“It’s a rainy, sunny day. The rainbow‘s here to play!”
Jax loves color and he really loves rainbows! It was inevitable that a rainbow page had to happen. It took a while for me to decide what exactly to do. My first thought was a rainbow stacker that comes out of a cloudy pocket. But, I’d need to make each ring 2 sheets of felt thick for strength… 6 x 2 = Way too thick for a quiet book page!! So I changed plans and made a rainbow puzzle.
The base of the puzzle is a ring. When you store it in the cloud pocket it looks like a rainbow. Along one section is a row of snaps. There are rainbow color puzzle pieces that snap on. Jax is not good with snaps yet, so this is good practice for him. (If you use Velcro, I recommend this snag-free version that won’t catch on your felt!) The puzzle pieces have pipe cleaners in them so they become playthings themselves.
What I used:The pattern, sky blue background felt, felt (in white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple), 6 snaps, several pipe cleaners and thread to match. I also made a little rainbow necklace as a little surprise inside one of the cloud pockets. I used pony beads from the thrift store.
Cloud Pockets: Sew the across the top of the two layers of felt on each cloud. I used sky blue thread. Pin the pockets onto your background felt and sew the sides and bottom down. I used a machine to go through all the layers quickly and neatly.
Puzzle Base: First sew half of a snap to each ring. (To find your snap placement, stack all the rings and mark a dot where you want it.) Pin the orange ring to one of the red rings and sew them together along the outside of the orange. Pin the yellow on top and sew it down the same way. Continue through the all the colors. Pin the red backing on to the back side and sew it together around the outside. Carefully trim the inner circle if needed to even it up. Using purple thread, sew through all the layers around the inner hole.
Puzzle Pieces: For each puzzle piece I prepared a length of pipe cleaner with the ends folded in twice to hide the pointy wire end. (You could also duct tape around the folder end to be extra careful.) I sewed the other half of the snaps to one side of each backing and free-hand stitched the color names to the fronts. Sew the fronts and backs together, inserting the pipe cleaners when they are halfway sewn.
I hope you enjoy this page! Please stop by the Facebook page and share your creation if you make it. You could change it up to be a ROY G BIV rainbow if you prefer.
Jax adores it! And, maybe it will save me from having to draw him eleventy billion rainbows a day… But, probably not!
I’ve wanted to create a robot page ever since I learned what a quiet book is. I’m very glad I waited so long to really think it through, because I learned about e-sewing. E sewing is using special electronic components and conducive thread to create interactive textile projects. In simple terms? Push a button and my robot lights up!!
E-sewing is easy, but you have to make your circuits just right, or it will not work. The LilyPad system I used can be spot washed, which is all I’d recommend for a detailed quiet book. I did read somewhere that the conducive thread will eventually need to be replaced years down the road, so that is something to keep in mind. I sewed my thread to a piece of felt and not the actual page, to make it easier to pull off should I need/want to run new lines in the future. Make sure you cut your knot tails short on the back of your work so they don’t touch anything else. If threads from two different parts of your circuits touch, you will have a short and it won’t work.
This page can certainly be made without the electronic components. It is still fun to mix and match the robot parts! My tutorial assumes you are installing the LEDs.
Start out with your body squares. Lay out the decorations on the front piece and the battery holder, button and 1 LED on the inside piece. Lay all the parts out so the + is on the left and the – is on the right, like the photo below. The button and LED will need to line up with the front. Cut a circle out of the green button piece so the button can stick through. You’ll make a button top later. Cut a tiny rectangle out the the heart for the LED. I stitched around both holes to keep them from stretching. Sew down your front pieces. On the white meter, I stitched green, yellow and red lines, as well as a black arrow. For the gears, I stitched them down with a circle in the center of each. Sew some seed beads down along the gray rectangle. I made 2 stitches through each bead for strength. Confirm the placement of the electronics and baste them down. Baste a scrap of felt to the top as the robot’s neck and sew down some snaps.
For each of the next steps you will need to thread a large-eye needle with a length of conducive thread. I only used about 12″ – 18″ at a time. Tie a knot in the end. Make several stitches in the upper + hole of the battery holder. Use a simple running stitch (looks like a dashed line) from the battery holder + hole to the button’s + hole. Make several passes through the hole and tie off.Start a new thread and make several stitches in the button – hole. Running stitch from there to the LED + hole. Make several stitches in that hole and tie off.Start a new thread and make several passes through the LED – hole. Running stitch from there to the battery holder’s top – hole. Stitch through the hole several times and tie off. Steps 1 – 3 complete a circuit. You can put your battery in and test the LED by pressing the button.
Next we need to create half of a second circuit for the head LEDs. The additional circuit needs to be piggy-backed off the first LED. If the circuit is a diamond shape, the body LED is the bottom point, the neck snaps are the left and right points and a head LEDs will be the top point when snapped on. Start a new conducive thread and make several passes through the LED + hole. Running stitch up to the left snap. Make several stitches through all 4 holes on the snap, and make long stitches between each hole in a diamond shape. Tie it off. The idea is to get a lot of coverage with the thread on the snap. Start a new thread and make several passes through the LED – hole. Running stitch up to the right snap and sew it just like the first snap. Tie off your thread. Having the second circuit incomplete should not affect your body LED’s circuit. It should still light when you push the button.
Layer some light cardboard cut a bit smaller than your body under the inner body piece and stitch it down to the page. Since quiet books are squishy, the cardboard will make it a bit easier to press the button. Next we make a button cover. Cut a circle of cardboard that is slightly larger than the button hole in your front body piece. Cut two felt circles that are large enough to cover the cardboard and sew it in between them. Lay the button cover over the button hole and sew it down with four stitches: top, right, bottom and left. Lay your body front over the inner body and test that the button cover presses the button. The button should be sticking up through the hole, making the cover press it easily.
Sew a strip of felt along the bottom of your front body piece to finish it off. Sew the front body piece down to the page, leaving the bottom and the lower half of the right side unstitched. You need to be able to lift up the front to get to the battery for changes. I added a small snap to the corner.
Sew snaps on (with regular thread) for your arms and legs.
Robot Head 1
Sew down your two snaps to the back side of the back piece of head 1. Make sure you use the opposite snap parts as the ones you sewed to the page! (I used the “male” sides on the body parts and the “female” side on the page.) Flip the back piece over and baste your LED down with the + on the left and the – on the right. Have the LED part line up with the center of the mouth.
Thread your needle with conducive thread and sew through the + hole of the LED several times. Make a stitch or two to connect the thread to the left snap (the one on the left when you are looking at the robot’s face.) Tie it off. Start another conducive thread and sew through the – hole of the LED several times. Make a stitch or two to connect the thread to the right snap. You can now test the head by snapping it to the body and pressing the button. Both the body LED and head LED should light up.
Decorate the front head piece. Cut a small rectangular hole in the front head piece for the LED to stick through. Cut a matching hole in the mouth piece. I made red eye pieces with black felt circles. I stitched little white starburst shapes in the eyes for extra cuteness. I sewed the mouth down and stitched around the hole for strength. For the antennae, I braided some gray ribbon and sewed pink circles of felt to the top. Sew the front and back pieces together with the antennae in place.
Robot Head 2
Sew the snaps and LED onto the back piece of head 2 in the same way as head 1, but position the LED to be the nose. Decorate the front piece. Cut a hole for the nose LED and sew around it for strength. I sewed a zigzag line on the mouth piece in lime green. My eyes are yellow circles on top of black circles, with a black French knot in the center. The ears and hat pieces are folded but not sewn, so they are loops that are open on the sides. Sew the front to the back.
Robot Head 3
This head is a little trickier because it has 2 LEDs. The first LED (I did the one on the left) will be sewn to the two snaps like the previous heads. The second LED will be sewn in a circuit to the first LED. Baste the snaps down to the back of the back head piece. The ears are folded pieces of felt. Pin them in place to figure out where the holes need to be for the LEDs. I cut a scrap piece of felt to lay inside the head and do all the conducive stitching (except the stitches that are on the snaps) so the back of the head doesn’t look too messy.
Baste down the two LEDs with the + sides on the left. Thread your needle with conducive thread and make several stitches in the + hole of the LED on the left. Running stitch down the the snap on the left (when looking at the robot’s face) and stitch on the snap as before. Tie off the thread.Start another thread and make several stitches in the – hole of the same LED. Running stitch over to the right snap and sew on the snap as before. Tie off the thread. If you test the head on the body at this point, the left LED should light up. Start a new conducive thread and make several stitches in the + hole of the same LED you’ve been stitching in. Running stitch over to the + hole of the right LED and make several stitches. Tie it off.Start one more conducive thread and make several stitches in the – hole of the first (left hand) LED. Carefully running stitch over to the – hole of the right LED. You don’t want the running stitches to touch any of the others (the stitches you make in the LED holes are fine touching each other.) Make several stitches in the – hole and tie off. Testing the head now should light up both LEDs.
Decorate the head. Sew around the LED holes for strength. Fold the ear pieces down and sew the sides shut. For my mouth, I made long black stitches for teeth. For his hat, I sewed seed beads along the bottom (leave room to stick the hat in between the head pieces) and the sewed the two sides together. I used light blue for the eye piece and stitched arches for the eyes. Sew the front and back of the head together.
Other Parts
For the first set of arms, long gray pieces are layered between circles for the shoulder and wrist joints. Gray claw shapes are layered in the wrist joint.
The yellow arms have the claw shapes layered into the bottom. I made long stitches to make the arms look like tubes.
For the stretchy legs, I cut folded rectangles an inch or so longer than I wanted them to be. With a piece of elastic inside the folded felt, sew across the top, catching the elastic. Continue sewing down the side (I did all this on the machine). When you get the the bottom, stretch the elastic tight before sewing across, again catching the elastic. When you let go, the leg with scrunch up. Clip off the extra elastic. Sew scraps of gray to hide the elastic at the top. Sew the foot pieces to the bottoms.
For the tank-style tread, cut out the black tread with pinking shears. Add a row of buttons to the gray piece and sew it down. cut two scrap rectangles to sew your snaps to. Sew them together and attach it to the back of the tread so it can hang down below the body.
Spare Part Storage
On the facing page, I stitched the words “ROBOT FACTORY” by pinning the word template down and sewing right through the paper. I then ripped the paper away gently. I sewed strips of black felt down to make “shelves” and added snaps to hold all the pieces. Because you have the “female” halves of the snap on both the body and the storage shelves, you will have some orphaned “male” snap halves.
All done!
I love, love, love how this came out!! Hopefully my tutorial and diagrams make sense. This is definitely the most complicated page I’ve had to explain. It was very worth it. I haven’t let Jax play with it much because it is for our vacation, but he already loves to push the button and choose robot parts.
If you make this page, leave a comment with your link or stop by the Facebook page and post a photo. I’d love to see yours!
Here’s one more vacation/travel themed page! This page was about 3 weeks in the making due to two weeks of me being quite sick. It was all I could do to make it through each day taking care of Jax and doing as much work for my day job as possible. I still came out 12 hours short in work hours, ugh. Not that I’m well, I knocked the rest of the page out and I’m ready to move on!
What I used:the pattern, felt (in light blue, dark gray, white, natural, brick red, aqua, yellow, blue, red, gray and scraps), thin blue ribbon, thin gray or tan ribbon, decorative ribbon, snaps or Velcro and matching thread.
Background: Sew the windows on to the front of the airport. Cut out the door and a small slit for a ribbon to come through on the left side. Thread a length of ribbon through the slit, coming out of the door for the truck. Pin down your ground and airport pieces. You will need to layer a scrap block of felt behind the door of the airport. Sew down the airport building, leaving the door open. Sew the air traffic control window and roof on and add decorative ribbon if you’d like. (You could add photos of loved ones to the tower and windows of the airport and sew clear vinyl over top.) Pin and sew clouds to the sky. I caught one end of my blue “small plane” ribbon under the cloud in the upper right corner and the other end under edge of the ground. Sew down the ground.
Baggage Truck: Pin the truck bed and cab pieces onto the end of the ribbon. Sew the sides and bottom of the bed (making a pocket for luggage) and all the way around the cab. Add the wind shield and wheels. Sew a folded scrap rectangle of felt to the left end of the ribbon to keep it from going through the slit.
Small Airplane: Make 4 French knot windows on the top small plane piece. Sew the wind shield pieces on each side. Sew the two plane pieces together. Decorate the plane’s tail by sewing some decorative ribbon around it. Take a scrap square of white felt and sew the top and bottom of it to the back of the plane with the blue ribbon running through it. Your stitches will make the accent lines across the base of the wings. Your small plane should then “fly” up and down the ribbon.
Large Airplane: (Because the airplane was wider than my 9″ pages, I had the airplane’s tail sticking off the page so it can fold over when the page closes. My instructions assume you do the same.) Pin the base airplane piece down to the page, leaving the tail unpinned. Cut the top airplane piece into 3 segments. Sew stars to the two tail side, then sew the tail together. Add the tail fins. Sew windows and wind shield to the front two airplane segments. Pin down and sew the engines, wing and front airplane segment. Sew the bottom half of the gray cargo hold piece to the page in the middle segment of the airplane. Fold down the rest of the cargo hold piece and sew the middle segment of the top airplane to it to make a flap that lifts to show the baggage. Sew a snap on to hold the flap closed, and add snaps to secure any bags you make.
Helicopter: Sew the two blade pieces together. Fold the “x” in half where indicated on the pattern and make a few stitches int he center to hold it down. Sew thin ribbon down to both sides of the landing gear background pieces as indicated on the pattern. Sew the two sides together. On the front piece of the helicopter, sew down the wind shield, accent piece and inner door piece. Sew down the door along one side so it opens. On the back piece of the helicopter, sew down the wind shield, accent piece and a snap. Sew the front and back together with the blades and landing gear in place. Sew the other half of the snap to the page above the roof.
Luggage: I didn’t use patterns for my luggage because they are so tiny! I did draw up what I made afterwards, so you can use those as a guide if you’d like. They just need to fit in the cargo hold (and truck bed) and have snaps to attach them.
Jax hasn’t really played with this yet because it is for our beach trip, but he loves the little helicopter and the small plane that takes off. I think he’s going to enjoy it!
Our latest quiet book page is another beach themed one for our upcoming vacation. Jax is thrilled with it and couldn’t wait to try it out. It is a very simple page featuring sandcastle parts you can build into any structure you’d like, then store away in the bucket.
Here is what I used for this page:the pattern, natural-colored background felt, felt (in natural, tan, brown, medium green, lime green, white, aqua, pink, hot pink, violet, orange and yellow), a scrap of white tulle, white mini ric-rac and seaside buttons (from the craft store – left over from my iSpy page.)
Bucket: Sew the two layers of your handle together. Lay the bucket pieces onto the background and decide how you’d like it to be. I wanted mine to be buried in the sand at an angle. Pin the bottom layer of the bucket to the page, and sew it down across the top. Cut out a scrap of natural felt to be the sand the bucket is buried in and pin it to the top layer of the bucket. Sew across the top of the sand piece to attach it to the bucket front. Pin the bucket front and handle to the page, layering the right side of the handle under all bucket layers. Sew the left side of the handle to the bucket front layer. Sew through both bucket layers down the sides, then sew around the sand on the bottom, making a large pocket that goes from the top of the bucket to the bottom of the sand.
Ocean: Cut a wavy aqua piece of felt to fit in the upper left corner of the left page. Sew it down. Cut a strip of white tulle and a length of white mini ric-rac long enough to follow the ocean’s edge. Pin it down to the edge, twisting it randomly along the way. Sew small stitches through both the tulle and the ric-rac – just enough to hold it down but not totally smush it. Add shell and starfish buttons if you’d like.
Sandcastle: Cut small brown rectangle to use as windows, and sew them to the fronts of the castle segments. Decorate all the fronts. For the starfish, I sewed it down then added a star burst of straight stitches in the center. For the shell, I stitched a spiral. For the door, I only sewed it down across the bottom, and I added a little crab button underneath. I added some leftover shell buttons to some pieces. Sew all your flags together. Layer them between the roof pieces when you sew the two sides together. Sew all fronts to backs, then you are done!
Jax wouldn’t let me put this page away after I showed it to him. He wanted to keep playing with it, and started making castles for his little wooden farm animals. I’d say this page was a success!
I’ve been quiet here, but busy busy busy! This week has been work, time with Jax and sewing the latest addition to Jax’s vacation quiet book: an ice cream parlor! (If you are a fan of the Facebook page, you can see little sneak previews as I sew up new pages.)
This page is a mostly for-fun one, but does involve some matching (putting the ice cream away) and coordination (stacking the scoops on the cones.) Jax likes to count the scoops as he stacks. Our trips to the beach always involve walking to the ice cream parlor, so I knew I had to make this page! Please note that the pieces on this page are small. Scale them larger for a younger child and always supervise their play!
For this page I used:the pattern, 2 9″ x 12″ sky blue background felt sheets, felt (in purple, orange, lime green, pink, hot pink, gray, white, tan, brown, cream, lime green dots and yellow tie dye), ice cream ribbon, clear vinyl scraps, seed beads, sequins and embroidery floss. I got the patterned felt and spool of ribbon from my local craft store. I chose my felt colors based on the ribbon.
Can’t find ice cream ribbon? I’m giving away my extra here!
Background Elements: Sew down the table, ice cream case and and counter. The case is a simple gray rectangle, and the counter is a strip of pink. Pin your awning scallops under strips of matching felt (mine are purple) and sew a strip of ribbon across.
Bowls & Jars: For the purple ice cream bowl and the toppings tray, sew through both layers of felt along the sides and bottom. Along the top, sew only through the bottom layer, making a pocket. For the sprinkles jar, take a small rectangle of clear vinyl and felt in your background color. Sew up three sides, fill it with seed beads, and sew the top closed. I did this on the sewing machine to insure they couldn’t leak out. Sew the pouch down to the page. Sew a strip of gray felt across the top and a small circle as the jar lid handle. Repeat for the sequin “cherry” jar. You could also use bugle beads to make a jar of “jimmies”, but I didn’t have any in my stash.
Ice Cream Containers: Sew the labels to the bucket shapes so that you have one to match each flavor. I decorated two of mine first: dark brown stitched “fudge” swirls and little felt “chocolate chips”. Sew the buckets to the ice cream case along three sides, leaving the tops open. I staggered mine a bit to give them a little more room.
Ice Cream Scoops: Decorate both sides of the scoop if needed (I did the fudge swirls and chocolate chips mentioned above) then sew the two sides together. I decided not to use Velcro, snaps or magnets, but you could. I find that Velcro snags the background felt and wears the quiet book out faster. I wanted my ice cream page to be about free-play, so Jax can decide where they go.
Ice Cream Cones: I’d originally planned to have the cones be loose pieces, but the ice cream wasn’t staying on. I changed my plans and sewed three of them down to the table. This made it easier because I didn’t have to embroider both sides of each cone! I used 4 strands of tan embroidery floss and stitched a curving line to show where the inside of the cone was. Then I made long stitches in one direction down the length of the cone. Switching to perpendicular stitches, I wove the thread over and under to make a basket weave effect.
Toppings: I used the syrup pattern only as a guide for the basic shape and size, but cut the drips out different for each topping. Cut two sides for each one. I made three, but could have gone on forever! For my hot fudge sauce, I cut out two of the whipped cream pieces and decorated them with seed bead sprinkles. I sewed the two sides of the fudge together, then sandwiched that between the two whipped cream pieces, sewing them together as well. For the berry topping, I stitched the syrup together in hot pink. I free-hand cut out two oval shapes for the strawberry and one spiky green piece for the leaves. I pinned the strawberry around the top of the syrup with the green bit sticking out of the top and sewed it together. The caramel syrup with a cherry was done the same way, minus the green. I then sewed a sequin on to each side of the cherry to make it match the cherries in the jar.
I didn’t have to tell Jax what this page was (“Ice creams!”) despite him never having had an ice cream cone (we get bowls of frozen yogurt usually.) I did show him how to stack them on the cones and put them in the bowl and buckets and he took it from there. This is a fun page for both of us!
I’d love to see this made in different colors than we chose. Please share a photo if you decide to make this page! Stay tuned for a post with a chance to win lengths of my extra ice cream ribbon!
The Itsy Bitsy Spider Climbed up the water spout. Down came the rain And washed the spider out! Out came the sun And dried up all the rain. So, the Itsy Bitsy Spider climbed up the spout again!
An animated gif would gave been too big for this page, so you’ll have to suffer through my singing! It was a bit tricky holding the camera in my right hand and opening the flaps/moving the spider with my left hand, but I managed!
This page was a request on the Facebook page (come join in the fun!), and one I though about a lot before creating. While it would have been more accurate to have the spider crawl up inside the spout, it would have obscured the view of him and made it hard to show the rain “washing him out”.
I decided what was important to me was being able to show the various stage of the rhyme, showing the weather (and the before/after that happens when the weather changes) and letting Jax control the spider.
For this page I used: The pattern, background felt in a 9″ x 9″ sky blue square, green felt cut into fringe for grass, felt (in dark red, red, orange, yellow, yellow-orange, gold, green, sky blue, aqua, black and cream), light blue ric rac, tiny white ric rac (I didn’t have black), thin blue ribbon, thin gray ribbon, green looped ribbon, a button, sequins and embroidery floss.
To start, I pinned down the side of the house and the grass, then pinned and sewed the gutter on top of it. I pinned a piece of green ribbon in place for the flower stem then sewed the grass in place with 4 stitches at the bottom of each stem.
Sew the face onto the sun circle. I did a dashed line of stitches for a smile, three little stitches close together for a nose and sequin cheeks. For the eyes: I made a stitch, but before puling it tight, I made a tiny stitch across the center of it that held it in an arch shape. Pin the sun to the page on top of the rays and sew it down. I left the rays loose.
To decorate the “rainy” stage of the water spout, I sewed down some ric rac and felt raindrops. This goes on the water spout sewn to the page. To make the flap that covers it, sew the second (partial) water spout onto one of the house flap pieces, then sew them together, Sew it down to the page along the left side.
Next I made the rain scene. I sewed faces on the rain clouds the same as for the sun, but with French knots holding the sequins on. I sewed raindrops back-to-back onto the ends of ribbon scraps to make the rain. Pinning the clouds and rain to one side of the sky flap, I sewed everything down. Make sure the rain is not so long that it sticks out when the flap is folded down (the rain clouds will be upside-down when it is closed.)
I sewed two identical ladybugs. They have dashed smiles, French knot cheeks and eyes and black French knots holding the wings on the body. Lay everything for the ladybug rain scene out and sew it down: a dashed line down the middle of the leaf, a few stitches for each petal, a bunch of French knots at the flower’s center, a scrap of ribbon for the umbrella stem and stitches around the top and on the spines of the umbrella (leave the bottom open and stretch the felt a bit for a curved look). I added a button at the top of the umbrella – just because buttons are cute!
Figure out where on the page your sky flap needs to be so it covers the sun completely, then sew down a bit of the flower stem ribbon onto the other piece of the sky flap so that it lines up with the one on the page. Sew the flower and leaf the same as before. I place my ladybug in a slightly different spot, just because.
Sew the two sides of the sky flap together (the rainy side upside-down) and sew it to the page along the top.
For the spider I sewed eyes and a mouth on the front piece then layered ric rac and the end of a ribbon between the two sides of the spider’s body. I cut 4 pieces of ric rac and had them cross in the middle so they stuck out both sides. Sew around the spider’s body.
When sewing your page down to the backing, make sure to catch the other end of the spider’s “web” ribbon at the top so he is attached to the page. Stop and start at all the flap folds so you don’t accidentally sew the flaps closed. I used some cute paisley patterned felt as the back side of my page.
Jax can’t sing Itsy Bitsy Spider just yet (he does a great Twinkle Twinkle!) but he is starting to sing along to some of the words now that we have this page to play with. He especially loves the umbrella, which he calls a “boo-ya”!
I will be making a number of beach and summer themed quiet book pages between now and May when we take a road trip to the beach. My next page will be Isty Bitsy Spider, but I’m trying to decide what to do after that: ice cream parlor or bonfire and s’mores. What do you think?
This is a two page spread that features both matching and my spin on the classic purse quiet book page. I wanted to make one, but I also wanted to make it gender neutral. When you open the bag, you’ll find sunglasses, an iPhone and a little snack of watermelon (Jax’s favorite!). The bag also holds all the flip flops from the matching page.
I had leftover flip flop buttons from the ocean i-spy page, so I decided to use them as the inspiration for the matching game. The flip flops are magnetic so they can stick easily to the footprints in the sand. If you don’t have the buttons, or wanted to do something different, you could make the footprints colored, or outline them with a color. You could even make two of each shoe and have them waiting in the sand for the other half of their pairs. I got my buttons from A.C Moore. They were $1.99 in the store.
So for this page, I used:The pattern, natural felt for the background (I used 9″ x 12″, but you could use two 9″ x 9″ squares and mount them on white felt), felt (in pink multi-dot, hot pink, red, orange, yellow, light green, green, aqua, purple, light gray, dark gray, white and tan – lots of scraps!), stiff glitter felt in lime green, tinted vinyl (mine was blue, from my scrap stash), clear vinyl, batting or stuffing, flip flop buttons and ribbons.
Sand Footprints: Sew the footprints down to the page with a magnet under each one. Sew around the magnet to hold it in place. Sew each button beside a footprint.
Flip Flops: I included all the pattern pieces I used to make flip flops that match the buttons. Decorate the top of your flip flop first. Sew a vertical line of stitches to attach center of the strap. Sew a magnet to the inside of the sole of the shoe, using a scrap of felt to hold it in place. Sew the top and bottom together around the edges, catching both sides of the straps in your stitches.
Beach Bag: Sew Velcro or snaps to the top of the bag lining pieces, making sure they line up. Pin a length of ribbon of strip of felt like a handle between the outer piece of the bag and one of the lining pieces. Sew across the top. Pin the other bag lining piece to the page and sew across the top. Pin the handle side of the bag on top of the side on the page and sew around the sides and bottom.
Glasses: Very simple! Layer your tinted vinyl between the two front frame pieces and sew them together. Sew each pair of frame arms together, them sew them to the front at the temples.
Watermelon: Sew the seeds to each red piece, then pin the red to the green. Sew a length of white ribbon over the edge of the red where it meets the green to make the rind (you could also cut some white felt and layer it between the red and green). Sew the front and back together, adding batting or stuffing if you want some dimension.
I’ll be doing a lot of beach and vacation themed pages over the next two months leading up to our trip to the Outer Banks. There will be other pages as well, including an Itsy Bitsy Spider page coming up soon. Here is the first beachy page I’ve completed – an ocean-themed iSpy page!
This page is made to look like you are inside a ship looking out into the ocean. I didn’t want to get too fussy with the details, since the point it to hunt for the iSpy goodies. I couldn’t resist doing at least *something* to make it special, so I added faux wood grain. This page was done entirely on a sewing machine. It’s Saturday, so I was about to get two hours away from Jax to whip this page out.
For this page I used: the circle template, full sheets of felt in brown, light blue and yellow (the back of my completed page – yours could be different), gold felt for the window, orange scrap felt for the back of my photo key, clear vinyl, a scrap of ribbon, a 4″x6″ print of my iSpy trinkets, light blue pony beads and iSpy trinkets.
First thing you need to do is gather all the trinkets that are going into your iSpy game. I used ocean and beach themed buttons. Lay them all out on a sheet of white paper and take a picture. Print it out on photo paper or cardstock to use in your photo key.
I started the sewing by making the faux wood grain on the brown felt with tan thread. I made wavy lines, occasionally leaving an oval-shaped spot to add a “knot”. I didn’t bother to sew the wood grain behind where the window would be, since that would be cut away. I decided to do the whole page in brown instead of my usual 9″x9″ square sewn down to a white page. I aligned my page to be to the left hand page in my book as I plan to do a coordinating page for the right.
Lay your vinyl and window ring onto the page and pin it in place. Only pin vinyl where you know it won’t be seen – pin holes don’t go away! Sew around the outer edge of the gold ring. Flip the page over and carefully cut away the brown felt inside the circle so you can see through the window. Sew the inner edge of the window down. I went around twice.
Place your light blue felt behind the page and pin it on three sides. Leave the side that will be in the fold of your quiet book open. Sew around the three sides with a zigzag stitch. Pour your beads and trinkets into the page and pin the fouth side closed. Set the page aside to make your photo key.
Take your photo print out and layer it between clear vinyl and a scrap of felt Insert a scrap of ribbon so you can attach it to the page. I folded my ribbon because it was only printing on one side. Sew all the way around with a straight stitch, trim it and round the corners and go around again with a zigzag stitch.
To close the page, pin the ribbon of your tag into the open seam then sew it shut with a zigzag stitch. Finish the page by sewing a piece of felt to the back and sew your grommet channels. I haven’t added my grommets yet. I tend to do a bunch of pages at once because I’m not a big fan of doing grommets!
I think it came out really cute! Now I need to think of a coordinating page for the right hand side…
I’m so happy to be back to sewing after my little break! And I think this page came out adorable…
Jax loves pretend play cooking and playing with his kitchen, so it made sense to do a breakfast page after someone asked for a frying pan on the Facebook page. (Sorry it took so long!)
This pattern uses some duplicate items from the Starbucks Breakfast page. The patterns are included here, but please see that post for instructions on the banana, egg and bacon.
For this page, I used: background felt in red and red polka dot, felt (in pink, red, burgundy, orange, yellow, cream, white, tan, brown, gray, dark gray, black and glitter black), clear vinyl, batting/stuffing, 1 grommet/eyelet, 5 snaps and a button.
To create the stove page, I started with a 9″ x 9″ red felt square. I covered a little less than the bottom half with a tan felt to make the counter. Because I wanted a way to store the food without using lots of Velcro that damages the felt, I sewed a clear vinyl pocket over the counter.
To make the knob, I sewed the two halves together, then installed a large eyelet in the center. I put it in place on the page and sewed a button to the page through the eyelet. This lets the knob spin around. I placed pins at all the points I wanted to add stitching, and I used them to keep my lettering straight. I free form stitched it all, but you could write it out first with a pattern pen. I did: LOW | | MED | | HIGH OFF.
The burner was simple – it just took a lot of stitching! The red spiral gets sewn to the black glitter circle (you could use plain black). Then the black circle gets sewn to the dark gray circle. The whole thing gets sewn down to the page.
To make the frying pan, I first stitched the inner circle from the pattern onto the top piece using the sewing machine (to save time.) I then layered some batting between the two sides and sewed them together around the outside. I’d considered adding a light cardboard or plastic canvas layer for stability, but I decided I wanted it to squish into my huge quiet book and not be bulky. When it was all sewn together, I sewed a second circle just inside the first to make the pan dip in a bit at the center.
To make the table page, I started with a 9″ x 9″ square of polka dot felt. I sewed the plate down using my sewing machine (I used off-white for my plate and cup) then sewed a second circle inside the first.
To make the napkin, I used a square of yellow felt. Use whatever you have on hand that coordinates! I went with yellow thanks to a Facebook suggestion. I folded the square then hand stitched a running stitch just beside the fold to keep it folded. The fork, knife and spoon are all made by sewing the two sides together. The fork also has three rows of stitching to make the tines.
The cup was made by sewing the orange juice down to the top of the back of the cup, just below the top so you see a little lip. You could make your orange juice go the full length of the cup (or even come out!). I hadn’t originally intended to leave the cup open like a pocket, but that is what I did. I sewed the front to the back around the lower three sides, catching the handle in the stitching.
The napkin, fork, knife, spoon and cup all have snaps sewn to them and the table to hold them in place.
The pancakes are made by simply sewing the two sides together. I made two. For the syrup, I sewed butter squares to the top pieces and then sewed the tops to the bottoms. For instructions for sewing the banana, bacon and eggs, see the Starbucks Breakfast page.
What do you think? Jax loves this page! He hasn’t figured out how to turn the knob yet, but he likes stacking everything onto the frying pan then putting it all away in the counter pocket. He calls the juice “tea” – maybe I should have made it brown! He sees mama drinking tea a lot.
If you sew this page, feel free to share your photos here or on the Facebook page!
I created a pattern for a sweet and simple mini (6″ square) quiet book to share with you all. Do you have a little one you’d like to give a Valentine to?
Book Assembly: Fold your three double pages in half – the cover should have the designs on the outside of the folds, the other two pages should have the designs on the inside of the folds. Pin your pages together as shown. They will form a little book.
Make three passed on your sewing machine (you can also hand-sew!) – one for each double-sided page. You will be sewing three sides on each page: top, outer edge and bottom. Everything but the spine. Start at the spine at the top of the book, go down the outer edge, and across the bottom back to the spine. Repeat for all three pages. Trim up your felt edges as needed and you’re done!
If you make one of these little Valentine books, stop by the Facebook page and share some photos!
Don’t sew or don’t have time? You could win my sample book shown above!
Just leave a comment here on this blog post. I will be including one felt envelope and letter made from my mail pattern. This book is for children aged 3 and up do to small parts. We don’t want any little ones eating felt chocolates! I recommend adult supervision at all time with any younger child.
Your entry must include: a valid email address (so I can reach the winner) and who would be the recipient of the book if you won. Please use the blog’s comment form, not the Facebook form.
The nitty gritty: I have two hairy dogs, a golden and a chow, so if dog allergies are an issue, please be aware! I’ll take a lint roller to it, but they are shedding like whoa right now! And, you need to have a shipping address I can send the book to, obviously! Comments are held for approval for all first-time commenters, due to spam, but I’ll try to approve them as quickly as possible.
The contest is open to entries until around noon Eastern time on Thursday, January 19th. I will announce the winner that afternoon. I will send it off to the winner the next day if they reply promptly with their address.
I created a pattern for a sweet and simple mini (6″ square) quiet book to share with you all. I will be posting instructions in sections as I complete my sewing. Do you have a little one you’d like to give a Valentine to?
Yes, I said giveaway! I’ll be sending off my finished book to one lucky reader in time for Valentine’s gift giving.
These pages use: 12″ w x 6″ h hot pink felt background, a hot pink square slightly smaller than the 6″ page, felt (in light pink, red, lavender, white, brown, and wine), purple ribbon, a ribbon scrap, sew-on gems, sew-on snaps and embroidery floss.
Weaving Heart: This is a very simple page to make! Lay the two halves of the heart on the page in a heart shape as shown. I made the pattern so there is about a 1/4″ extra at the ends of the strips. This leaves some wiggle room for weaving. Weave the two halves together before you pin them so you know you have it just right. Snip the slits between the strips a bit longer if needed. Once they are pinned down, sew the top of each one down in a half circle, leaving the strips loose.
Cupcake: This page features a tasty cupcake you can decorate! I made mine chocolate with a raspberry center (“ras-ras” according to Jax) and you can decorate it with pink frosting, a cupcake paper, whipped cream and a cherry! You could definitely make multiple options from the same pattern in different colors. I designed the page to be a pocket to hold the parts.
First you need to cut a square of felt to be your pocket. Pin and sew down your cupcake and heart filling to the pocket piece.
To make the cupcake paper, first cut the top of your felt pieces with pinking shears to make a zigzag. Sew some ribbon strips to the front piece to look like the pleated paper. Sew half of a snap to the top of the back piece and sew the halves together. Lay the cupcake paper on the pocket to see where the other half of the snap should be placed, then sew it down.
For the frosting, you’ll need to first embellish the front piece. I chose to make stitched sprinkles in two colors and added 3 sew-on gems. Sew half of a snap to the top of the back piece then pin the two halves together. You can add a loop of ribbon like I did to be a little candle. Sew the two sides together and add the other half of the snap to the pocket as you did before.
The whipped topping is sewn together with the snap sewn on the back. I then wrapped the two sides of the cherry around the whipped cream and sewed it in place. Sew the other half of the snap to the pocket.
I sewed my pocket to the page with the sewing machine as I was planning to sew the book together right then anyway. You could hand-sew it if you prefer.
I love the cupcake! I might have to reuse that pattern to make a full cupcake page. Jax is into anything food or baking related, so I know he’d like it.
Our next post will be on sewing it together and our big giveaway of my sample book!
I created a pattern for a sweet and simple mini (6″ square) quiet book to share with you all. I will be posting instructions in sections as I complete my sewing. Do you have a little one you’d like to give a Valentine to?
Yes, I said giveaway! I’ll be sending off my finished book to one lucky reader in time for Valentine’s gift giving.
These pages use: 12″ w x 6″ h lavender felt background, felt (in light pink, red, hot pink, brown, a lilac floral and purple), green ribbon, ribbon scraps, sew-on gems, sew-on snaps, 2 hot pink & 2 light pink magnetic purse snaps (found at Joann’s in the purse-making aisle) and embroidery floss. You could use buttons or snaps on the flowers instead. I really loved the cute colored purse snaps and wanted to try them out. I used regular snaps on the chocolates. I find that Velcro snags the felt so I’ve been avoiding it lately.
Because of the smaller parts (flowers and chocolates) I’d recommend this book for the three and up crowd unless supervised closely. No eating felt chocolates, kids!
Flowers: Embellish the front pieces of the 4 removable flowers (skip this or just use felt to decorate if you are sewing buttonholes later.) Attach one half of a magnetic snap to each flower back. I put the thinner side on my flowers and the thicker side on the page. I pressed each flower against the prongs on the snap half to make marks where I needed to make holes. I made two tiny snips where the marks were then pushed the snap prongs through and slide on the washer. Using the flat, closed metal blade of my scissors, I folded the prongs in to hold the snap in place. (Skip all that if you are doing buttons!) Sew the two sides of each flower together. (Here is where you would add buttonholes if that was your choice.)
Flower Page: Start by laying out your ribbon stems in the arrangement you like. Make sure you lay out the flowers and vase as well to make sure everything fits. Trim the ribbons as needed to fit the page and sew them down. Sew down the vase. (Really its the paper that bouquets come wrapped in but I have no idea what that’s called!) I added a ribbon scrap before I attached mine to add a little detail. Sew the small flower to the center stem. I used a scrap of a floral patterned felt sheet because I liked the shade of lilac. You could use any color you like. Attach the other half of your magnetic snaps (or your buttons) over top of the ends of the ribbon stems.
Chocolates: Embellish the front pieces of your chocolates. For the rectangle, I used a scrap of brown ribbon with hearts. On my square and heart, I used sew-on gems. I stitched a stem stitch spiral on the circle, and I did French knot and straight stitch sprinkles on the triangle. Sew one half of a snap to the back piece of each chocolate. Sew all the halves together.
Chocolates Page: Start by pinning your chocolates patterns down on the box heart how you’d like them to be arranged. There’s no right or wrong! Then stitch around the paper to make shape outlines. I used a darker red floss, but you could make it more obvious and use light pink or a dark brown. Sew the other half of each snap down in the center of each shape. Pin the heart down to the page and add a bit of ribbon along the lower left side as shown. I didn’t worry about trimming the ends of my ribbon when I pinned it. I sewed the ribbon along the side that is against the box, making sure to catch the box’s felt in each stitch. Then I took my scissor and snipped the ribbon ends off into angles that matched the box’s. Sew down the other side of the ribbon and all the way around the box.
Note: Turns out the ribbon I bought for this page was sticky-back scrapbook ribbon. Oops! It was a little slower to sew through, but worked great when I was laying it out on the page. I didn’t have to pin it and it stayed in the curve I placed it in. Martha Stewart makes some cute Valentines ribbons.
What do you think of these pages?
Almost done the mini book! Next installment will be the weaving heart page and cupcake page. Stay tuned, and stop by the Facebook page for sneak peeks.
Puzzle Pieces: For each puzzle piece I prepared a length of pipe cleaner with the ends folded in twice to hide the pointy wire end. (You could also duct tape around the folder end to be extra careful.) I sewed the other half of the snaps to one side of each backing and free-hand stitched the color names to the fronts. Sew the fronts and backs together, inserting the pipe cleaners when they are halfway sewn.
I created a pattern for a sweet and simple mini (6″ square) quiet book to share with you all. I will be posting instructions in sections as I complete my sewing. Do you have a little one you’d like to give a Valentine to?
, sew-on snaps and embroidery floss.
I created a pattern for a sweet and simple mini (6″ square) quiet book to share with you all. I will be posting instructions in sections as I complete my sewing. Do you have a little one you’d like to give a Valentine to?
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