The Quiet Book

I made Bradley a quiet book! I actually started it when he was first born because I needed a project and I knew I had more time then when he was a newborn, then I would later. However, after making just a few pages I got frustrated because I didn't like how I had decided to do the pages (on muslin...to me it was too flimsy and easily wrinkled), so I stopped. Over the last few months, Bradley has gotten harder to keep quiet and entertained during church, so I decided to finish the quiet book for his birthday (I do well with a deadline).
With some brainstorming help from my mom, I decided to still use a few of the pages I had already made and transfer them (using the permanent iron-on adhesive stuff) to a heavy interfacing material. I then made all the other new pages directly on the interfacing. Then I sewed the pages back-to-back and sewed button holes for the binder rings to go through. I had always liked the idea of being able to take the book apart so I can easily trade out pages or split them up once I have multiple children. I'm happy with how it all turned out.
We had Stake Conference yesterday and Bradley got to play with it for the first time and he really liked it. It kept him entertained longer than anything else has. yay!

The front cover. I used ribbon to make handles.

Inside cover and first page. I put a pocket on the inside cover. I'm thinking I'll put snacks or other fun things in it later. The first page is a color matching page.

The balloons are attached using velcro and you simply match the colors. 

The second page: barn with animal finger puppets; third page: picking apples

apples attached with velcro and fit into the basket

fourth page: mailbox; fifth page: ladybugs

I intend to have this page be used for drawing and coloring and then "mailing" them. I sewed a zipper on top of the grass area making the bottom half of the page a pocket for paper, pencils, and crayons. But since Bradley isn't old enough to do that yet, I just made a felt envelope for him to put in the mailbox. He is at the stage where he likes to put things in and take them out of containers, so that will work for now. 

this shows the bottom pocket

I made this page up in my head. Bradley has a book called "Ten Little Ladybugs" that actually has raised ladybugs in it and he LOVES it. One day at Hobby Lobby I saw these little ladybugs that were discounted and decided to get them and somehow incorporate them into the quiet book. Each of the flowers and part of the grass is a pocket. I attached the ladybugs with ribbon and sewed them inside the pockets. He can put them in the pockets and take them out. The red and green ladybugs in the middle of the page are sewn directly on the page and the leaves cover them (kinda a peek-a-boo thing). I had Bradley in mind when I made this page and he loves it! He held on so tightly to the ladybugs and got mad when I tried to turn the page. Even when he wanted to look at other pages, he wanted to just hold that orange ladybug tightly in his chubby fist.

Sixth page: shapes; seventh page: Under the Sea

This is a very basic shape matching page. I just used fabric markers to make the outlines.

This is another page I just made up. I got a few ideas from some other pages online, but I knew I wanted to do a sea page. The sunk ship lifts up to reveal a shark. The fish can "swim" along the ribbon. 

The scuba diver and shark come off the page (attached with snaps) so they can be played with. I think this will be more fun when Bradley has an imagination, but right now he really enjoys trying to rip the fish off and eat them.

Eighth page: 5 little Indians; back cover with another pocket

Indian finger puppets and a ribbon campfire. 

I loved doing this project! It is FAR from perfect. In fact it's almost embarrassing how many mistakes I made, but I am so proud of it and I feel like it improved my sewing skills SO much! It was a great way to practice fine detail stuff and to get more familiar with my sewing machine.