Christmas Quiet Book

Jessica from the UK, who blogs at Not Enough Hours in the Day emailed me last year with pictures of the cutest Christmas Quiet Book I'd ever seen.  She put together a darling quiet book highlighting the wonderful traditions and spirit of Christmas.  So here it is, just in time for all of you avid quiet book makers to make the most memorable Christmas gift this year.  Below are Jessica's instructions and pictures.  Thanks so much Jessica for sharing your wonderful ideas!  Tis the Season to be Sewing!

"This is the first quiet book I made for my son as a gift for his first Christmas. Even though it was for his first Christmas (7 months old) I decided to make a book he could grow into so we could enjoy it for many years to come. I didn't receive my first sewing machine until that Christmas, so the whole book was sewn by hand.

I had a lot of fun making this book and used a lot of the tips I learned from reading this blog. One thing I did that helped a lot, I think, was to plan all of my pages ahead. I also put the template and materials for each page in its on zip-top baggie so if my son was napping I could just grab a page and work on it. I made the car for the stocking page while I was waiting at the doctor's office--which I could do because I just have to bring my baggie ;) (great idea Jessica!)

 SNOWMAN PAGE

The first page is a snowman. I first cut 3 felt circles and sewed the eyes, nose and buttons to those. Then, I decided where he would go on the page and cut out the area for the top hat, which is a glossy bit of material for cover books. It worked well to recess the top hat, like I've seen in his "That's Not My Snowman" books. I added a ribbon and embellishments for the hat and then sewed the white circles down. For added interest, I made a scarf by tying knots on some yarn because I don't knit or crochet. The scarf is really two pieces, each sewn down on the book.

WISEMEN PAGE

This is probably my favorite page because I really like the colors. I drew a template for a wiseman and then use the same template to make all 3. I made the faces profile because that's easier (for me) and allowed the hair/beards to work in my favor. I had 3 interesting beads that I used for the gifts. For the starry sky I made a cross for The Star and then made French knots for the other stars. I had to stop myself several times because I noticed I would start evenly spacing the stars and I wanted a more random look!

CANDY CANES PAGE

This page is a bit more interactive. I made 3 candy canes with velcro on the backs. I first sewed the ribbons to one candy cane piece. Then I sewed the velcro (hook and loop tape) to another candy cane piece that was the mirror image of the candy cane with the ribbon. Then, I sewed the two together with red thread.
 I carefully measured where I put the velcro on the page so that the candy canes can go in multiple directions. A good tip I found before I started was to use the soft velcro to the page and the crunchy velcro to the piece, so if the piece isn't put back correctly, the velcro on the page won't damage the next page when the book is closed. I also made 2 extra candy canes that I keep in my sewing supplies in case these get lost.

WREATH PAGE
 This wreath was fun to make. The "holly berries" are beads sewn onto the "holly leaves." The snowflakes are on pieces of felt that snap on and off. Here's a picture of the wreath from Jessica's flickr page: 

The wreath actually hides a pocket for the snowflake snaps. I made 4 blue and 4 red snaps so they can be rearranged to make different patterns. The ribbon can also be tied and untied. This is a great page for practicing fine motor skills.

TREE PAGE

 

 This Christmas tree can be "trimmed" in that it can be folded to reveal the ornaments.

For this page I cut out two identical felt trees. Then, I sewed each ornament on one at a time. In between each ornament, I folded the tree in half down the center to make sure that the ornaments were spaced so they wouldn't touch when the tree was folded to the plain, untrimmed side. After I had all of the ornaments on the tree, I sewed the right half of the trimmed tree to the left half of the plain tree (adding in loops to go around the buttons) and then sewed the other halves to the page. The gifts are from a friend who makes her own Christmas cards.

STOCKING PAGE
 The stocking is made of faux fur. First, I made the items for the stocking. I chose toys I could draw easily: duck, baseball, truck. To make the truck have wheels, I cut 3 copies of the truck (2 orange, 1 black) and then cut the wheels off of the orange sides. I sandwiched the black between the orange sides and sewed them all together. Then, I sewed the toys to elastic, which I sewed to the page. Next, I sewed the cuff to the stocking and then sewed that to the page. 

If I could do it again, I would have sewn the elastic higher and had it fold back on itself a little, so the toys could come out further.

SNOW GLOBE PAGE
This snow globe was surprisingly easy to make. The "snow" doesn't fall well in real life though :( I've tried sequins too but they also get stuck on the felt. Let me know if you have any tips! It's still a fun page and the snow does move, just not like a real snow globe. This was made the same was as the snowman's hat.

PRESENT PAGE
The final page is a present. The ribbon can be tied and untied. The gift tag says it's to my son from Mom (I ran out of steam to write Mommy). The present is a pocket and inside is a cardboard snowman shape on a string. 

Someday, when he is bigger, I'll hide other items in here.

I decided to make the outside look like a gift and sewed green ribbon to green felt. I made the ribbon that ties the book closed really long so that I can trim it as it frays over time. This part would have been a lot faster by machine!
Then, I assembled the pages. Because I used felt for the pages, the needle had no problem going through all of those layers. Finally, I used black embroidery floss and blanket stitched around each page.

If you liked this book, you might like the next quiet book I made inspired by Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? "

Thanks so much to Jessica for guest blogging and sharing her wonderful Christmas Quiet Book idea!  And yes, can we have you guest blog next about your brown bear brown bear what do you see quiet book?  I love it!