Monday, June 3, 2013

Free Butterfly Quiet Book Template

(I posted this on my personal blog about two months ago, and figured it was high time to finally post it here! Here's the second quiet book I've personally made.)

Well, I did it. I made another one.


Two, actually. My niece Emily was turning one and so I made one for her birthday, and a copy of the same book for Ellie. 

I made a Butterfly themed book, called the Butterfly Book. And you can get the free template here!


I was inspired by the quiet books at Shaer Talents and One Lovely Life. The book is four pages long (not including the front and back covers). It has a caterpillar page, a flower page (with little butterflies on ribbons), a big butterfly with flappy wings page, and a leaf pocket page (full of colorful shapes to decorate the butterfly's wings with).

Here's the caterpillar page and the flower page with tiny butterflies:


The caterpillar on the caterpillar page has removable body pieces, attached with velcro. It also has a peekaboo little caterpillar hidden in the cocoon. 


Here's the flower page:


The flowers are attached by their yellow pollen-y part in the middle. Since the petals aren't sewn down on the edges, they kind of pop up and are ruffly. Ellie really likes playing with them.


This page also has two little butterflies attached to the page by ribbon. They can "fly" to each flower and land on them.


Here's the butterfly dress-up page. It's got a big butterfly to decorate, and a big leaf pocket to hold all of the different, colorful wing shapes:


The butterfly is attached just by its body (with the edges of the wings sewn underneath the body) so that the wings are free to flap up and down.


And here's the back:


My daughter's favorite page is definitely the first one; she loves taking the velcro caterpillar off the page and carrying the pieces around.



To download the free Butterfly Quiet Book Template, click here or on the pictures below:




Happy quiet book making! If you have any questions at all, feel free to ask. :)

Interview

What's your name? Describe yourself in one sentence.
I'm Jocelyn; I'm the one who runs the blog. :)

Who did you make this quiet book for? How old are they?
I actually made two copies of this book: one for my daughter, who's now a year and a half, and one for her cousin, who's a couple months older than her.

What's your level of sewing experience?
Intermediate.

How long did it take you?

The first copy I made (for my niece) I did in about a week. It probably took about 20 hours. The second copy took about the same number of hours, but it was spread out over a couple months.

Did you use any templates? Where can they be found?
I was inspired by the quiet books at Shaer Talents and One Lovely Life. I made my own pattern, which you can download here.

How did you bind your quiet book?
I sewed two button-holes in the side of each page, and then connected the pages with metal binder rings.

What material are the pages made out of?

Felt.

What other materials did you use?

More felt, thread, and a couple pieces of ribbon.

How much did all the supplies cost you?
Only about $6 for each book. I already had the thread, ribbon, and some pieces of felt. I just needed some more, different colored pieces of felt.

What's your favorite page? Why? 

Probably the first one; I just like the happy caterpillar. :)



Have you made a quiet book that you'd like to share? Click here for instructions on how to submit your own quiet book!

11 comments:

  1. This is really adorable! Thanks for the templates.
    Hugs~

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  2. LOVE it! Very creative and well laid out!

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  3. I absolutely love reading your blog!In fact it has helped to inspire me to write my own blog! I would really appreciate it if you could guest blog on my blog! I think that you do such amazing quiet books!

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  4. Wow, that is super cute! Question, did you machine sew this or did you hand sew it all?

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    1. I guess it was about half and half. I machine-sewed all of the big stuff, and hand-sewed most of the details. I hand-sewed the letters on the front, the caterpillar and butterfly faces, the lines down the middle of the leaves,the little butterflies on the ribbons, and the lines on the cocoon. Everything else was machine sewed. :)

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  5. Absolutely cute and adorable! thank you so much for sharing :)

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  6. What size of felt are the pages on?

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  7. And are they on single pages of felt or did you sew two big pages back to back to bind the main page? Hopefully that makes sense...

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  8. Hi, I´ve recently found that quiet books exist! And I have a question: what age is the best to have the quiet book or to start playing with one. Three is to old, isn´t it? Thank you soo much for inspiration!

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  9. Hi just been looking at your butterfly quiet book templates.What are the dimensions of the pages please?

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  10. I used your templates for the butterfly in my Busy book for my 2 year old grand-child. I think she should enjoy them. I appreciated having the templates. Thank you for putting them online for others to use. I changed the cocoon for a light green crysalis with gold dots on it. (green felt and dots were gold fabric paint). Butterflies do not have cocoons...Moths spin cocoons around them, such as silk worms. Moths have antennas that have little "feathers" on both sides too. The butterfly antennae are straight with nothing on the sides and a small bump on the tip. A butterfly hangs upside down on a branch and his body actually becomes the casing of the chrysalis. I collect Monarch caterpillars and have watched the change. The chrysalis is light green, but turns dark black before it opens. Then is becomes clear and the butterfly pops out with wet wings and has to pump them to expand them. I just thought you might like to know so you could be scientifically correct. Other butterflies have different shaped chrysalises. The Anise swallowtail has a bumpy tan one. Google chrysalis for Monarch to see it's green chrsyalis and interesting shape. Thanks again for the templates.

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