I have had the great joy to make a Quiet Book for my nephew for this Christmas.
I feel like this probably needs no introduction, as maybe everyone already heard of Quiet Books… but then again I didn’t know what they were until I had kids, so in case somebody didn’t, then Quiet books (also called busy books) are usually fabric and/or felt books, it’s pages designed with “quiet” activities for kids to learn and practice motor skills, cognitive skills, hand-eye coordination, identification, etc. It can be a fine occupation for little hands and heads during long car rides or travels, in waiting rooms, or other times where those little hands and heads easily get bored.
Ever since I had children and I first heard of (or rather saw) those books for the first time, even when Liv was still little, I wanted to make such a book. But, alas, time went by somehow too quickly and I never got to make one! Now my kids are already too big for them and I lost my chance there.
So when my dear sister-in-law asked me before Christmas, if I’d be willing to make one for my new nephew- I was more than happy to!
It is quite possible, that the combination of it being a commission (where I always make things with extra care), it being something for a nephew (which made my heart go all warm the whole time I was making it), and it being kind of a unfulfilled ambition…. all of those aspects probably made me go crazy, hah :-)) and I went a bit overboard.. I couldn’t stop, couldn’t make it simpler, I just couldn’t make less..
I’m really glad, though.
This page was designed specifically with my nephew in mind. He’s 10 months old right now and is very interested in his own reflection in mirrors (as is natural for this age) and loves light. It took me to buy 4 different little lights, to find one that worked easily for little hands and didn’t flash like a crazy disco party.
Even though, it was way more time-consuming than I thought it would be. And by the end of making it, I was kind of exhausted and our appartement was a mess. But that would be due to more factors. Yet, it was in a way also terribly satisfying and rewarding to see all those little details come together and make those little pictures… almost like little paintings each page.
To be fair, I should add, I drew a lot of inspiration from Pinterest. Most of the pages you can see are more or less inspired by what I had saved on Pinterest for ages and wanted to try to make. They are 100% made by me, at least. Well, with some advice from my kids :-)
Some technical things: you can see above here the rings I used to bind the book. By unscrewing the middle part, one can (relatively) easily open the rings and take out (or add) pages. For examples if they were to travel and would like to take less pages (since as it is now in full, it is rather pretty wide) to take up less space… they might take only their favourite ones.. maybe. Or should I one day make a few more pages, they can be added. Maybe. The option is there.
One more maker’s tip: Before adding anything else, I cut out the squares for the pages and made them stronger with a very thick fusible interlining, which is . Here it’s usually called Vlieseline, but it has different names around the world. Here it helps to make the pages be firmer and hold it’s shape better.
I am happy to say, even though my kids are already big for this, they would come check out what I was doing all the time and play around with it often, while it was a work in progress lying around in my sewing space. So I have high hopes my nephew together with his older sister may enjoy it in the future.
It is closed with an elastic ribbon which closes to a button in the front.
I will post a short video on this Quiet Book, where Sebi is showing how it all works. It might be just on my FB and IG page, not sure if I’ll put it up here too. We’ll see.
Hope you liked it! It was so much joy to make it.
Liv Inspires 