Quiet Books

A friend of mine has a darling quiet book that her mom made for her. I was looking for a new sewing project and I thought it would be a fun challenge. My friend asked her mom about it and her mom sent her a link to the pattern. So that's how I got a hold of the pattern. I changed a few things and made up a few pages, but it was super helpful to have a pattern to start from.
I decided that while I was making one for Tate, I may as well make one for my niece Mya too. Her second birthday is coming up and I was planning a trip to Utah (for Mal's homecoming), so I set to work making two quiet books and trying to get them done in time for my trip to Utah (which I did, just barely).
I LOVE the way they turned out. It still makes me a little nervous when Tate plays with it because it took such an incredible amount of time (seriously it took every naptime and after most after bed times for a couple of weeks) and I'm still sort of a beginning sewer so I'm not sure how secure and sturdy everything will be. That, and there are so many little pieces that can and probably will be lost. So far so good. He has yet to break or lose anything!
So here are some pictures of the finished product! Tate's quiet book is on the left and Mya's on the right.The first page is this balloon matching page with velcro. Lots of hand sewing.

Caterpillar with fuzzy body part you can velcro on. (and also tear off and throw on the ground and under the bench at church and then scream "fuzzy!" over and over as they roll out of sight.)Fabrics with different textures to feel and a football to lace up and tie.

Different shapes that velcro to the matching fabric and shape on the page.

I think this page might be my favorite. I found vintage paper dolls you can print out for free online. Then I printed them out on iron on paper. I ironed the people on the page and the dresses on layers of fabric and interfacing. Then sewed around the clothes so they won't fall apart and sewed on velcro so you can dress the people up in different vintage outfits. It turned out so stinkin' cute.Pockets to hold Ikea finger puppets.

A mirror (currently Tate's favorite. He loves to chat with the cute boy inside.) And flowers that button onto lady bug buttons.

This page was Glenn's contribution. I wanted to do a page with buttons or beads or something they can move around on strings of elastic. He saw the Noah's ark buttons and decided a Noah's ark page could be fun with the animals escaping the flood. The boat has a little flap that you can open and close. Note the dinosaurs who were stuck in the water at the bottom and were left behind. Also Glenn's idea.

So there it is. My fun quiet book. I had so much fun figuring out how to make each thing and how to put it all together. I learned a lot, which means I made a lot of mistakes. But hey, if I ever make another I'll know how to do things differently.