A while back I picked up a beat-up fabric book at the thrift store for 75 cents because it had a great 5.5″ circular mirror in it. I knew I wanted to cut that out and add it to Jax’s quiet book. Since he is a huge fan of brushing his teeth (he signs asking to do it, then hums the song I made up for him to brush to) I had to do a sink scene!

The toothpaste and brush are attached by a ribbon inside the cup. The toothpaste tube actually slides on its ribbon and makes a crinkly noise. The toothpaste swirl is at the end of the ribbon so you can put it on the toothbrush. I didn’t want it separate or it would get lost. The water in the sink is a bluish vinyl from my scrap stash layer over aqua felt and the running water is a bunch of blue and white ribbon scraps.

Here’s what I used: checkerboard printed felt background, kid-safe mirror cut from an old book, felt (in pink, aqua, sky blue, lavender, orange, red, blue, gray and white), ribbons and ric-rac, batting/stuffing, a crinkly cereal bar wrapper and embroidery thread to match.

My pattern doesn’t include the counter or sink shapes since everyone’s pages are different sizes. Depending on what size mirror you are able to rind, freehand it to what fits your layout best.

I did all the sewing by hand on this page (sewing machine time is rare in my house!) To start, I sewed down the counter, sink and mirror. I sewed the hot/cold stripes on the faucet knobs and sewed them down (you could make yours circles with buttons and have them turn if you want to get fancy!) I sewed the bottom 3/4 of the faucet on, then folded down the top. I folded a variety of ribbon scraps in half and stitched them into a bunch. I sewed them down under the fold of the faucet then stitched the edge down.

Next was the cup. I sewed down the inner cup piece. I made a smiley face on the tooth and sewed it to the cup front. I sewed the handle pieces together and pinned them in place. I took a long ribbon – long enough for both the toothpaste and toothbrush – and folded it in half. I stitched the mid-point down under where the cup would go. Then I just sewed the cup front on, leaving the top open to make the pocket.

On the toothpaste, I sewed the teeth and stars to the front piece. I cut a piece of crinkly wrapper (mine was a Trader Joe’s cereal bar) to fit in the tube and put it and one of the halves of the ribbon in between the two sides. I sewed along the sides of the tube and along the bottom, but left a gap in the bottom-middle so the ribbon could slide. At the top, I sewed the grey cap pieces to each side of the toothpaste tube, then sewed them into a tube around the ribbon. At the end of the ribbon, I sewed the two halves of the toothpaste. I may add a stripe of glitter paint to the toothpaste if I have a color that works.

For the toothbrush, the toothpaste bristles were sewn together then decorated with long stitches. I layered them between the two handle pieces along with some batting with the ribbon sandwiched at then and sewed it together.

Do you like it? Jax sure does! He keeps looking in the mirror and saying “Baby!”

If you use this pattern, leave me a comment with a link so I can check your version out!

I’ve been so super busy between work and starting Jax’s Halloween costume, plus starting to get ready for our California trip in two weeks. I’ve also sewn a bunch of his quiet book  pages into their final double-sided pages with grommets. So much to do! But today I got another page done at last!

I love the beads-on-a-string style counting pages that are common in quiet books, and when I came across these ocean life beads in the kids’ craft aisle of Joanns, I knew I had my theme.

It’s a pretty simple page in terms of cutting and sewing because the beads are so crazy.

Here’s what I used: aqua felt background, felt (in natural, lime, yellow, hot pink, blue, orange, purple and browns), blue ribbon, ocean beads and embroidery thread to match.

I started by sewing down the sand. My page is 9″ wide. If yours is different, you’ll need to adjust the sand pattern accordingly. You can totally just freehand it!

I sewed down all the numbers then went back with pale blue floss and did a stem stitch border around them to make them pop.

On the coral, I made large French knots randomly all over instead of sewing it down normally. For the plant, I stitch down the center of each leaf. I sewed down the starfish, then cut out some pebble shapes in tan and brown and sewed them on.

For the counting beads, I used 3 lengths of ribbon. I would sew down one end, add the beads and sew down the other end. I also sewed the ribbons into separate sections so they didn’t droop. I then cut out some bubble shapes and sewed them down over all the ribbon stitching.

All done! I think Jax is going to love this page because he gets so excited when he sees these beads.

What do you think? If you use this pattern, leave me a comment with a link so I can check your version out!

Dinosaurs! Roar! Here’s the next page in Jax’s quiet book. His book is seriously going to be 10″ thick… And there are more pages I want to add. I still haven’t decided how I’m going to do the cover/case.

This is a fairly simple page. It has ribbons for texture and a peekaboo flap with a baby dinosaur inside an egg. Here’s what I used: sky blue background felt, olive green ground felt, lots of ribbon scraps, felt (in 3 shades of green, brown, natural (the egg), camel (inside the egg and some spots) and pink (spots on egg)), batting/stuffing, pinking shears and embroidery floss to match.

Start with your sky blue background piece. Cut a piece of felt for the ground. I used olive green and cut a slight hill into the top. Pin the tree trunk in place and sew the ground down. Cut some leafy fern shapes out of green felt with pinking shears. I made 4. Sew them in a fan shape at the top of the tree. I sewed up the middle about 3/4 of the length. Sew the tree trunk down.

Dinosaurs: To make the faces, I made a stitch for an eyelash then a French knot eye. I stitched the smile in stem stitch. Stitch loops of ribbon along the spine – shorter at the tail and neck. Stitch long, thin “spikes” to the end of the tail. I used all kinds of ribbons and rickrack from my stash (many were scrapbooking ribbons) but you could use all one color.

Egg: Start out by sewing the grassy nest down where you want the egg to be. I cut 2 pieces for my egg out of a natural colored felt and one out of a camel color for the inside of the egg. Sew the inner egg to the grass and sew the dinosaur baby onto it. I took scraps of pink and camel to make splotches to sew onto one piece of the egg shell. Be creative and decorate your dinosaur egg however you’d like! Layer a loop of ribbon between the two outer egg pieces as a handle, then sew them together. Sew an inch long section of the outer egg down to make the flap.

To finish up, I sewed the big dinosaur down, then embroidered freehand “Stomp!! Roar…” into the lower left corner. You could do the same, or have a big “D” for dinosaur.

If you use this pattern, please add a comment or link to me. I really would love to see your version! I think I’m in love with the little baby dino.

Do you like the page?

Another page done for the quiet book! Phones and clocks are classic pages that are almost always included, but I just wasn’t feeling the rotary phone and boring clock.

When I started brainstorming how to update them, I knew I wanted to do my white iPhone. Jax has a play phone app and loves to hold it up to his ear and say “Yeah-Oh?” (hello). I wanted to combine the clock with the phone since both deal with numbers and using household gadgets. My first idea was to have a slap bracelet covered in felt with a felt clock face to make a wristwatch, but I thought the scale wouldn’t work. Since phones go in pockets, I settled on a pocket watch and a big jean pocket to put them in!

My materials were: a 9″ blue felt square (you could use denim or even cut up jeans, but both items might not fit in the pocket), felt (in white, red, orange, yellow, green, aqua, blue, white, dark gray and light gray), clear vinyl, batting/stuffing, thin white ribbon, 7/8″ – 1″ wide ribbon 1 inch longer than your page width, a paper fastener and floss/thread to match. Everything was hand-sewn except the vinyl, but you could use the machine for parts.

Sewing the iPhone: I appliqued the symbols to each button and outlined them in white stitching. I hand-stitched the phone numbers to the dark gray screen in stem stitch and the “HELLO!” to the aqua header in running stitch. I sewed the buttons, header and light gray top bar to the screen then sewed that to the phone front. I sewed the home button to the front as well, then did some embroidery and a French knot to make the speaker and front camera. On the sewing machine, I sewed clear vinyl over the phone screen. On the back of the phone, I sewed the camera circle and Apple logo. Layering batting and the end of a white ribbon, I sewed front and back together.

Sewing the pocket watch: I hand-stitched the clock numbers to the face with stem stitch. I made the clock hands by sewing two layers of felt together for each, then pushed a paper fastener through the ends of both. I pushed the fastener through the clock face and bent the backs so that there was plenty of height for the hands to turn around. I sewed the face to the front of the clock. I sewed the end of a white ribbon between the two pieces of clock dial, then layered that and some batting between the two clock sides and sewed them together. I actually added a small rattler to my clock. I got a stained baby toy for 50 cents at the thrift store and cut it open. I don’t need my quiet book to be silent.

I decorated my pocket with two rows of stitching along the top and used my paper pattern to do two rows for the decorative arch. I sewed the other ends of the two ribbons down under where the pocket would go, then sewed three sides down with double rows of stitching. I sewed the three belt loops on and ran a ribbon through it, tacking it down on each side on the back.

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