Quiet book: Lost sheep

When looking up pages for Koala's quiet book, I discovered that a lot of people use the quiet books to entertain their children during church so there were quite a few Bible pages. One Bible quiet book page was to find the lost sheep. 

I took this idea and decided to make a background like this forest page. 

I liked how the page had different layers and got the idea that each layer could be a hiding spot for the sheep.

 I started off with the bottom layer and made a mountain. I sewed the bottom and side but left an open pocket where the sheep could hide. I reinforced the mountain with Pellon to make it more sturdy. I added the tree and once again left open a pocket where the leaves were. Then I added the bush and pine tree. Next was the grassy hill and last was the rock that rolls away using a brad. Each piece was reinforced with Pellon and then sewed to the page leaving a pocket for where the sheep can fit in. Most of my other pages I hand sewed but it was easier to use my sewing machine for this page.

This bottom picture shows the rock rolled away. 

For the sheep, I saw this cute sheep on Pinterest. 

Even though a template was given, I ended up making my own by tracing a picture of the sheep from my computer screen. I hand sewed the sheep and stuffed a little bit of cotton in it to give it a little depth. 

Here's a picture of the six possible hiding places for the sheep. 

I really liked how this page turned out. Koala doesn't really play with it by herself because it's more of a page to play with someone. But when we were on the plane for our trip, we played with it for a while. I would hide the sheep and she would find it. 

She still will briefly play with it now when she's flipping through the book. She'll say 'where's the sheep?' and then find it from where I put it from the last time she used it. Then once she finds it, she moves onto the next page. 

Craft Organization

Now that I'm using the sewing machine a lot more and I have a lot more craft supplies for my bibs and quiet book, I needed to find a way to organize it all. My computer desk was cluttered with felt and thread, etc. and my dining room had the sewing machine and all the fabric, velcro, etc for the bibs.

I started off by buying these magnetic spice rack  containers to store my odds and ends like googly eyes, grommets, etc. 

I bought the rack that came with 6 containers from Bed, Bath and Beyond (using a coupon of course!) and then some extra containers on Amazon.

I also used these jars that I had laying around to store my scrap material and my trash and I kept the jars on the work area near me for easy access. (I think these jars are from IKEA. I bought them years ago but I think they still sell them.)

It sounds lazy but it's a lot easier sticking a small piece of thread in that little jar than trying to get it to fall into the garbage can on the floor.  

I also organized all my fabric for my bibs. Before, I had them stacked in a storage tote and had to dig through the pile to find the fabric I wanted. I searched Pinterest for ways to organize fabric and liked the idea of folding them onto cardboard (inspired by this blog).

I saw/read that comic board cardboard was a good option for this so I bought some off Amazon and wrapped my fabric around them and stored them in a cardboard box that I planned on decorating. 

I still felt I needed more organization and a place to store the sewing machine. I don't quite remember how but one day while on Pinterest, (I think I was searching sewing tables or organization) I came across the Sewing Box that I saw on this blog.

I really liked it but it was $1300! 

I later searched for other options and decided to check out IKEA since they have affordable furniture and I came across the Hemnes Secretary desk.

I thought it would be perfect to store the sewing machine and I could just pull it out onto the ledge part when I need it. Plus there was plenty of storage for all my supplies and fabrics! 

After putting it off for a long time, I finally made the drive to the nearest IKEA and picked up the desk.  It had been a while since I'd been to IKEA so I totally forgot how much stuff they carry. I not only picked up the desk but I bought a bunch of organization stuff for my craft desk. 

I picked up this tiered planter that I planned to use for storing random items on my desk. 

I also got a magnetic board for my spice rack containers. Originally, I wanted to hang it in the desk but I couldn't figure a good way to hang it and worried that the doors wouldn't shut properly. So I just stacked them on the magnetic board which makes it easier to slide in and out of the one shelf. 

I bought some Kasset boxes for random larger items. I actually already had these Kasset boxes in black but decided to buy some white ones since the desk was white. 

And I also picked up the Kasset magazine racks which I thought would be easier to organize the fabric by style/color and would look nicer. 

The magazine racks were taller than the boards but they still worked nicely to organize my fabric. 

After putting together my desk and putting all my supplies in, I looked at it and it looked so sterile because everything was white. I thought about using my black Kasset boxes so that I had black and white boxes but when browsing Pinterest (seriously, Pinterest is a great place to get ideas!), I came across this blog that showed how she decorated IKEA boxes to look like Kate Spade boxes using electrical tape. Genius! 

I decided to decorate the white boxes to make my desk look cuter and less sterile. The electrical tape was cheap and it didn't take very long to decorate the box and magazine racks. 

I followed the advice of the blog and put a piece of electrical tape in the corners as a guide for where to line up the next stripe. (Left picture)

Magazine rack 

I decorated some of the boxes with stripes, some with polka dots and some I left plain white. I decided to use black dot sticker which I bought on Amazon. These 1 inch dots were perfect for the boxes- although it was a lot more than I needed.

Dot magazine rack, Dot box, and magazine rack with bin fabric

I also decorated the planter too. 

The last thing I wanted was to find a small tray or box to fit in the small shelves on the left side of the sewing machine. 

Unfortunately I couldn't find anything that fit the dimensions that I needed so I decided to make a box. I found that the Cheerios box I had from Costco fit perfectly in the space. 

1. I cut off the one large side and made it into a tray. 

2. Then I covered the sides of the box with a long strip of wrapping paper that I folded in half to also cover the inside (I turned the wrapping paper over so that the box was white.) 

3. The finished sides. 

4. I cut a piece of paper the size of the large side of the box and stuck it on the bottom of the inside of the 'tray.' Then I covered the outside with polka dots. 

I only needed to make two since I had my spice rack tins in one spot. 

(Note: I actually discovered that the tray doesn't fit in the middle shelf when the secretary desk is closed because the one part of the desk goes into that shelf. So instead of putting a tray there, I have my sewing box in there that holds all my thread).

I love how everything turned out and how organized everything is now. Now if only I could get the rest of my office organized... ☺️

Quiet book: Corduroy

One of Koala's favorite books to read is Corduroy- a classic that I remember from when I was little. I thought that making a button page based on this book would be perfect. 

The idea behind the page was to have buttons for Corduroy's straps so that Koala would learn how to button things. Unfortunately, in terms of functionality, I feel like this page is a bit of a fail. The page looks exactly how I wanted it to- like the cover of the book.

 I actually traced the cover off my computer screen so that the letters, etc were exactly like the book. 

Even though Corduroy only has one button in the book, I put buttons on both straps to give the page more than just one thing for Koala to do. 

The straps lift up and can be buttoned and unbuttoned. 

But the button holes on the straps are too small for Koala to button. Maybe she'll use the page when she gets older but for now, it's just a pretty page that doesn't get much use. #fail

Quiet book: The Wheels on the Bus/Pigeon

For this page, I combined the Wheels on the bus page with the Pigeon from Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

I got my inspiration for the bus page from these two blogs: this and this.

I actually used the bus from the second blog as my template (traced from my computer screen like most of my templates). 

I sewed the bus onto background felt and left open the bottom of the window so that the pigeon could ride in there. That bottom part of the window is reinforced with Pellon to make it more sturdy when putting the pigeon in. 

Page in progress: Koala had fun with it even before it was finished- she stuck her toy frog in the bus.

For the pigeon, I traced the template from the actual book. The big pigeon books are about the size of the quiet book pages so the pigeon was just the right size for the template. I made the front design and sewed all the pieces onto Pellon. Then since pigeon was going to be taken in and out, I figured I should cover the back of the Pellon so I added felt to the backside as well. Since it has 2 layers of felt and the Pellon, it's pretty sturdy, 

I added wheels that I cut out of black stiff felt. (You can find some large sheets of stiff felt in limited colors like black, dark blue, and sometimes red but they're about a dollar a sheet and make just one page if you use it for the background. Since it costs a lot more than using the white Pellon, I usually use the stiff felt for small things. ) 

I found big orange brads that I put as the hub caps so that the wheels turn. (The wheels of the bus go round and round... Something you can sing while playing with the page together).

Here's the finished product. (I forgot to take a picture of it when I first made it so doesn't look as nice since Koala used it a lot). 

Pigeon riding the bus- he still doesn't get to drive!

Koala playing with the page- putting pigeon in the bus. 

Quiet book: piggy bank & purse

Piggy bank:

This page has a pretty simple concept of putting money in the piggy bank. 

I found a piggy bank  quiet book page that I liked on Pinterest. 

On one side she had a cute pig that you could put coins into. Then on the other side of the page, there's a pencil case bag that catches the coins. 

I decided to combine the piggy bank page with a purse page like this one 

I thought instead of having a pencil case on the backside of the piggy bank page, why not have a purse there. Then the money can go in the piggy bank and then it goes in the purse and can be spent lol! (lol I know, I know that's the opposite concept of saving!)

For the piggy bank page, I traced the pig from the one page because I thought the pig was cute. 

I cut a slit at the top and reinforced it with Pellon. I also made sure to sew it to the inside of the purse page on the back so that when the coins go in, they fall into the purse on the other side. 

I was going to use juice tops like the other website. I bought the frozen juice just so that we could have the juice tops for the coins but Hubby recycled them before I could grab them. So I ended up getting play coins instead. 

I couldn't get a good picture but you can see the inside of the purse (the brown and red) when you open up the piggy bank. 

For the purse, I didn't want to just make a generic looking purse. I modeled my purse after the LV neverfull- only the best for my Koala! 😉

I initially thought about making this page into a weave page. 

But to make the neverfull look realistic, the strips of felt would be too thin and probably wouldn't survive as a weave page.

I used dark brown and tan felt which I cut into thin strips. In retrospect, I wish I used a regular brown rather than the tan because I think that would've matched the color of the real purse better. But I didn't want to redo it. 

I then took the strips and weaved them together to make the checkerboard look. Then I sewed the pieces to a piece of Pellon.

When that was done, I set that aside and worked on the inside on the purse. On the inside of the purse I made the slit from the piggy bank look like the zippered pocket of the inside of the purse. And of course, since the Neverfull is lined red, I put red felt on the inside and sewed that all down. 

This is what it looks like from the top looking in.  (I didn't snap a picture of what it looked like before putting it all together.)

 I then sewed that checkered pellon piece to the back page of the piggy bank. 

Somehow the purse ended up slanted on the page which kind of bothers the OCD side of me but it was too hard to redo so I left it. 

I added accents to make the purse look realistic- leather trim and metal rings. 

The page looks pretty bare to me and I keep thinking I need to add something to the background but not too sure what to add so for now, the page is done.

Quiet book page: Hello Kitty

Time for another quiet book post.

Another popular page is doll dress up- similar to paper doll dress up only with felt - like from this blog

Once again I wanted to make pages with things that Koala was familiar with so one day when Koala was coloring in her Hello Kitty coloring book, I came up with the idea of a Hello Kitty dress up page. This was easier than making a doll template since I wasn't sure how cute I could make the doll. Plus making the clothes for Hello Kitty was easy. 

I traced the template of Hello Kitty from the coloring book since there was one page that had the perfect size for the book. 

I added a strip of Velcro just so the felt wouldn't get as worn out from the sticky part of the Velcro. 

For the clothes, one quiet book had an armoir to hold the clothes which I thought was a cute idea. 

I traced the armoir from this page and just made it wider to fit my 11x11 page. 

The outfits are 'hanging' on the inside. I put strips of velcro on the inside of the armoir and the back of the outfits. Each outfit is reinforced with Pellon and sewn together. I had matching bows for the outfits but some have gotten lost. 

Some of the pins & outfits: pic taken when I was in the process of making them

Koala is so funny because when Hello Kitty is in between outfits and isn't wearing anything, Koala says, 'Hello Kitty cold!' and then she shivers and puts an outfit on Hello Kitty. lol

This page was one of the pages that kept Koala busiest on the plane and it's probably the most worn out page because she uses it the most. She seems to enjoy changing Hello Kitty's outfits and accessories. Success!

Bubble bibs

My first crafty sewing project started when Koala was a baby and she just started teething. She drooled a lot and the baby bibs we had didn't match her cute outfits. I started to look for more fashionable bibs.

First, I bought some bandana bibs from Amazon from a brand called Zippy. They don't have the exact ones that I bought but these are the same except they're blue. 

I then came across scarf bibs. 

When I saw this I thought, 'Hey I could totally make this.' So I bought some material and went to my mom's to use her sewing machine. After a really long time and I think even a broken needle, I made my first scarf bib. It definitely wasn't the best- the stitching was crooked and a couple times the thread bunched up, but I did it. And it looked so much cuter on Koala than the baby bibs! I got a lot of compliments whenever Koala wore her bubble bibs. 

I started to buy all sorts of different material to make them. 

Some of the bibs that I've made

The bibs were cute and fairly easy to make so I had dreams of selling them on etsy or something. I came up with a brand name (Bubbles) and designed a simple logo. I even made labels to put on the bibs. I eventually simplified the tags and decided to stick with just black. 

And I made tags with wash instructions. 

I even tried to branch out and make boy print bibs to get a larger audience. (Buffalo plaid, super hero, sports ones, mustaches). 

As you can see, I get pretty invested in my projects.  But I lost steam when it came to actually posting the bibs and selling them. I got overwhelmed with the business end of it like copyrights and all that. 

 After a while, Koala stopped teething/drooling and she didn't need bibs anymore and my bubble bibs business was put on the back burner for a while. I invested my time in other projects like the quiet book, etc. 

Just recently, I started making the bibs again- mostly because I have a lot of friends who are having babies and I figure the bibs make a good gift since they're practical, cute and handmade which shows the thought/time I put into them.

Now that Baby Bear will be here soon, I'm working on making a stash of cute bibs for him to wear. Who knows, maybe my bib business will take off but even if it doesn't, at least Baby Bear will be stylin'.