This page is a part of my Dollhouse mini quiet book. You can find the instructions for the doll and the kitchen page here. Still to come are the bedroom, bathroom and the cover/construction. The book is designed on 12″ w x 9″ h felt sheets that will fold in half to 6″ w x 9″ h when closed.

All the felt for this mini book has been provided by American Felt and Craft. I am using their wool blend felt, which cuts like butter and has been holding up so much better than the craft store recycled felt I’d been using. If it is in your budget, it is absolutely worth upgrading for a long-lasting handmade item such as a quiet book.

Shown with food from the kitchen page.

What I Used: The pattern, felt (in ice/light blue, soap sud/pale gray, jade/green, peacock/aqua, hot pink, white, rubber ducky/yellow, limeade/lime green, doe/brown, forget me not/periwinkle, beet/dark red and bisque/flesh), felt scraps (I used a zebra print craft felt for the swimsuit and cilantro/olive for the leaves), clear vinyl, white snag-free Velcro, size 1 sew-on snaps, 2 small buttons, thin blue and green ribbon, white snag-free Velcro and ribbon scraps.

Pool Background: I started by cutting a strip of white and sewing it down along the top to make the edge of the pool. I took a large rectangle of peacock blue and sewed it down along its top edge, overlapping the white. I cut a piece of clear vinyl the same size as the blue pool water and sewed it down along the sides and bottom, going through all three layers (vinyl, blue felt and background felt), making a clear pocket.

Patio Table: I sewed the hot pink table top down, then used a back stitch to sew the legs. I took a scrap of thin, yellow ribbon and sewed it down to make a pole for the umbrella. The umbrella was sewn down along the bottom curve, letting the scallops hang free.

Pool Toys: The inner tube is just sewn back to front. For the beach ball, I sewed the colored segments to each side, then sewed the two sides together.

Garden Background: I cut some jade green felt into a hill and sewed it down to the left side of the page to make the ground. I sewed the fence pieces down to a rectangle of green felt, then trimmed the green from between the pointed tops of the fence posts, as shown above. I sewed the fence into a pocket on the bottom of the page. The doll can stand behind the fence, or you can store the page pieces there.

Flowers: For each flower, I started by sewing a button to the front piece and a leaf to the back piece. I cut two lengths of ribbon – one blue and one green – and had them sticking out of the flower (as shown above) when I sewed the fronts to the backs. At the end of the green ribbons, I sewed on folded rectangles of jade green felt.

Planter: I folded the top of the planter down (towards the front) and sewed it down to make a lip. I positioned the flowers and their green ribbons where they needed to be on the page, and pinned down the planet over top. I sewed along the sides and bottom of the planter, but made sure to leave holes where the ribbons stuck through the bottom. This is so you can pull the green felt tabs to pull the flowers back into the planter.

Clouds: The clouds have snaps sewn to the back pieces. I pinned the tops of the blue ribbons in between the cloud pieces before sewing fronts to backs. I pulled the flowers all the way into the planter then marked where the other halves of the snaps needed to be to hold the clouds in place. I sewed them down to finish the clouds.

Watering Can: The watering can is made by sewing the fronts and backs together with the following things sticking out: A bit of yellow ribbon to make a handle, three bits of blue ribbon coming out of the spout and a scrap of blue felt in the top to make the water.

Find directions for the doll on the kitchen page

Swimsuit: The swimsuit  has a ribbon and bow sewn to the waist of the front piece to make a belt. At the bottom, I took a length of ribbon and sewed it down in loops to make a ruffle. I switched the direction of the the loops halfway through. I sewed bits of snag-free Velcro to the white back piece then sewed the front and back together.

Garden Outfit: I started by sewing bits of Velcro to the back of the white back piece. I then sewed the yellow boots to front of it. I sewed down the pants, folding up the cuffs and sewing them in place. I decorated the shirt with some back stitch and daisy stitches before sewing it down.

Garden Hat: I sewed thin blue ribbon across the brim of each side of the hat. I took a scrap of flower ribbon and folded the ends under to make a little square with one flower motif on it. I sewed one of those down on to each side. I sewed the hat together, leave the bottom open so you can slide it on the doll’s head.

Hope you’ve been enjoying my free quiet book patterns! I love seeing what you’ve done with them. Email me your photos, or leave them on our Facebook page. Stop by tomorrow for a toddler iPad app review and a giveaway of two free app codes!

Having a little boy, I don’t often get to do super girly sewing projects. I really wanted to design a dollhouse quiet book, so I decided to go for it!

This page is sponsored by American Felt and Craft, who provided the beautiful wool blend felt. It is such a delight to work with! The feel of it really doesn’t compare to craft felt. If you can afford to spend a little more, I really recommend using wool blend felt. It has been holding up so much better than the acrylic.

You’ll notice from the photos that this page is laid out different than my others – there is no blank area on the side to allow for the binding/grommets. This is because I plan to fold the pages in the center and sew them together as a mini book that is 6″ wide x 9″ high when closed. I will be posting each double page separately, then showing how I bind it all together. You could use the elements from this page to design a regular quiet book page, but you’ll need to rearrange and shrink some things.

The book will contain one felt doll (or possibly two) with Velcro underthings. I plan to make two outfits per double page. They will be stored on the bedroom page, but there will be places to put them on each spread. Here the table is a pocket. This page also contains many little food items that were a great way to use up felt scraps! Because they are tiny, I’d recommend this page for a 4 year old unless you are supervising. The colors I used are all totally changeable, so just think of them as suggestions. I was in love with that green “honeydew” color and wanted to pay homage to the avocado appliances I grew up with.

What I Used: The pattern, felt (in pink tutu/pink, soap sud/pale gray, white, honeydew/spring green, hot pink, salt & pepper/dark charcoal and bisque/flesh), felt scraps (in lilac, gold nugget/gold, peacock/aqua, rainy day/light blue, big apple/red, cilantro/olive green, rubber ducky/yellow, orange juice/orange, chocolate/brown, banana nut muffin/tan and gray flannel/gray), clear vinyl, white snag-free Velcro, size 1 sew-on snaps, 7mm mini buttons, ric-rac and ribbon scraps.

I sewed this entire page by hand, but you could certainly machine stitch some or all of it.

Background Elements: I started by sewing a strip of felt down for the floor. I used “soap sud” which is a white with a pale tint of pink and blue to it.

For the frame hanging above the table, I cut a rectangle of clear vinyl to fit the opening, then straight stitched it onto the back. I sewed the frame to the wall, leaving the top open so you can slide in a photo. (I stitched across the top of the frame just so it would would match the other sides – but it isn’t sewn to the background.)

For the window, I cut a rectangle of light blue and sewed it down with a + shape of white back stitch. I sewed a strip of white to the bottom for the sill, then sewed the curtains on, leaving the bottoms open for volume. I made two little aqua blue bows and sewed them on as curtain ties. I stitched through the knots so they won’t untie.

I added a shelf under the window to hold the tea set. It is just a strip of hot pink felt sewn down over a small pocket of clear vinyl. The vinyl holds the tea set in place while it looks like it is just sitting on the shelf.

Oven: I sewed down the inside of the oven with snaps in the upper corners, then sewed down the stove top above it. I added 4 7mm buttons (from the craft store) as dials and two felt burners. I made the door by sewing the matching snap halves to the upper corners of the inner door felt and sewing some ric-rac to the door front as the handle (I added squares of felt over the ends of the ric-rac to hide where it was sewn on and prevent fraying.) I then sandwiched clear vinyl between both door sides and sewed them all together. I sewed the oven door to the oven along the bottom, making sure the snaps lined up.

Refrigerator: I started by sewing down a white rectangle the size of both doors. I also sewed a strip of the door color down to separate the freezer from the fridge. I cut scraps of clear vinyl and sewed them down into pockets to hold the food. I added one snap for each door. To make the doors, I sewed ric-rac handles to the front pieces the same way I did it on the oven. I sewed the matching snap halves to the white inner door pieces, then sewed the two sides of each together. I sewed the doors down along the left sides, making sure the snaps lined up.

Table & Chair: I started with the chair (half a chair, really.) The table is sewn as a pocket so the doll can “sit” at the table. I added the top portion of a chair to make it look like she’s sitting. I did some decorative stitching, including a daisy stitch in the center. I sewed it down so the bottom would be hidden behind the table. To make the table, I sewed the hot pink trim to the bottom of the tablecloth. I added an extra layer of white felt to the back of the table top (the oval shape) so the bright chair wouldn’t show through. I also added a line of stitching in gray to show the edge of the table. I sewed the table down along the sides and bottom to make a pocket.

Tea Party Items: For the tea set, I cut a front and back piece for each item (one tea pot and two cups) and sewed them together. With the cups, I left the tops open.

The cookie sheet is made with tan ovals sewn to the top layer of the cookie sheet, then the front and backs are sewn together.

For the fruit bowl, I sewed together two layers for each fruit, then sewed the bowl around them, so they are stitched in place and can’t get lost.

I did the same with the ice cream bowl. (I didn’t have extra pink, since I used the full sheet for the background. I ended up cutting a square of felt out of the back of the page behind the oven and using that for the strawberry ice cream!)

For the cake, I started with the flame, sewing the back and front together. I then sewed the two sides of the candle stick together around the base of the flame. I sewed the two layers of the plate together. I sandwiched the end of the candle between the two cake pieces and sewed it down around the top of the plate.

The milk has two identical sides – each with an M sewn on. Then, the two sides are sewn together.

Doll: The doll is made with colored felt on the front and plain white on the back. I started by sewing the hair on to the body piece around her face. I then embroidered her features on. For the mouth, I used the same technique that I used one my princess finger puppet, but I added a stitch of white for teeth between her lips. Her nose is a dashed stitch that is tilted up a bit. I started the eyes by stitching the almond/eye-shape with white thread. I made a French knot in the center, and made a tiny stitch from the edge of the knot through the center to really hold it in place. I outlined the tops and outer corners of the eyes with brown thread, then back stitched eyebrows. Her under clothes are cut out of snag-free Velcro to hold her outfits on. I sewed them down the same way I would sew felt. I sewed a tiny belly button, but it’s hard to see. Once she was decorated, I sewed her backing on.

Clothes: Her red dress was decorated with black back stitch at the cuffs, collar and hem. The buttons are pink French knots. Her apron is a cherry ribbon I found at Dollar Tree. I folded the bottom under into a curve as I sewed it on. I made her apron belt with a scrap of pink ribbon. I sewed Velcro to the back piece, lining it up with her body, then sewed the front and back together.

The green dress has a gingham ribbon scrap sewn on as a belt. I sewed on a white collar and added two 7mm mini buttons. I sewed the Velcro on to the back then sewed both sides together.

Stay tuned for two more double pages for this dollhouse book, followed by the exterior of the house and book construction! I am posting progress photos on the Facebook page as I go. I am also working on a solar system page, so photos of that may pop up too.

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It’s a quiet book page! It’s a puppet theater! It’s both!

This page was inspired by the rich colors of wool blend felt carried by American Felt and Craft, who provided the felt for this project. (Visit AFC’s Facebook page for sales and giveaways.) There are so many beautiful shades of green, gorgeous grays that look like stone and bright jewel tones. And the fact that the wool felt is stronger and thicker than craft felt helped to make this page work well.

This page doesn’t use anything special other than some plastic canvas, I used glitter ribbon for some of the tiny pieces, like the crown and the sword, but you could swap that for felt. I also used many shades of green because I had leftovers from other pages. The ground (“fresh cut grass”) and the dragon (“jade”) are the most important greens. the leaves (“limeade”) and shrubs (“cilantro”) could be swapped for one of those.

What I Used: The pattern, wool blend felt from American Felt & Craft (in fresh cut grass, beet x 3, powder blue, white, gray flannel, salt & pepper, cilantro, limeade, royal purple, doe, orchid, rubber duckie, peaches & cream, indigo, jade, orange juice), plastic canvas (I got mine at the craft store), glitter ribbon in gold and silver (I got mine at the craft store) and sew-on gems.

This page fits into my normal quiet books, yet unfolds into a working finger puppet theater. There is a pocket to store the three puppets, a wizard, a princess and a knight, plus a stuffed dragon that flies on a loop of ribbon. There are two supports that can be stored in a loop of felt when the page is closed. The supports slip into little pockets to prop the stage open.

Supports: Sew two layers of plastic canvas inside the felt strips to make two supports. I cut my plastic canvas slightly smaller than the felt.

Castle Facade: Start with a 9″ square of gray felt and cut away the roof line using the sky pattern. Layer a strip of light blue behind the castle piece to make a 9″ square again and sew them together. Cut out the puppet theater hole. Sew on the windows and door, then sew on the shrubs. I cut out a bunch of little leave and stitched a wandering back stitch vine up each side of the castle. I used two back stitches to attach each leaf. Sew on the two purple tower roofs. Cut bits of ribbon or felt into triangle flags and sew them to the roof peaks. (My ribbon was non-fraying, so I was able to easily cut it into shapes.)

I embellished my roofs with embroidery to look like tiles. To do that, start with a long horizontal stitch, but don’t pull it tight. Come back up through the felt down at the point where you want your tile to end, making sure to put the needle through the stitch. Go back down through the felt making a tiny vertical stitch that holds your first long stitch down into a scallop shape. Repeat, staggering the scallops as shown.

Backstage: Cut out the burgundy felt into the 9″ square with a matching hole cut out. Sew it to the back of the castle facade with plastic canvas in the middle. Take the two curtain pieces and overlap them slightly in the middle. Sew them to the top back of the theater piece.

The castle theater gets sewn to the right hand side of the two-page spread. Line the top of the castle up with the far right side of a full 9″ x 12″ sheet of burgundy felt and sew it down along the bottom. On the left side, decorate the few inches that are in front of the castle with grass and a road. I matched my road with the width of the door.

Cut out the storage pocket felt piece and sew it to the page under the castle as shown on the pattern and the photos. the skinny side pockets are where you insert the bottom of the supports. Sew the smaller pockets to the back of the castle after pinning them to see what angle works best. Sew the pockets upside-down so the top of the supports can slip up into them.

Front Lawn: That side of the two-page spread is super easy. I just sewed more road down to the grass color. You could embellish yours with flowers, a fountain or a hedge maze… Whatever you can imagine!

To construct my page, I sewed purple felt (I just used craft felt) to the back of each side of the spread. You have to start and stop your seam to get around where the castle is attached on that side of the page. I then lined the pages up facing each other (as they will be when the page is closed, and sewed my usual seams.

Puppets: All three of my finger puppets have plain white felt backs. If you wanted to have yours be two-sided, you’d need to work out how they would look from behind.

Knight: For Sir Knight, I started with his basic shape cut out of gray. I laid his face in place and sewed the helmet and neck pieces over top. I sewed his eyes with French knots and a tiny horizontal stitch going from the center of each knot out to the corner of his eyes. This makes sure the knot doesn’t wiggle loose. His mouth is just back stitch. I sewed down his tunic and the trim next. For his shield, I cut some glitter ribbon into a J for Jax. You could do a cross or another letter or symbol. I sewed the J to the inner shield piece, then sewed that and the outer shield piece down. I cut the sword blade and hilt out of more glitter ribbon and sewed them down, adding the glove over top.

To make his backing, I cut out white felt to the same shape as his body, but added an extra 1/4″ to each side from the bottom down. The knight is fairly skinny, so adding width to the backing gives room for bigger adult finger to play too. The photo to the right shows one side sewn and the other side read to be sewn. Once you’ve sewn the back on (leaving the bottom open for your finger), trim the bottom edge so it is flush with the front.

Princess: The princess was fun for me! I don’t get to do many girlie sewing projects. You can personalize her by changing up her colors.

I started with her shape cut out in pink. I sewed down her belt, arms, hands and puffy sleeves. I sewed on her sash and added some sew-on gems. I laid her face piece in place and sewed her hair down over top. I added some stitches to her face to make her chin, then made a French knot pearl necklace and earrings. I made tiny stitches in the knots as before to secure them. Her eyes are the same as the knight’s, and her nose is a little stitch. Her mouth has two stitches for the lower lip (the bottom stitch a little smaller), then a longer stitch with a little “v” stitched over top to make the bow of her lips. See the drawing to get the idea.

The finishing touch was her crown, made out of glitter ribbon with a sew-on gem.

Wizard: The wizard is pretty simple, but very cute! Start with his shape cut out of indigo felt. Lay his face in place and sew the beard down on top of it. Lay a scrap of ribbon (mine was purple) on his hat, and sew the hat brim in place. Cut a scrap of felt in a mustache shape and sew it down along the top side. His eyes were made the same as the others’ and his mouth is made like the princess’s lower lip (the two dashes.) Sew down his sleeves and hands, then sewn on a star and stitch the wand with back stitch.

For both the princess and the wizard, I cut their finished shape out of white felt and sewed the back on (with the bottom open) to make them into finger puppets.

Stuffed Dragon: The dragon is the hardest part, as I made him into a full stuffed animal. I wanted him to be able to fly in to the castle from any angle.

The dragon has two sides that are the same, but mirrored, so do everything twice for him. I started with the wings. I stitched two curved back stitch lines to show the veins/folds int he yellow part. Then I sewed each wing together with the yellow layered between the green backing and the green outer edge. Remember you need a wing for each side, so they have to point opposite directions. Sew the green body pieces to the yellow body pieces and then sew a wing onto each (picture 1 below.)

For his face, I stitched on the white eye, then made a French knot with a reinforcing stitch for the iris. I back stitched an outline around it. I satin stitched a sideways tear shape for his nostrils and back stitched an arc over each one. I sewed the two sides of his purple crest together and the two sides of the flames together. I cut out a bunch of back scales (including a few smaller ones for the end of his tail.) Have a loop of ribbon ready for his back. I sewed the two sides of the dragon together from under his chin, around his nose (with the flames in his mouth) over his head (with the crest in place) and then down his back, adding scales and the ribbon loop between his wings (see photo 2 below.) Sew all the way around his tail, but stop when the green ends.

Sew all the legs together, and sew them in place on each side. Add a little stuffing or batting – not too much or he’ll be too fat to store int he page. Take the chest piece and stitch it to the edges on the yellow as shown below. Trim the piece as needed to get it ti fit just right.

Jax didn’t know what a puppet show was until I started sewing this, but he got so excited when he figured it out. His current favorite thing to do is steal the puppets off my hand mid-show. He told me the knight puppet is “Jackson”, the princess is “mama” and the wizard is “dada”. Hah! (No, my husband doesn’t have a long white beard and a wand.)

You don’t have to sew this into a quiet book page. You could add a Velcro closure and felt handles to turn it into a portable puppet theater case!

Enjoy! Stop by the Facebook page to see progress photos from my next two pages. they are fun ones!

At last, I have another quiet book pattern for you! I got a little bit carried away on the details of this one, as I did everything but the veggies while on vacation at the beach. Feel free to simplify things wherever you need to.

Someone on the Facebook page suggested I do a farmer’s market page, and I loved the idea! I thought it was a great way to feature vegetables. Jax recently fell in love with this classic Sesame Street song from a sing-along DVD we got at the thrift store, so was is perfect timing.

This page features sorting and matching. I also added some seed packet buttons I found at the thrift store. (I’d originally planned to make potatoes, but when I realized all but one of my veggies matched the buttons, I switched to a super cute turnip!) They have the veggie names so Jax can read them when he gets older. Right now he just tells me the letters he sees. The seed buttons are no longer sold, though I did see some on Etsy.

All of the bins and baskets have green Velcro (the soft loop side) for the green inside part. I used Babyville hook & loop tape I bought at Joann’s fabric store. I didn’t use the hook side. I find that the hook side of Velcro ruins felt when you pull it off. Instead, I used snag-free Velcro on the back of my veggies. While they don’t stick quite as strong to the loop unless you press down, they do zero damage to the page or the other veggies!

What I used: The pattern, background felt in sky blue and olive green, felt (in natural, tan, 2 browns, red, orange, yellow, 4 greens, purple, violet and white), thin green gingham ribbon, tiny olive green ric-rac, varigated green ric-rac, seed packet buttons and wood tags (that I painted to have the matching veggie shown.)

Background, Sign & Large Basket: I pinned olive green down to my sky blue background. Once all the baskets were sewn down, I went back and sewed down the exposed edges of the olive green. For the sign, I sewed down all the yellow letters to the green backing, then outlined them with a back stitch in dark brown. For the large basket, I cut scrap strips of natural felt and wove them together a little larger than the basket shape. I pinned it together and trimmed the woven strips to fit, then sewed it all down to the page. I cut the green Velcro (loop side) into the basket top shape and sewed it down.

Vegetable Bins & Baskets: For the top baskets I cut three shapes for each. One was the base, one was cut into horizontal strips and one cut into vertical strips. I woven and sewed down the baskets the same way I did the large one. When I sewed them to the page, I let them puff up a bit to give a rounded shape. The tops are green loop Velcro.

For the middle bins, I laid down the tan backing piece, then the brown inner shadow piece, then the Velcro top piece and then finally three tan wood slats and pinned everything down. I used 2 French knots at each end of the wood slats, then did a running stitch across the top and bottoms. I did more running stitch around the top of the bin’s backing, then sewed down the Velcro.

For the bottom barrels I sewed down the barrel and the Velcro. I did a back stitch following the curve of the Velcro to make the lip of the barrel. I did a stem stitch to make the barrel’s slats. A back stitch would work well too.

I used plain wooden tags that I painted with craft acrylics as labels, sewing them on with loops of ribbon. If you have printable fabric, you could make tags that way to avoid painting.

Carrots: I decorated both sides with long, horizontal stitches in an orange-brown thread and sewed snag-free Velcro to one side. I sewed the two sides together with bits of tiny ric-rac sticking out of the top. I got my ric-rac at the craft store in the $1 trim bin.

Peapods: I sewed 3 peas down to one of the larger pod pieces and sewed snag-free Velcro to the other. I laid the smaller pod piece on top and sewed all three layers together around the edges. The top piece will become a little pocket.

Tomatoes: I sewed the green bits down to the fronts and snag-free Velcro to the backs before sewed them together.

Eggplants: I sewed snag-free Velcro to the backs of each eggplant, then sewed the purple pieces together. I layered the green tops around them and sewed them together as well.

Turnips: I sewed the violet tops to the white shapes then sewed snag-free to the backs. I sewed the front sand backs together with loops of variegated ric-rac sticking out of the top. That was also from the $1 trim bin.

Corn Cobs: I decorated my corn cobs with yellow seed beads. If your child will be playing with it unsupervised, I’d suggest skipping that step. For the corn silk, I tied a little bunch of cream-colored embroidery floss with a knot at the end. When I sewed the two sides of the corn ears together, I put the knot between them with the tassel stitching out of the top. I made sure to make a few stitches through the knot. I layered the green leaves over the bottoms of the ears and sewed them on. I sewed my snag-free Velcro on last, making sure to only go through the back layer.

For the seed packet buttons, I just sewed them on randomly by the big basket like they were laying out on the farmer’s market table.

I love this page! And I really love that all the little pieces use Velcro but don’t stick to each other or cause pulls in the felt. Jax knew just what to do when he sat down with the page. He knows all the veggies except the turnip. We’re working on that one!