Remy's Quiet Book - My First One

Not long after I had Tahlia, my good friend was having a baby shower. Mum had recently reminded me about the felt quiet books we had when we were kids - bought ones, but I remember them being lots of fun.

I decided to ask everyone at the baby shower to make a quiet book page which Mum and I would sew together at the end.  We ended up doing a lot more work than that, but it turned out so well that I became a little obsessed with them... and that's how all this started!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY REMY - YOU HAVE TURNED 5!! 

You are such a sweet, lovely girl and Tahlia loves having you in her life.
Thanks so much for inspiring Faith and Felt Obsession and The Bible Quiet Book Project. 

Over 5 Years in the making...

The templates:

• I can't remember where I got the birds for the front cover - it may have been a colouring page
• Mr Potato Head is by Jocelyn from Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows
• the palm trees are by Laura from the blog Bugs and Fishes
• I also can't find the where I got the dragon from either - sorry
• the pony is by my good friend available on my Tahlia's Quiet Book - Pony Page post
• the teddy is by my Mum available on my Tahlia's Quiet Book - Teddy Page post
• the cup, toothpaste and toothbrush are from Stephanie's Brush Your Teeth quiet book page from Imagine Our Life
• the mouth is by my Mum & I - available on my Tahlia's Quiet Book - Brush Your Teeth Pages post
• the hive pattern was once again made by Stephanie from Imagine Our Life
• and the flowers are from Purl Soho
• the apple tree is by Jocelyn from Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows
• the treasure map and chest are by Stephanie from Imagine Our Life
• and the finger puppets are by Jocelyn from Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows

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Which pages would you HAVE to include in your first quiet book?

Makeup Palette Felt Board Play Set

Hanging Tahlia's felt board on her bedroom wall was a big achievement! After we set it up with a calendar ready for starting school, she decided to use the free space to pretend to do her makeup for school in the morning - just like Mummy does for work.


Which inspired me to make her this...

... her very own makeup palette!

You can make your own with our free template available here.

I used craft glue to attach the felt to the background, and hot glue to attach the plastic pocket. You don't have to attach them at all if you don't want to - aside from the plastic pocket of course. 

Tahlia really enjoyed adding the glitter glue to the top of the oval eye shadows. I won't pretend I didn't enjoy it either. It really makes the item, really topped it off.

This activity provides a great opportunity to learn shapes and colours. And I suppose if you don't attach the items, you could use it to learn spatial awareness too.

I refuse to spell colour the American way... the English way is correct in Australia, and so much more rich and colourful - pun intended!

It does fall off the felt board easily when played with, which is disappointing. It is just too heavy. It will stay up for days when not being played with though. If you have one of those A-frame or slanted felt boards, it would work wonderfully I'm sure. Here is our tutorial on How to Make a Felt Board.

I will probably convert the makeup palette into a quiet book page once it gets neglected like most toys do eventually. Hopefully that will spark another bout of imaginative play, and I'll get twice the value out of my efforts.

See also:

Menorah felt board play set for Hanukkah

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Which colours would you need to include if you made a make-up palette?

Up-cycled Clothes Quiet Book

After seeing this "Close Your Clothes" quiet book by Anna of Forty-Two Roads, I knew I had to feed my quiet book obsession and make one. Ok, two of them! This is my version, sans poem, and with a little Aussie flavour.

I made one book for Tahlia and one for my niece Vashti for this last Christmas. They are very similar but a little different in places, so I tried to put the related pages next to each other in the photos, although they are not in the same order in both books due to the page colours clashing.

I thought that a belt would be great for the cover as we could use it to keep the books shut.

These pages feature a bow tie that clips together at the back of the collar. You can lift the collar to put it on and then fold it back down once the tie has been clipped together.

These page features the all popular netball skirt. Netball is very popular in country areas of Australia. Netball skirts are wrap around skirts and are adjustable to to your particular waist size because they fasten using a rail belt slider and adjuster. I never knew what they were called until I started writing this post and had to find out!

These pages feature overall clips/buckles. They are not as common as they were in the Eighties lol

These pages feature press studs. The other activity for these pages is pulling the arms and legs inside out so they fit inside the book for storage (see below).

There are hidden bras behind the tops. One bra has a front clasp and the other has padding which can be rather easily removed and put back in.

The baby jumpsuit is located here so that the baby would have ready access to breastmilk :)

The center pages feature a button-up dress or skirt and hat clips.

These pages feature hook and eye closures. I guess this is not the book I will be taking along to church hahaha... lingerie might be better suited to the car or home!

These pages feature zips. I made sure to have them unsecured at the bottom so the girls could learn to thread the zip themselves.

These pages feature Chinese knot buttons. I think they turned out quite pretty.

The last pages feature lacing. One of the books received a bonus belt clip too. I did find it a little difficult finding two of everything I wanted to included, so the two books do vary slightly, but I think they are comparably exciting overall.


I bound the books using the Skinny version of How to Make Cloth Books described by Deborah from Cloth Books for Baby. It worked OK, but I think the bulkiness of my pages made it difficult. The method is better suited to pages without so much going on around the borders.

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Which is your favourite page in these books?

Tahlia's Quiet Book - Brush Your Teeth Pages

A Brush Your Teeth quiet book page is a tonne of fun! A toothbrush was one of Tahlia's first Christmas presents, and she absolutely loved it. This page has also been a hit. It used to be her favourite page when she was about two and a half. It stayed her favourite for a long time.

I made the toothbrush, toothpaste and cup using part of Stephanie's Brush Your Teeth quiet book template from Imagine Our Life. At the time I was just getting into quiet book making and sewed a plastic piece from a folder cover in between the two felt layers for the toothbrush and toothpaste in an attempt to strengthen them. It worked OK, but I have since discovered thick stiffened felt from Spotlight. I would definitely use that instead if I ever make it again. I would also use that for the white brush bristles as our toothbrush has unfortunately fulfilled it's purpose in Tahlia's own mouth quite a bit and become a bit sad and soggy. A small price to pay for the amount of fun she was rewarded with!

Mum and I made the mouth together. I did the teeth freehand on the machine, but I gave an example to give you an idea of what I did (or what I would try to do if I did it again and wanted a new improved version) plus my Mum's template for the mouth. As you can see in the picture, my teeth are very uniform unlike the example I gave in the template. Once you have followed the instructions on the template, cut down between the teeth and turn them inside out before pinning them on the page and placing the mouth over the top to get the positioning right. Sew them down and then sew the mouth on top to cover the gummy sections. Thanks heaps once again Mum!!

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Who is glad you don't have teeth like this mouth?!!