My best friend is about to have her second baby!  We met through a mom’s website because both of our daughters were born in July 2015.  I decided to send her family a care package and each member got a little gift.  For her daughter Riley, I decided to make one of my “famous” felt quiet books.  I figured she could use it while her parents are away at the hospital, when her new brother is hogging her parent’s attention, or whenever else she was bored and wanted to practice her big sister skills.  My daughter is just starting to learn imaginative play, so parts of this book may be a bit above her for a while, but the beauty of it is she can continue to play with it for years.  Oh, and the best part?  I made it as an almost exact replica of their house!  To learn more details about how I put together my felt books including specific supplies, please check out my original quiet book where I go into far more detail than I will right now.  You can also check out my Hulk quiet book that I also made for a special friend.

Materials:

• Lots and lots of 9X12 craft felt
• Felt glue
• White and black puffy fabric paint
• Mirrored sheet
• Velcro dots
• White ribbon
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• Floral flannel fabric
• Two sheets of thick 9X12 craft foam
• Sharp scissors

*All materials purchased at Michael’s and/or JoAnne’s.  For detailed descriptions of which type of felt/glue/velcro I use and why, and for detailed instructions on how I put together a page (including offsetting for binding), please read my original quiet book.

The Cover

The fabric is a soft flannel, and the black and teal are felt.  The white lettering was made with fabric puffy paint.  I will detail how I put together the cover at the very end.

Closed with pretty ribbons

Inside front cover – Front of house

Kitchen – Dining Room

Kitchen:  All of the doors open, many of them have a puffy paint shelf hidden behind the door.

Dining Room: The tray to the high chair lifts up so the doll can be placed underneath.

Living Room – Bathroom

Living room: Their dog is velcroed down on her bed (for safe transport) and can be moved throughout the house.

Bathroom:  The cabinet doors open, that is a real mirror (you can see the reflection of my phone!), the toilet seat lifts up, and the shower curtain lifts up to a pocket tub underneath.

Bedroom – Closet

Bedroom: The blanket lifts up to fit the big doll under and the pillow is slightly plush.  A velcro dot is on both beds to keep the dolls in place during transport.  (I didn’t get a picture of it, but the big sister doll is wearing purple, “#1 SIS!” pjs that match her brother’s.)

Closet: Velcro dots keep three outfits for both kids and toys in place.

Dolls and Toys:  I did NOT make these gorgeous felt dolls and toys.  I bought them from NettiesNeedlesToo off Etsy for a very reasonable price.  I messaged her because I wanted a mix and match order and she was very accommodating.  I wish I got a better picture of the big sister doll, they are both very cute and come with velcro underwear (though you can ask for felt underwear) to help the clothes stick.  I highly recommend her shop!

Backyard – Back of Book

How I closed the book:

1. Bind inside pages: Glue the individual pages together, and then bind them together like I do in my original quiet book in the “Binding my book” section, steps 1-4.  The only thing I did differently is I did not sew these pages together this time (step 2), mostly because that would have sewn a lot of the cabinets shut.  Instead I used a ton of hot glue and honestly I think it will hold just as well.
2. Cut out fabric:  I wanted the outside of the book to be thick and sturdy, which is different than the other two quiet books I have put together.  I figured this way it would be easy for her to play with while it was sitting on her lap.  For this I made the cover out of two thick 9X12 pieces of craft foam.  To measure my fabric, I laid the two pieces of craft foam horizontally next to each other, then left a gap between them the same thickness as the spine to my inside pages.  Then I drew a line about an inch around the foam, then cut it out.  Cut out a second equally sized rectangle of fabric, one will be for the inside and one the outside.
3. Hot glue the outside piece of fabric to the foam:  Lay the piece of fabric print side down, then lay the foam on top of it, again leaving the space between for your inside pages.  Using hot glue, fold down the edges and glue them to the reverse side of the foam, making sure you pull the fabric tight (see an example on the right side below).
4. Add your ribbon:  Cut four equally long pieces of ribbon.  Lightly sear the edges with a lighter so they don’t fray.  Hot glue two ribbons on each side, similar to the picture below.
5. Hot glue the inside piece of fabric to your foam: The inside piece is a bit trickier than the outside piece because you can’t simply fold it over the foam.  Lay your strip of fabric (I accidentally cut mine in half which is why you see half already glued above, you can do either) pattern side up.  Starting on one end, fold your fabric under about an inch, so the crease just barely lines up with the outside of the book or slightly under (you can see what I am talking about on the left in the picture above).  Hot glue the folded fabric shut, and then glue it to the foam.  Continue doing this to all sides of the foam.
6. Glue the inside pages to the cover: Slather the inside of the book’s spine with hot glue, seriously, the more the better.  Quickly while it is still hot, carefully lay the pages down how they will go inside the book on the back cover.  Lift up the front cover and pull it tight, then close the book onto itself.  Then with one hand holding the book shut, with the other really rub in spine, making sure the hot glue really adheres to the felt pages.  Then I laid a heavy book on top of the spine overnight to make sure it dried properly.
7. Tie the ribbons together and you are all done and ready to go!