It’s been a funky few weeks.
By funky, I mean a few things. The first is that I spent a week “off” of being sick. In a funk. The second is that I spent the next two weeks-ish elbow deep in felt and needles and thread and “watch instantly” shows on Netflix.
This second sort of funky resulted in a felt garland for baby’s room and a few good cries on the couch during shows where someone I didn’t want to die does, or two people I want to be together aren’t, or where two people who you KNOW have been meant to be together FINALLY tell each other how they feel and live happily ever after. You know, the sort of thing my heart would usually just ache for, but during my third trimester of pregnancy induces tears which then cause me to laugh out loud at the fact that I’m crying which makes me cry harder. It’s all very complicated. Funky, even.
Oh, and did I mention I finished a quiet book?
Anyone who reads this blog (or even just this post, for that matter) knows I’m a crazy person. One of my crazy habits is that I LOVE hand-sewing with felt. Don’t ask me why–I just find it relaxing and satisfying. I’ve made a few of these before, but it was really fun to make one FOR MY OWN BABY.
(Can you believe that she’ll probably be here in 8 weeks? I can’t either.)
Anyway, I thought I’d give you a quick look through the book. We kept it gender-neutral so that it wasn’t too girly if our next baby is a boy. Prepare yourself for lots of pictures…
Lion (lots of different textures and colors in the mane to touch)
Alligator (mouth zips open and closed)
Frog (tongue can catch flies)
Butterfly (wings can flap)
Fish (can snap on and off the page, or twirl around on a snap to spin in a circle)
Owl (baby owl hiding under a wing)
Monkey (banana peels to open)
Back Cover
Which page is your favorite? I can’t get enough of that owl page. I love it!
This book is so, so lovely!! Your baby will absolutely love this. Great job!
Wow, this book is so beautiful. Full of love. And congrats on your pregnancy! Almost there…
i LOVE it all!! i wish i’d had one of those for my girls…or even still!! alas….i am soooo not as creative as you are! you have one lucky little lady to have you as a mama!!!
This is THE cutest thing ever! Such a great idea! It’s so perfect – it looks like you bought it! 🙂
I just love the quiet book. You did a marvelous job! About crying over movies, I do that to, but I’m not pregnant. lol You are just going through some changes, and it will pass.
Emily,
So so cute. When you first posted about the first book you made, I went out and bought some felt to start one of my own, but wasn’t exactly sure what the actual pages were made of and what type of felt. So here are some questions for you so that I can hopefully start mine…
Do you get the regular “soft felt” or the kind that has like a card board inside for the actual pages? (or is there a special felt that you buy that’s not just the craft stuff that comes in sheets?)
How did you find was the best way to bind the pages together?
Some of the animals are stuffed, but did you put stuffing in all of them?
Or if it is easier to call me I would love to chat seeing as it has been way too long 🙂
Love ya and can’t wait to see cute baby girl
Shelley,
1. I use regular plain ol’ soft felt rather than the stiffened kind. For the cream-colored background felt, I used wool felt, like they sell on bolts at Jo-Anns. It’s slightly higher quality and a bit sturdier. If you like, you can use that for all your felt. I only used it for the cream backgrounds. Almost all the other felt is just from the little sheets they sell pre-cut that are made from recycled bottles.
2. For binding, I sew pages together 2-3 at a time into little groupings (i.e. the red page and the green page sewn together and the blue page and back cover together) then do one line of stitching to bind all the groupings together. I would recommend hand-sewing this part, even if you machine-sew the rest, since it can be hard for a machine to get through that many layers of felt. Next I cut a strip of felt to use as the binding (here I chose green). Using straight pins, I positioned the green felt to act as a binder around all the pages. Then I sewed a small rectangle around the green fabric to connect all the pages together. Does that make sense? You can call or email me if it doesn’t…
3. I didn’t stuff all the animals. I did anytime I wanted a little extra texture, but most things I wanted to remain flat (i.e. the fish bowl water, the alligator, the branches behind the owls). I’ve found if you stuff everything the book can get REALLY fat really fast, but if you just choose a few things to stuff, it stays manageable.
Hope that helps! Again, feel free to post any other questions, or you can email or call me any time. 🙂
ok, as I started to get my things organized and a plan set out I thought of a few more questions…
-what are the sizes of your pages?
-have you found a certain type of threat works best? (I will probably be doing most of it by hand)
-On the owl wing and banana did you do a seam around the edge that flaps ? (would it make it more stable?
-when sewing the cream pages to the colored felt how did you do both sides? Was it all three at once?
Sorry I am the worst and I can’t find your email address and when we switched cell carriers apparently I lost your number. Please forgive me 🙂 I hope you are well and thanks so much for the idea and all the help with my gazillion questions!
Shelley- sorry it took me a while to respond!
1. I used the colored sheets you can buy pre-cut to use for sizing. Then I cut the cream-colored background sheets down to leave about a 1/2″ border for the colored sheet to show through. Not very scientific, but there you go.
2. I have used a basic all-purpose thread. I asked the lady at the sewing counter what she thought, and she told me it really wouldn’t make much difference whether I used a polyester or cotton thread. Some of the colors I have are polyester and some are a cotton blend. I haven’t noticed a difference in how well they hold up and all of them seem to be easy to sew with.
3. I did sew a little seam at the fold of where the banana folds but didn’t do one around the top border of the peel. You can kind of see in the picture. The owl wing was stuffed, so I made it separate from the rest of the owl’s body and then attached it once it was stuffed with a seam. Let me know if that doesn’t make sense.
4. When attaching the cream colored sheets to the colored backgrounds, I pinned them onto the colored sheet so they matched up as well as possible. Then I sewed the whole sandwich (cream sheet, colored sheet, cream sheet) together all at the same time. I’ve found it’s easier to get a neat stitch this way.
Let me know if you have any more questions!
de-lurking to say WOW. I see that you don’t have a pattern but I love it and if you don’t mind I am going to steal the idea.
Thanks for inspiration today and all the other days I’ve read your creative posts!
Laura
This is without doubt the most stunning quiet book I have ever seen! You can see the love that went into its creation in every page. We are going to start trying for a baby towards the end of this year and this is exactly the type of thing I hope to create for when our own little one eventually comes along.
The next 8 weeks will undoubtedly pass incredibly quickly for you and I’m on the same count down! I’m getting married on the 16th April 🙂
Naomi–Thank you so much. You’re so sweet. Congratulations on the upcoming marriage! I wish you ALL the best in the wedding and family after!
I’m in love, I’m in love, and I DON’T care who knows it!! Luke LOVES his book, and I kind of love the shooting knives of jealousy I get at church 🙂 That owl nearly brought me to tears. It is SO so SOOO cute!! Well done. Your kids are the luckiest.
PS I didn’t really experience the third trimester sobbies until about 2 days before Luke was born. Tyler broke his phone (by biting his phone) and I bawled for a good two hours. It wasn’t even my phone. It was the weirdest feeling ever. So out of control..
Wow Emily, you are so talented! You did such a good job, I wish I could make such a cute book. I think all the pages are amazing but I like the lion one because of the gorgeous colors.