around the white edges with my pinking shears.

On the back sides, I sewed hook Velcro on. I sewed all the Velcro by hand in this project and it was the lamest part! My thumb was bruised the next day.

The set was a hit with Jax, though he is rather fond of pulling everything apart and just shoving all the pieces into the mailbox. We’ll play with it together so he can learn that letters go in the envelopes, stamps on the outside, then they get put in the mailbox.

And he is SO proud to see his name and the rainbow he drew!

I hope you enjoy making this set for your little one! It has a lot of options for really customizing it and making it your own. If you make one, I’d love to see it! Email me photos or post them to our Facebook page. As always, I’ll be posting updates every day or two to the FB page with photos of my current projects. Next up: a bug themed party favor before returning to the fire station project!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Felt Fire Station – Fire Truck & Dalmatian

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Jax enjoys the little toy fire station he received from our friend when he was little. I’ve even caught him playing with it wearing his fire fighter hat! After getting many requests for a fire fighter quiet book page, I decided to start designing.

My project will be a full stand-alone quiet book, just like the dollhouse book, but using full size 9″ x 12″ sheets of felt for each page. The fire fighters will be made from the same pattern as the dollhouse dolls, so they will be interchangeable.

Here is my fire truck, shown with a ruler and one of my regular pages for scale.

Because the dolls needed to set the scale of the page, the fire truck is quite large. I wanted them to be able to ride in the truck, so I couldn’t have a tiny truck. If you plan to use the fire truck pattern on a page that is the size I normally sew, you may need to shrink it a slight bit if you don’t want it sticking out. My fire station will be sewn differently, and I’ll post all about the construction when I get to that point.

This tutorial is for the first two parts of the fire station book – the fire truck and the dalmatian!

What I Used:

The Pattern
Felt from American Felt & Craft (in white, black, gray, elephant, banana cream pie, orange juice, big apple & doe.)
Plastic Canvas
Clear Vinyl
Small Star Sequins (7 red, 1 gold)
Thin Yellow Ribbon Scrap
4 Sew-On Snaps (I used the small ones.)
2 Large Yellow Buttons (1″ from this pack)
2 Large Shank-Back Buttons (7/8″) (Mine are 1028 here from A.C. Moore.)
Gray Parachute Cord
2 Eyelets
Black Sew-On Velcro (I used 1 hook coin and 1 hook square cut in half)
Red Sew-on Velcro (I used a small piece of hook)

I started by stitching tiny red star sequins to the siren area on the red truck piece. Then I laid the window and siren vinyl between the red truck piece and the white cab piece before sewing them together.

I sewed the side mirror piece over top. I sewed down the yellow stripe pieces, then sewed the dark gray tool panel crossing it. I sewed the gray running board/bumper down along the bottom (but I didn’t sew the outside edge of it down until I was sewing the white backing onto the finished truck.)

I sewed the yellow emblem onto the truck door then sewed the black 2 on top of it. Using my pattern as a guide, I stitched 911 onto the yellow stripe with a back stitch. (I actually pinned the paper to the felt and stitched right through it, following the lines. Then I carefully ripped the paper away.)

I sewed the wheel wells down where I wanted the wheels to be, the sewed two black felt circles together for each wheel. I added a large eyelet to the center of each wheel, then chose 1″ buttons as my hubcaps. I positioned the wheels where I wanted then to end up, then sewed the button to the truck through the eyelet hole. This lets the wheels spin.

To make the ladder, I cut out plastic canvas and sewed it between two pieces of white felt. I also added snaps to the center of the top and bottom rungs to hold it on the fire truck. See the photo above to know how large to cut your plastic canvas.

Once I had the ladder snapped to the side of the truck, I sewed on two large shank-back buttons. These are used to wrap the fire hose around when not in use. I sewed a small square of red loop (soft) Velcro beside one of the buttons so the hose can be secured.

On the center of the tool panel, I sewed down a circle of loop Velcro. This can be used to hook one end of the hose up to the truck. (There will be a fire hydrant on the fire station cover with Velcro as well.)

Axe: I sewed the two handle side together, then sewed a snap to the back piece of the axe blade. I sandwiched the top of the handle between the axe blade pieces and sewed them together. I positioned the axe on the tool panel and sewed the other half of the snap down to hold it in place.

Traffic Cone: I sewed a snap to the back piece of the traffic cone then sewed the two sides together. I wrapped a scrap of yellow ribbon around the base and stitched it on with a dashed running stitch. I positioned the cone on the tool panel and sewed the other half of the snap down to hold it in place.

Hose: I wrapped some parachute cord around the buttons on my truck and cut it so I had enough for both ends to finish right at the red Velcro. I melted the cut ends with a flame, the stitched some hook Velcro around the ends in a tube. That isn’t easy – a sharp needle and a thimble might help.

Dalmatian: I started by decorating the face piece with his ears and nose. His eyes are French knots with a stitch for eyelashes. His mouth is just two little stitches in an upside down V. I stitched the red collar onto the body front the stitched the finished face on as well.

To make the larger spots, I cut random tiny scraps of black felt and sewed them down. Wool felt works well for such tiny pieces because it fuzzes less. You’ll still need to clean black lint off the dog when you are done, though. The small spots are just groups of black stitches in random shapes. I made spots on the hind leg and sewed it down to the body front.

I stitched a tiny gold star sequin on the the collar as a dog tag, then sewed the front of the dog to his backing. I plan to make an extra fire hat for him in the next phase of the fire station book project, so stay tuned!

On the back of the fire truck, I sewed on the white backing piece, leaving it open at the cab and the top back to form pockets for the dog and dolls. I added a scrap of white felt to make the truck back pocket more shallow.

I am very pleased with how the truck (and the puppy!) turned out! I wasn’t sure what I was going to use for the hose until I found the parachute cord and got it for $1 with a coupon. I’m excited to move on to the two fire fighter dolls – one boy and one girl! They will have different clothes they can put on.

To see photo updates of this project as I work on it, follow my Instagram or join the Facebook page. I’l also taking suggestions for Valentine’s day projects now. Is there anything you’ve been wanting to make?