Levi's Quiet Book
I've been wanting to make a quiet book for a while for my grandson. I'd look at blogs, Pinterest, Etsy, etc... and then finally got up the courage to tackle the project. I went to Hobby Lobby and gathered a bunch of felt, rather willy nilly, without any prior thought to what I wanted to do.
So, my first suggestion is to plan out your pages. Each piece of felt is a page. You can either use one
piece of felt or splice the felt to make pages with grass and sky, etc.
I got one large piece of felt for the cover, which is a little longer than two pages wide and a little bit bigger all the way around to cover the pages. I used those connecting clips you can buy at any Office Depot. I put the holes at the same place the average notebook paper page would be, so that if I ever wanted to put the pages into a regular notebook, I could.
The letters, numbers and balls that I used were already put cut and had were already sticky (just pull off the paper to stick). On the pages where I used them to pick up and place again, I glued hot glue on the backs and let it dry. Dried hot glue sticks very well to itself, but releases well, too, so it's great to use.
Before I start, here are my main suggestions:
1. Plan your pages so that you know exactly what colors of felt you want to buy.
2. Don't use velcro. Instead, use hot glue on the surfaces you want to stick and replace. Just let the hot glue dry completely and then it will stick pretty well to another dry hot glue surface.
3. Don't spend a lot of time sewing. This is going to be played with by a little one who doesn't care that it was sewn together or hot glued.
I love this page. The Shoe Tie page. I hot glued everything on the page, hot glued each turn of the shoe string and then tied the rest of the string. My little grandson isn't quite ready to learn how to tie his shoe strings, but one day he'll be ready.
Feed the Alligator! I found a 5-inch long, big teethed zipper. I would have preferred a white zipper, but, alas, I couldn't find one, so black it was. I figured alligators don't go to the dentist all that often, so black teeth are probably okay. I made fun little fishies to feed to the gator and squiggled hot glue on the top of the page to save the fishies.
Gone Fishin'! I put the blue felt long ways and cut a fishing hole in it, then gathered it up and glued it to the main page. I put magnets on the little fishies' mouths and a larger, more powerful magnet onto the fishing pole. I found the fishing pole in the miniature section of Hobby Lobby where the doll houses are. I applied some velcro on the top of the page to store the fishing pole.
Dress yourself up! On one page you have the little boy, and on the facing page you have different outfits you can put on him. You can have a stormy day, complete with rain cloud, raindrops and umbrella, or a sunny day with a kite. And, of course, balls.
What is a quiet book without an alphabet? I was lucky enough to find pre-cut letters. They had paper on the back so that you could stick them permanently anywhere you wanted them. Since I wanted my grandson to be able to pull them off and replace them in their spots, I outlined the letters and squiggled hot glue on the back on the papered letters and some on the page. After the hot glue dries, it sticks to itself pretty well and releases well, too.
Numbers and counting! On the counting page, I used pieces of shoe strings that I singed with a flame so that they wouldn't ravel. I put the beads on and then sewed each end really well so that they won't come undone and the beads won't present a choking hazard.
Five little monkeys jumping on the bed! My grandson loves this nursery rhyme. The page I found that someone else had done was so beautiful! Each monkey was individually sewn and embroidered. I hot glued mine. It is, after all, for a two-year-old. I don't think he'll mind much. The yellow comforter on the bed is only hot glued on the sides and bottom, so that you can tuck the monkeys into their bed after a long, hard day of jumping up and down... and going to the doctor!
Shapes and colors. This is one of two pages that I individually sewed the shapes. Really not worth the time and trouble. Plus, I used velcro to connect them and while they stick very well, they don't release well, so I'm not sure this page will last long.
Snowman! The snowman has a little basket with a different hat and matching mittens to change. Not much to do with this page, but who doesn't love snowmen?
A pix of the clips used to connect the pages and cover. My suggestion is to mark where you need each hole, button hole it with your machine, and then hot glues the pages together. I hot glued the pages together first and the dry hot glue gunked up my sewing machine needle.
I'm really hoping my grandson enjoys his quiet book. He might not be so quiet with it, but that's okay , too. <SMILE>
