Project

Quiet Book

On bus or train trips, during wedding ceremonies, or whenever silence is required, keep your child entertained with a homemade felt activity book.

Source: Martha Stewart Baby, Winter 2001

Introduction

This one contains a page for each season; in the winter scene shown here, white-button snowflakes flutter around a snowman made of button-on felt circles. Similarly, the pages for spring, summer, and fall reflect the tones and activities of the season. On each season's page, a pocket contains a collection of felt shapes that a child can button on and off to modify the scene.

materials

Felt shapes template

Felt

Sewing kit

6 buttons

Scissors

Glue

steps

To make the pages, cut four 7 1/2-by-16-inch pieces of felt; fold each in half crosswise, crease, and open up. On each left-hand page, add a pocket, sewing along the sides and bottom of a 5-by-4-inch felt rectangle.
Cut permanent scenery, like water or grass, from felt. On each right-hand page, attach scenery with white craft glue; sew on 4 to 6 buttons in various positions. Stitch decorative lines to represent features like flower stems and kite strings. Fold each page again, and stack them in order of the seasons.
Glue the backs of the pages together.
Cut a 7 3/4-by-16 1/4-inch felt rectangle for a cover. Wrap it around the pages, gluing it to the first and last pages. Reinforce the binding with a few blanket stitches through the spine. We decorated our cover with four small shapes to represent the seasons.
Cut out felt shapes for each season. Cut slits for buttonholes, and store the shapes in the page pockets.