Starbucks Quiet Book Page

What’s a quiet book? It’s a (generally handmade) fabric book full of learning activities. It’s meant to be played with in situations that require children to be still and quiet, like plane rides, church, waiting rooms, etc… They take a lot of time, love and effort to make, but the end result is a cherished family heirloom!

Page 5 in Jax’s quiet book is in honor of our love for Starbucks. Being a work-from-home mom, I only talk to my coworkers by phone and IM. If I have no errands to run, I can go days without seeing an adult besides my husband. So our local Starbucks became a place to take a break and interact with others. It became a beloved routine for baby and I, and he loves all of his “girlfriend” baristas and sharing (or not sharing!) pumpkin bread with me.

   

This page has features the numbers 1 – 3, as Jax has started counting along with me. Three is his favorite number to say. It also practices manual dexterity. For number 1, you can pull the one tea bag out of the cup and unsnap it from the page. For number 2, you can lift the cup sleeve to find the two coffee beans. For number 3, you can pull down the whipped cream to find 3 strawberries and pull them off the velcro.

My materials were: a brown felt square background, felt (white, green, pink, light brown, brown, cream and red), matching embroidery floss (plus mustard yellow for strawberry seeds), white machine thread, clear vinyl, white double ruffle ribbon, green satin ribbon, batting, a snap and red velcro.

To make the strawberries, I stitched tiny yellow seeds on each piece. I took 4″ of green ribbon and folded it into 4 loops. I made a stitch at the bottom then fanned it out. That got layered with batting into the two sides of each strawberry (one side with velcro) that I stitched together with a blanket stitch.

I stitched the stars on to the green circles, then stitched circle 1 on to the first cup, circle two onto a sleeve piece and circle three onto the pink frapaccino piece. To finish cup 1, I stitched the lid on then machine-sewed three sides down onto the background, leaving the top open to make a pocket. For cup 2, I blanket stitched the two sides of the sleeve together with a little loop of green ribbon to help Jax spot the flap. I stitched the two coffee beans down onto the cup. I machine-sewed the lid on then the cup down onto the background and the top of the sleeve flap in place. For cup 3, I machine sewed the pink cup and clear vinyl down onto the background. I folded the double ruffle ribbon lengthwise as I hand stitched it in swirls to one of the whipped cream felt pieces. When that was done, I stitched the backing on and added a ribbon loop straw. I sewed the bottom of the whipped cream on to the cup with the machine.

 

The tea bag was hand-stitched with a slightly smaller piece of batting and a piece of white satin cord layered in. On the other end of the cord I sewed the two halves of the tag, one side with a snap. The other part of the snap went on the page above the first cup. I finished up by putting red velcro down under the whipped cream to hold the strawberries. I’ll be adding some brown string to the strawberries so they don’t get lost on the plane.

I’m pretty much in love with this page, and Jax is too. He adores the tiny strawberries and wants to clutch them in his little hands. he lifts the flaps and says “boo!” I think he’ll enjoy playing with it when the book it all sewn together.

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!

9 thoughts on “Starbucks Quiet Book Page

  1. Stephanie

    Hi! I don’t even know how I found your blog, to be honest, but I’m absolutely loving your quiet book pages. I don’t have kids of my own right now, but once I do, I can’t wait to make these for them =) Wonderful work!

    Reply
  2. Debbie Cristine

    We’ve just moved down to Costa Rica from the US and I have been looking for projects to keep me busy. I will definitely be doing this for the three baby showers coming up this next year! Thanks from Costa Rica!

    Reply
  3. Jana

    So excited to try to make the Starbucks pages! My husband works there so our son will love pretending to be be like DaDa! Thank you so much!

    Reply
  4. Pingback: Quiet Book | River Ramblings

  5. Vicki Luker

    First, YOU are fabulous!!! You are so creative. As a grandma who is a retired teacher and who has been sewing since 5, I am exciting to find your creations. However, my tech savy is not great. I printed some of your pages and patterns, but some do not link to pattern page. Suggestions for enlarging to scale?

    Reply
  6. Pat

    I just found your Quiet book pages and can’t believe how absolutely darling and creative all your ideas are!! And you’re a mother who has time to do this even more amazing. I will be making a quiet book for my grandson now and am totally inspired by you. I’m wondering if you have already have some where on your website how you actually put the pages together into an actual book, or how you mount the individual pages to something stronger, etc. Thanks!

    Reply

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