I've been trying to think of what to make Little Man for his 1st birthday and after the first hour of church one week, I knew what he needed! A quiet book. I'm not saying that this will make him the most reverent child in the building, but it will at least distract him for a few minutes longer than the hymn book does!
I got ideas for these pages from a lot of different sources so I'll post the links to their tutorials as well. I obviously added my own twist. I think it turned out adorable! I'm so excited to see how he does with it in church. (I've already ran some tests by giving him a few pages every once in a while to see how he reacts: he loved them!) Some pages are a little more advanced, but for now, I think the colors and textures will be okay for him.
This is the inside cover. I actually used half-sheets of felt, where most quiet books use the whole page. I just preferred something a little smaller for my first one, especially since we're already carrying around all of Little Man's stuff, plus primary and young mens' notebooks.
If you want, you can always make a little cover page. I was running out of time before his birthday though, so I didn't :) However, the good news is, the way I structured the book makes it possible to add more pages as desired.
For the zipper page, I decided to do a tent, as shown here. I sewed the zipper onto the back of the tent shape where I had cut a slit in the felt. Then I sewed it on the two sides and not the bottom. I think I may surprise him with a photo under the zipper when he gets old enough to realize what's going on.
This is one of the favorite pages. I got the inspiration for the barn from The Quiet Book Blog.
However, I decided to put finger puppet animals behind the doors, as some other tutorials have done.
I found these cute shapes on Designs by Megan Turnidge and decided to cut my own templates in similar shapes. I chose the cow, the chicken, and the sheep. Aren't they adorable! I basically cut the body and head together in one piece, and doubled it up for the back. Then I cut individual ears, faces, noses, and other accessories and sewed them all onto the front piece prior to sewing the front and back together completely, leaving an opening for the fingers.
The Quiet Book Blog also had a belt page like this! I had an extra belt that I don't use anymore, so I cut it the size to fit the pants I cut out, and sewed it on VERY WELL so that V-man can learn to buckle and unbuckle a belt!
I basically straight-up copied these pages from The Quiet Book Blog. I eyeballed the train shapes and cut them out from there. You can get creative, however, and maybe even do a Christmas train!
This Button the Pocket page is quite simple, but it does teach important motor skills...like buttoning buttons!
I like the page a lot because it's perfect for hiding something new, like a treat or a toy, in the pocket each week. That will peak his interest!
Sugar Bee Crafts had this adorable sneaker page. V-man LOVES strings, tape measures...hair, etc so I think, even as a youngster, he'll have fun with this page. I used eyelets to string the shoelace through so the page would be less likely to tear. Well, so the page would stay tear-free for a LITTLE BIT longer :) If you decided to use more eyelets - 5 on each side instead of 4 like I did - you could have a couple more criss-crosses in the lace.
Memory will be a fun one. I think someday, when V-man knows what Memory is, I'll add another page to this game to make it a little more tricky. For now, he already likes to pull the "cards" out and have me put them back in the pockets. I got the pocket idea from Sugar Bee Crafts as well. I have seen other tutorials that just have a place for the cards and then you don't secure them to the page when you play. I assume velcro would also work, but you'd have to place it appropriately around the picture, etc. Too much of a hassle. I just sewed two long gray strips on, sewing lines in the middle to break them into 3 pockets each. Then did the same with a shorter strip on top. (I realized that Memory needed an even number of pockets :))
Some people did shapes/colors on the back of their cards. I decided to pain music symbols to the back. Got to star them young, right? I did a bass clef, 2 sixteenth notes, 1 sixteenth note (I didn't realize I had doubled up until later. Oh well, I can always make different ones), and a half note.
Apparently I really like The Quiet Book Blog when I was making this! I made my own template for the glove and ball. I sewed all the glove fingers in place on the page, but left the bottom open for him to put his little hand into. (I've given him this page already. He likes the ball, but he hasn't quite figured out how to put his hand in the glove).
I thought it would be fun to have the baseball velcro onto the glove so he can pretend he's "catching" the ball with his hand in it. Cute!
This last page was my way of throwing some more sports into the mix :) It's a "Shapes" page, but instead of your typical triangle/star/square/oval/etc. shapes, I decided to do big square (backboard), little circle (tennis ball), bigger circle (soccer ball), and oblong (football).
I painted an outline of each shape underneath so that when he took it off, he could match it on its correct spot.
Here's how I did the cover. I got inspiration from here and here and kind of improvised the rest. First, I had V-man pick between four different scrap materials I had laying around (he just learned how to point), and then I chose a corresponding back fabric. I cut them out to easily wrap around the pages of my book. Keep in mind, that if you have large rings, you will need to cut the material so that the front cover is a little bit longer so it will reach over and around the hard rings to cover the pages. (I did not do that at first. So I will need to get smaller rings).
The first step I would do (which I actually didn't do) is sew a back side of velcro onto the front of the book (to close it in the end).
For the middle rings (or ribbons if you want a more flexible book), I measured the middle of the fabric and then moved out about 3/4 inch on each side to place 6 total eyelets matching the holes I had punched and placed eyelets on my pages. After that, sew all three sides together, (good side of material facing good side), leaving the back page side open to allow for the ribbon to be sewn in. Flip it right side out.
For the ribbon, I sewed the other velco half on the back side, and then hand-sewed a button on for decoration. It looks cuter that way :) This last step is actually more difficult, but you will need to fold in the ends like a hem from the wrong side. PIN AS YOU GO! It will unfold easily. When you get to the middle of the seam, place the ribbon in to be pinned as you go along. Sew that side. (I sewed over the ribbon seam three times to make sure it was securely in place.
And there you have it! A quiet book! I think it turned out rather cute, for my first one. Thanks to all those good ideas on the internet already! I think Mom would probably be able to come up with some goodies. Until next time, I'll stick with these pages though.
