Emily's Quiet Book

I am so excited to show you today's quiet book, which comes to us from Emily from One Lovely Life. It is so cute. Each page has a different (adorable!) animal that has something unique and fun for your child to do. There are snaps, there is peekaboo, there are zipper Crocodile smiles. Take a look at her beautiful quiet book!

Interview

What's your name? Describe yourself in one sentence.
I'm Emily! Lover of all things fancy, almost all cheeses, nearly all things girly, and absolutely all versions of "and they lived happily ever after."

Who did you make this quiet book for? How old are they? I made it when I was expecting my daughter, though we didn't really start using it until she turned 1 (she's 18 months now). We play with it during the week and at church when we need to keep her busy. 

What's your level of sewing experience? Heh... sewing experience? Let's be honest. "Experience" in my case is a nice way of saying "8th grade home economics class." I have a VERY basic knowledge of sewing. I have a sewing machine, which I do know how to use, but this was a hand-sewn project, because I find that more relaxing. 

How long did it take you? As I said, it was hand-sewn, so that definitely increases the time commitment. I'd say I spent about 20 hours on it. I wasn't in a big hurry to finish it, so I worked on it while watching something with my husband in 1-2 hour increments and finished over the course of 2-3 weeks. 

Did you use any templates? Where can they be found? I'm sorry! I've been asked so many times for templates or a pattern, and the fact of the matter is that I didn't use any. I made a few (rough) sketches, then went to town! For some of the trickier bits, I'd make a paper cut-out, then trace it onto the felt, but it's almost entirely freehand. 

How did you bind your quiet book? I stitched together the pages with embroidery floss, then made a "binding" out of another strip of felt and sewed that on with more embroidery floss. It's held up very well so far. 

What material are the pages made out of? The cream-colored background fabric is a wool felt I got on sale, but all the colored sheets are just the 8x10 or 8x11 sheets of felt you can buy at most craft or hobby stores (i.e. JoAnn's, Michaels, Hobby Lobby, etc). 

What other materials did you use? I wanted everything to be attached to the book (so that I wasn't losing pieces all the time), and I thought it would be fun to try practicing using different "tools," so I also used sew-on snaps, a zipper, and some ribbons. I stitched everything with basic thread and bound the book using embroidery floss. Other than that, it's just felt, felt, felt. 

How much did all the supplies cost you?
I had thread and needles on hand, as well as the cream-colored felt. I don't remember what I paid for the cream-colored wool felt (though I do recall getting it 40-50% off around Christmastime when it goes on sale for people to make stockings). The colored felt sheets were only about $0.50 each, then I had to buy embroidery floss, embroidery needles, a zipper, a set of snaps, and a few rolls of ribbon, but the whole book cost less than $20 to make. If you have to start from scratch, you'll pay a bit more than that to account for things like thread. 

What's your favorite page? Why? 
Hands down the owl page! I can't get over the giant eyes, and my daughter Sophie LOVES playing peek-a-boo with the baby owl under the mama owl's wing. (Runner-up is the fish page.)

To see more pictures of Emily's quiet book and learn more details about it, view it here on her blog. Thank you, Emily, for sharing your delightful quiet book with us!

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