Page 4 & 5: getting dressed

Page #4: the closet

Items needed: felt pieces for closet and making clothes, zipper.
Teaches: zippering, getting dressed, velcroing, imaginative play.
Cut out the following pieces: A large rectangle of felt for the closet (approximately 6" x 8"), felt circles for doorknobs (2), various clothes/outfits, shoes, mittens, etc. out of different colors, a bunch of little velcro squares for applying to the clothes.

Directions: Sew a zipper onto the big rectangular piece of fabric. The easiest way to do this is to sew the zipper first to the rectangle (down the center of it- just place it on the underside of the felt, facing in and sew around), and then cut a slit up the middle (but not all the way to the end- leave about .25" at top), so the zipper now peeks out. Before you cut the slit, you will want to reinforce the top/end of the zipper just by back sewing a few times. Sew on the door knobs/felt circles. Then Position the rectangle in the center of the page (but perhaps a bit to the left if it is a left handed page as mine is, to leave room for the 3 holes for the eyelets later. Sew the closet onto the page by just sewing the 4 edges of the closet to the muslin.
Then make a bunch of fun little outfits- this is the fun part! You will want to first make a little cardboard cut out of the "person" on the adjoining page and cut the clothes to fit/match (kind of paper-doll style), then use that cut out to make the pellon person so it all fits nicely together. All of my clothes were just single thickness, but I sewed around the edges to make them a little more sturdy and less likely to rip/tear. Sew on the velcro pieces so that they match the opposite velcro pieces that are on the little person on the next page (chest, pelvis, feet, hands). Ideas for different outfits include: athletic outfit, church/dress outfit, play clothes, shoes, mittens, a basketball, a bible/scriptures (for holding in the hand).

When deciding which velcro side to sew onto the clothes vs. the body, you probably want to sew the sticky side onto the clothes, so that the body doesn't stick to the closet every time you close the book (the sticky velcro will stick to normal felt). So put the soft velcro 1/2 on the body.

Page #5: the body

Items needed: pellon cut out of body, sharpie markers, yarn, velcro pieces (6).
Teaches: getting dressed, velcroing, imaginative play, body parts.
Cut out the following pieces: a body from pellon material(traced from the cardboard cutout mentioned in previous page), a long strand (1-2') of yarn in color of desired hair,
Directions: Make a cardboard cut-out of a body (if you haven't already) with the desired shape. Keep it simple- "gingerbread style" and make the hands/feet knobs rather than doing fingers since you will be having to sew this pattern onto the page eventually and you don't want to make it too complex. Leave the head bald/like a gingerbread man since you will be applying yarn later for the hair. Trace the body onto Pellon and draw in features like eyes/nose/mouth/heart with a black ultra fine sharpie permanent marker. Color in with colored sharpie markers if desired. Sew velcro (soft side) onto the pellon at the feet/hands/pelvis/chest parts. Sew the pellon body onto the page. To do the hair, you can do strands or loops or braids, depending on what kind of hair style you want and if it is a boy/girl/neutral. To do the loops, I just zig-zagged the yarn in 1/2" loops and then scrunched it together and placed it on the head and sewed back and forth over it a few times. If you like the word-bubble "Help me get dressed", just write on some pellon with permanent marker, cut it out, and sew it on!

Here's some pics from the good ol' Alice quiet book (my mom's):