Soft books are great for little bittys, especially if you are a book lover and want your kids to be, starting them out small is always good. I made one up out of scraps I had lying around and it turned out to be super fun! I chose animals for mine, but you could easily change it to colors, shapes, food, cars, whatever. Here's how I made mine:
First choose a variety of fabrics for your cover and pages, I made six pages of coordinating colors. Cut six pieces of fabric into a 13 by 7 inch rectangle, each one will be two pages. Fold in half to find the middle and mark with chalk or a straight pin. Draw and cut out the designs in felt, I chose to do a few layers but not too much detail or you'll be at it forever sewing all those little pieces together.
Pin the pieces on to each side of the rectangle. Be sure to leave at least an inch of room around each edge.
Some of the smaller pieces I stitched on by hand, it just makes it easier, and also the face details. Once you are happy with the placement, use the machine to stitch down. I used contrasting thread to give it some pizzazz.
Once you have stitched down all the designs lay the rectangles on a single layer of quilt batting and cut out three pieces. Now you are going to stack together two pages and one of the batting, this part is a little tricky, stack the two pages right sides together then lay down the batting on top and stitch all around about half an inch, be sure to leave a few inches open to turn.
Turn right side out and hand stitch the opening closed. Next, decide what order you want your pages in and stack on top of each other making sure the cover is on the bottom. Find the middle and sew and straight line through all layers all the way down. And you're done! Ta-da! Now your little one is ready to play with their new quiet book!
Happy sewing!
~Merry
