Tag Archives: Patterns

Cover – Valentine Mini Quiet book

Would you like to sew along with me?

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?

The sections will be: the front/back cover, page 1 (flowers) & 2 (chocolates), page 3 (weaving) & 4 (cupcake) and book assembly & giveaway. Yes, I said giveaway! I’ll be sending off my finished book to one lucky reader in time for Valentine’s gift giving.

I am posting the entire pattern now so you know what you’ll need. I cut all my felt and ribbons and sorted my notions for all the pages at once. I’m keeping each page’s goodies in a ziplock bag till I’m ready for them. If you want to take a look at all the layouts, there is a photo on the Facebook page showing everything pinned (and unpinned) in place. Most of my ribbons were from the $1 bin at Joann’s Fabrics. I also got my purse snaps and gems there with a coupon.

The cover uses: 12″ w x 6″ h light pink felt background, felt (in light pink, glitter red, red, hot pink (I had two shades) and purple), ribbon scraps, batting or stuffing and embroidery floss. You can add a paper valentine to the pocket on the back, or make a felt one like I did from my mailbox tutorial.

To make the front cover, pin everything in place on the right half of your background felt. You’ll want to put some batting or stuffing under the big heart to make it puffy. Fold the ribbon behind the hot pink heart before you pin it down. The rest is simple – sew it all down!

The back cover is on the left half of the background felt. It has a pocket to put valentines or a note from you to the book’s recipient. Start by pinning your “xoxo” pattern to the pocket piece. I sewed right through the paper using stem stitch. Once it is all stitched, you can gently rip the paper away.

Lay your pocket and other felt pieces on the page and pin the kiss and little heart to the pocket where they overlap it. Sew them to the pocket. You can leave your thread tails in place (just pull off the needle) so that when you pin it all down to the page, you can re-thread the needle and sew the rest down. Sew the pocket down with ribbon scrap loops on one side. Simple!

I think it looks adorable with a little play letter in the pocket!

Next installment will be the flower page and chocolate page. Those have a lot more little parts, but will be so cute!

Treasure Quiet Book Page

When a treasure chest was requested on the Facebook page, all kinds of ideas started popping into my mind. Maybe I went a bit overboard, but I’m not one to craft something halfway!

This page engages a lot of skills: tying a ribbon (on the map), unlocking a lock (on the chest) and pulling things in/out (the bottle and treasure.)

To make this page I used:
Aqua blue background felt (two 9″ squares), tan felt cut to look like sand, felt (in natural, light brown, brown, dark brown, light blue, burgundy, green, tan, gray, black and white), clear vinyl, gold trim, ribbons, sew-on gems/pearls, a luggage lock and embroidery floss.

     

Background:
Very simple – just cut out some tan felt in gentle slopes to make the sandy ground. Make sure the pages line up, though! I actually just pinned my “Sand” in place at the beginning and sewed the other elements down over top. At the end, I went back and stitched down the “sand” wherever it wasn’t caught under something else. That saved me a lot of time because I was hand-stitching on the couch.

Message in a Bottle:
To make a “message”, cut two skinny rectangles out of white felt. Make sure they are narrower than the neck of your bottle. Write the word you want on one of them (preferably in a pattern pen), then embroider it. I wrote Jax’s name, but you could write “help!” I used stem stitch and dark brown floss. Cut a piece of ribbon about twice the length of your bottle and sew the two cork pieces onto one end (sandwich the ribbon.) Sew the matching circles onto the other end of the ribbon in the same way.

Pin the light blue bottle piece in place, then sew the top and bottom down. Sandwich the ribbon, cork side up, in between that and the clear vinyl bottle piece. Sew the sides and part of the bottom on a machine (it’s tough the hand-sew vinyl) according to the pattern, letting the ribbon go through the top and bottom holes.

With the cork down in place, make note of where you want your message to be. Pull the ribbon up and sandwich the message pieces around the ribbon. Pin and test that the message fits through the bottle neck (trim if needed.) Sew the message pieces in place, making sure to catch the ribbon on both sides so it doesn’t slide.

Map:
Transfer the map path to the top piece of the map, or pin the pattern down and stitch through the paper. (If you do this, as I did, you’ll need to cut away the paper afterwards and pull bits out of the stitching. Annoying, but my stitches came out very even.) Sew down each map element using the photos as a guide. The boat mast is sewn in dark brown stitching. The skull’s eyes/nose are stitched on in black since they were so tiny. I stitched some blue-green waves around the boat and sharks to show water. Once everything is on the map, sew the front to the back.

Roll up the map and figure out where you want it on the page. Take a length of ribbon and lay it under the rolled up map so that it will be centered behind where the map is. Stitch the ribbon to the page with a couple stitches to the center. Unroll the map and lay it so the center of the ribbon is 1″ from the right edge of the map. Sew the map to the page in a straight line 1″ from the edge. You should be able to roll it up from the left afterwards and tie it with the ribbon.

Flag:
Sew one skull & crossbones to each flag piece if you want a two-sided flag. I actually only put it on the front. The eyes on this one are little bits of felt I cut out and stitched down. Sew the two sides together along the top, right and bottom. Pin it on the page and sew down the flag pole over top.

Treasure Chest:
Sew the dark brown inner chest piece down to the page. To make the pocket, embellish the pocket piece with gold trim. I used a 1/4″ ribbon with an 1/8″ trim on either side to make two vertical bands. I sewed a loop of ribbon that the lock will hang on and pinned it hanging down from the center top of the pocket piece. I sewed gold ribbon along the top, holding the loop in place. Sew the pocket piece down to the page along the left, bottom and right.

Embellish the top piece of the chest lid in the same way as the pocket, but have the ribbon along the bottom instead of the top. The lid’s ribbon loop should also hang down. Sew the front and back of the chest lid together then sew it to the page along the top, starting where it starts to curve.

This part is optional/changeable. I used sew-on gems and a few plastic pearls to add some spilled treasure around the chest. If you are concerned about choking hazards, omit them or cut out little felt shapes instead. I triple-stitched mine on and Jax does not play with his quiet book alone.

Treasure:
I didn’t include a pattern for this. If you have some play gold coins and necklaces, you could just put those in. You could also cut out circles of gold felt to make your own coins. I made my treasure all one piece for now. I used gold glitter foam and cut out a rough shape of a pile of gold and a crown. Leaving the sticky back paper on, I stitched some on jewels and bits of Mardi Gras beads I cut up from the dollar store. Then I peeled of the backing (ripping it around my stitching) and stuck it to the back of another piece of glitter foam (with the backing off.) I cut around the second piece of foam to match and was done! The glitter sticks a bit when you pull it out of the chest due to the roughness of the glitter, but it works fine.

The lock I have is not the one I want to use permanently. It’s just one I already had. I’d like to find a gold tone one. Once I have the one I will use for real, I’ll sew a ribbon to the edge of the page and attach the key. Jax is too young for the lock still, anyway.

Hope you enjoy this pattern! You could certainly use bits and pieces of it since there is a lot of elements. If you sew this page, I’d love to see it! Leave a comment here or post a photo on the Facebook page!

Dump Truck Quiet Book Page

This dump truck was designed to go along with the forklift page I created by request. Since I wrote “Up & Down” on the forklift, I wanted to do another set of opposites on the matching page. A dump truck with “In & Out” sounded perfect!

To make this page I used: green background felt, felt (in brown textured, light blue, gray, gold and black), 3 buttons, 1 grommet, 1 snap, ribbons and embroidery floss.

I started by free-hand cutting out the ground. I set the page beside the forklift while I cut so the ground matched up. I sewed it down when it was done. I then pinned down all the truck parts except the dumpster. That way I knew everything was centered correctly on the page before I began to sew.

I sewed the steering wheel down with it layered on top of the light blue window. Then I layered the gold truck cab over top and sewed it down. I never had to sew the light blue at all. Next I sewed the gray truck bed/bumper down.

The wheels on this page don’t turn because I wanted to have that curving part on them (sorry, I don’t know car parts!) I pinned the wheels down then attached then with a button in the center. I then sewed the gold curves down over the top. The bottom of the wheel is loose, but doesn’t turn.

My next step was to cut out two sides of a dirt pile shape. I free-handed it and just made sure it was narrower than the dumpster. With one end of an ~8″ ribbon sticking out of one side, I sewed the halves together. I then sewed the dumpster into a pocket with the other end of the ribbon caught it the upper left corner. I marked on the pattern where I sewed the dumpster with a dashed line.

To attach the dumpster, I added a grommet in the lower left corner, a snap in the upper right (put the other half where it lines up on the page) and sewed a button through the grommet hole. To keep the dumpster from spinning all the way around, I sewed a scrap of ribbon to the back and attached it to the page. You can see it peaking out in the photos.

       

The final step was sewing the lettering. I actually just sewed right through the pattern paper then cut it away. Nice and quick! I used stem stitch.

This page goes with the forklift page I made by special request. Stop by the Facebook page if you’d like to make a suggestion. For more quiet book pages click here.

2011 Quiet Book Pages

Here is a look back at the quiet book pages I completed in 2011. I didn’t start working on them until September, so I’m proud I created 19 pages! A few were created to go together in 2-page spreads. (Number 20 is complete but not posted.)

Click a thumbnail below to visit a post:

    
     
     
     

Sock Matching

Top 5 Most Popular Patterns

  1. Sock Matching – 4 comments – 3002 views
  2. Circus Train – 3 comments – 1842 views
  3. Forest – 4 comments – 1773 views
  4. Starbucks – 0 comments – 1573 views
  5. Rocket Ship – 2 comments – 1428 views

Related Tutorials

Cover Tutorial

What People Are Making

Taking Requests!

This year I’m taking requests! Drop by my Facebook page with your suggestions. Page 19 was my first completed request, and I’ll be posting a page to match it very soon!

Happy New Year!

 

Forklift Quiet Book Page

This quiet book page is a special request. If you have a request, leave comment on my Facebook page and I’ll see what I can do.

     

I knew nothing about forklifts when I started this page, so I had to look at a lot of pictures and figure out how to simplify it down. The basic mechanism on this page is a strip of felt matching the background that a sleeve of clear vinyl slides up and down on. The vinyl gave me a place to sew down the forklift platform and some snaps to attach the pallet and boxes. I added spinning wheels, numbers and the words “Up & Down” to add to the educational elements.

Here is what I used: a 9″ square dark green felt background, felt (in dark green, brown pebble texture, gold, light blue, tan, natural, gray and black, clear vinyl, green ribbon, sew-on snaps, two grommets, two buttons and embroidery thread. I sewed this page by hand, with the exception of sewing it down to the actual page.

I started by pinning everything down to get placement (don’t pin into vinyl – it leaves holes) then sewed down the light blue window the gray steering wheel and the brown ground (cut that out freehand.) Take your strip of felt that matches your background (dark green in my case) and sew the gray bar along the left side. Pin it in place on the page then sew down the gold cab of the forklift. It will overlap the bottom of the gray bar. You can then sew down the bottom of the background strip.

To make the wheels, cut them out just outside of the circle template using pinking shears. Insert a grommet into each wheel and sew a button to the page through the grommet hole. The wheels will be able to spin around but will be held in place by the buttons.

To make the sleeve for the forklift mechanism, start by sewing the gold forklift platform to one piece of clear vinyl. See the pattern and photos for placement. Sew down some snaps for the pallet and boxes to attach to. Sew a loop of ribbon to the top center and another to the bottom center. Place the second piece of vinyl behind the first and sew them together along the sides only. Slide the sleeve onto the background strip then sew down the top of the strip to keep it in place. You should be ale to slide it up and down to look like the forklift is lifting.

For each of the crates, I freehand stitched the numbers to the front and a snap to the back, then sewed the two sides together. For the pallet I sewed a line across the front to add dimension, sewed a snap to the back, then sewed the two sides together. I added more snaps to the ground to give the crates and pallet somewhere to go when they aren’t on the forklift. (I ended up using 1.5 small snap sets per crate and 1.5 medium snaps for the pallet.)

The final embellishment was the words embroidered at the top. To transfer the writing, I pinned my pattern down and basted over each latter with one strand of thread. I left 2″ tails at the end of each letter instead of knotting. I then cut the paper away from each letter and puled off the remaining bits. This left me with a basted pattern to stitch over using stem stitch. When I was done, I pulled out the basting threads, clipping them wherever they were caught in the embroidery.

I am currently working on a dump truck that will be the other side of the two page spread. I think they’ll be really cute together!

Let me know i you use this pattern. I’d love to see your version!

Mailbox & Letters Quiet Book Page

I finally have another quiet book page done! First there was vacation, then working to make up lost hours, Thanksgiving and a bad cold. And there went November!

There’s nothing super original or crazy about this page, but it was one I wanted to include. “Mail” was one of Jax’s first words thanks to the mail song on Blue’s Clues. I have to give a shout out to Handmade By Jill, as her mail page was the first I came across.

     

Here is what I used: a 9″ x 9″ sky blue felt background, felt (in light gray, dark gray, red, brown, white, and assorted colors for the envelopes), ribbons and ric-rac, buttons, 1 grommet, Velcro and thread to match.

To make the page: I stared by sewing the two sides of the red flag together. I installed a grommet at the end – the same kind I use on the finished pages. I then sewed the lettering down onto the side of the mailbox. Placing the flag where I wanted it, I sewed on a button through the grommet hole. This lets the flag move just like on a real mailbox. To make the mailbox door, I sewed the two sides together with a loop of ribbon at the top. You could use elastic as well. I sewed the brown stake to the page, followed by the dark gray mailbox interior (the dashed line on the pattern shows where I sewed a decorative line to add dimension to the inside). I sewed the top, back and bottom of the outside of the mailbox down leaving the front open to put the letters in. To finish the page, I sewed down the bottom of the mailbox door and attached a button above it.

The mail is a blast to make! Get out your ribbon and ric-rac stash and  have some fun! I used my sewing machine for them and had to rush. Please excuse the shoddy stitching in my example – I was actually nursing at the same time!

     

     

To make the envelope: Fold the envelop flap over and stitch beside the fold to set it in place (felt doesn’t fold well on its own.) Sew a piece of Velcro on the inside of the flap and decorate the outside with a scrap of ribbon or felt. Fold the envelope body up to find where the other half of the Velcro should be, the sew it on. Cut a little rectangle of white felt with your pinking shears. Sew it on as the stamp with a scrap of ribbon or felt. I used ribbon and folded under each end. Cut some ribbon or ric-rac and position it where the address would be. Sew it down. Fold the envelope back up and sew around the sides and bottom. All done!

To mail a letter: Sew ribbons or ric-rac down on the bottom half of the white felt rectangle. Fold the whole thing in half and sew along all four sides and trim it to neaten it up. I just did two ribbons on each, but you could go crazy!

  

I hope the pattern is helpful! This page came out very cute thanks to the mail. I had to stop myself after 5 letters because the mailbox was getting too full! If you use this pattern, I’d love to see your end result. I hope you’ll share it with me!

Peace & Love Felt Ornament Patterns

I plan to design and sew a couple felt ornaments every week until Christmas. I’ll be sharing the patterns here for anyone who is interested!

Peace & Love

Here are my first two ornaments: Peace and Love. Some of the photos came out with the colors off, but the photo at the top is accurate.

The supplies you’ll need are:
Felt (in red, sky blue, aqua blue and green), embroidery floss (in red, aqua blue and green), red ribbon or ric-rac, batting/stuffing, needle, scissors, pins, water-soluble marker or thin Sharpie and the pattern print out.

  • Start by cutting out your pattern pieces, pinning them to the felt and cutting all the elements out.
  • Decorate the fronts of each ornament. For the Peace sign, I did the stitch I usually use when sewing a felt applique: short, perpendicular stitches across the edge of the applique all the way around. I did the same for the berries, but sewed the leaves down first. For the leaves, I did a simple back stitch ⅓ of the way up the centers and left the rest loose. On the Love ornament I did the little heart and the holly with the same techniques. To transfer the text, I pinned the pattern behind the felt and held it up to a light. I was then able to trace over the word with a marker. I sewed the word using a chain stitch with 4 strands of floss (I normally use 2 strands for everything else.)
  • Cut two 6″ length of ribbon or ric-rac. Fold them into loops and pin them in place between the two sides of each ornament. Sew halfway around each ornament with a blanket stitch (I used red floss as an accent.) Add batting or stuffing (I used batting and cut them ¼” smaller than the main shape) then continue all the way around to finish them.

Peace & Love Felt Ornaments

Simple and sweet!

If you make your own, I’d love to see them! Send me a photo or link and I can add yours to this post.

Brush Your Teeth Quiet Book Page

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!

Ocean Counting Quiet Book Page

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!

Starbucks Felt Breakfast Quiet Book Page

Edit: Updated photos here.

I wanted a food page in Jax’s quiet book, because he is so into his play kitchen. Since I already did a Starbucks page, I decided to make the food page go along with the same theme.

Nothing too fancy here. Just a lot of food and a plate to play on. You could add silverware too. I didn’t because he would just try to put the food on a felt fork and end up dropping everything on the plane. I made so much food, I had to make two “pastry bags” to hold it!

Here’s what I used: dark green background felt (because I couldn’t find any more of the same brown I’d used on the Starbucks page), felt (in white, yellow, orange-yellow, green, tan, cream, natural, pink and light brown), batting/stuffing, pinking shears and embroidery floss to match.

   

Mini Birthday Cake Donut: Make white French knots as sprinkles on the pink frosting. Sew the frosting to the donut top. Roll a strip of batting into a ring and sew it between the two halves. Banana: Roll a strip of batting into a tube and sew it between the two banana pieces. Using one strand of dark brown thread and a sharp needle, take your peel pieces and run the thread up through the felt as if the felt was made of two layers and you were going between them. Every now and then, come out of the felt and loop back to make a random stitch on the surface, then go back into the felt. Do this to make all the subtle, dotted lines that form on banana peels. Sew the two sides of the peel onto the banana halfway. You could add snaps or Velcro if you wanted the peel to stay closed.

Egg: Sew the yolk down with a bit of batting. Sew the two sides together. Bacon: Cut wavy pink stripes to fit your bacon and sew two on to each side. Sew the two halves of each piece of bacon together. Cheese: I made cheese and an English muffin so you can build a breakfast sandwich. Simply sew the two cheese halves together. English Muffin: Sew the darker circles to the muffin bottoms to make the crust, then sew the two sides together with a thin layer of batting.

Pumpkin Scone: Take a piece of embroidery thread and knot the end. Come up from the back of the icing and lay the thread out in a squiggle as you’d like to have the decorative icing to look. Go back down throughout the felt, being careful not to disturb your squiggle. Make a series of couching stitches all along the squiggle to hold it in place. Sew the icing to the top of the scone, then sew the two halves together with some batting in between.

Pastry Bags: Decide if you need one or two bags. If you make all of the food, you need two! Sew the stars to the green circles to make the logos, then sew them to the center of the bag pieces. You will be making a pleat in the bottom of each side of the bag, like in the photo to the right. Sew the edge of the bag down until you are an inch from the bottom, then sew through the edge and the fold above it. Sew across the bottom, then through the edge and the fold for an in, then up the edge to the top. Leave the top open for a pocket.

   

Plate: Sew the plate down to the background then pin the stitch template to the center. Stitch around the template with gray thread to make the plate edge.

I’ll be sewing this page into the quiet book beside the Starbucks drink page. The logos tie together and you can dunk the donut in the tea or put the strawberries on the plate.

 

If you use this pattern, please add a comment or link to me. I really would love to see your version! Jax loves these pages and had a meltdown after I finished taking pictures and put it away. His favorites are the banana and strawberries (neither of which he likes to eat in real life, silly boy!)

Here is an update on this page.

Hungry yet?

Dinosaur Quiet Book Page

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?

iPhone & Pocket Watch Quiet Book Page

This page is dedicated to the late Steve Jobs, whose innovations shaped my generation. RIP.

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!