23 June 2010

Quiet Book Cover

I finally finished a project I have been working on FOREVER! Lets just say, I was hoping for my older son to enjoy this when he was more the age of my younger son. So it has been multiple years.

So finally done, here is my Animals quiet book.




This page, being the cover, isn't as interactive as the other pages, but the bunny ears can be moved around. (Sorry for the out of focus picture).


Except for the zigzag stitch around the outside, all of the sewing and embroidering was done by hand.


In addition to the animals in the book, there is some sort of plant, and a bug on every page--on this page, flowers, and a bee.



A major inspiration for this project, was this Nursery Rhyme book, that I own, as well as similar ones I had checked out from the library, where the illustrations are made out of fabric. A few of my animals I think I even traced from this book.



There are several reasons this project took me so long, besides all the hand stitching and sewing. I had a whole lot of ideas I wanted to put into this book, and kept thinking up new pages before making any. I still have ideas for more animals I would like to do, and have even drawn out a few additional designs, but decided to finish what I had first. I obviously didn't work on it consistently. Other things took priority and it sat in a box for quite a while. I also didn't quite know how to finish it--to put all the pages together. I wanted it to be like a book, but I wanted the pages to be able to separate, to spread out or to share. And since I have more ideas for pages, I wanted to be able to add on to it if I so desire later on. Instead of sewing the pages back to back, I just put a bit of velcro on the edge to hold them together as a book, but they can be easily pulled apart. (Hope that makes sense).


I put button holes on the pages to put binder rings through. Sewing button holes is always a bit intimidating to me, so I procrastinated that for a bit, but they turned out fine. I even had a couple binder rings on hand to use.


Come back tomorrow to see the next page!



Signature copy

5 comments:

  1. That is really darling!! I always loved quiet books like that when my kids were little. I never made one, but bought one where I had to cut out all the pieces! I should have made one - it would have been much more personal - like the one you made. How sweet!

    AND, when you run out of other things to do with the kids, you can check out my Ancient Egyptian Headdress and Collar - that makes a great craft when doing a unit study on Egypt. :-) or just for fun.

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  2. P.S. If I were making your book, I'd have to put a German Shepherd chasing that cute bunny. :-(

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  3. Beautiful work! I'm so impressed by your hand sewing. I'm sure your children are going to love this book.
    I especially love the idea of "sharing the book" with the velcro. Great idea!

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  4. Wow! Very impressive! It turned out fabulous!

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  5. Man I know what you mean! I have been working on my son's quiet book FOREVER!! Love how your cover turned out!

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