Sewing Bee Fabrics Tutorial
How To Make Your Own Noisy Baby Book
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19/12/15
I love baby books that crinkle and make noise as you move the pages, and so have both my babies. So I decided to sew some nice colourful ones myself from my favourite fabric scraps. Here's how I made it.Â
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What You Will Need:
To make 12 pages -
12 fabric scraps 18 x 18cm - I used cotton
3 x wadding 18 x 35cm
A bit of ribbon or trim if you want to be able to attach it to a pram loop
About 1 metre of florist's plastic wrap - yes they will give you a funny look when you ask for the wrap and none of the flowers. Cut it in to 6 x 18cm x 35cm
How To Make It:
First, cut all your pieces to size and decide on your page order
Place 2 pieces right sides together and sew a quarter inch seam between them down 1 side. The page pieces line up as page 1 and 12 (front and back cover), 2 and 11, 3 and 10, 4 and 9, 5 and 8, and 6 and 7.
You will make 3pieces each from 4 pages that will be sewn together down the centre at the end, so to make the first set of pages, take 2 of your double page pieces and place them right sides together. Place a layer of florist wrap, then wadding then more florist wrap on the back of one piece and pin or even better, clip firmly together with plenty of pins or clips.
Now comes the tricky bit of sewing them all together. You could do the easy option and just stuff the wrap and wadding in after, but I didn't want to risk it bunching up inside.
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A walking foot helps all the layers to move through more easily as you sew. I also found having the plastic layer on the bottom helps it to pull through more easily. It is also important to choose a long stitch length as a short stitch length creates too many perforations which means your plastic layer is more likely to tear as you turn your baby book right side out. Sew the 2 long sides and 1 short side.
Clip the corners. This takes out the excess bulk after turning and helps it to lay flatter with pointier corners.
Turn your baby book page right side out through the open end.
Tuck under your open end and pin in place as you top stitch all the way around the outside.
If you want to add a loop to be able to attach a ring to the book so it can easily be clipped to a pram, then now is a good time. Simply add a loop of ribbon or trim to the centre of any page except the outside cover or the centre page.
I used a little fray check to stop the ends fraying. Once the pages are sewn together, it will be pretty much hidden.
Finally, stack your pages on top of each other and following the line where you first joined the pages in pairs down the middle, sew all the layers together. This was too much for fitting under my sewing machine, so it's likely you'll have to do it by hand too
Then just find an excited baby to pass it to!
We hope you enjoy our tutorials and love hearing what you think so please leave us a comment or send me an email to linda@sewingbeefabrics.co.uk
Happy Sewing!
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My daughter is a preschooler now but still has her baby book in bed next to the pillow. When she wakes up at night she puts her ear on a little soft book to her story that the book tells and she falls asleep again. I just love how her story turned out.
I’m so happy your daughter loves her book so much.
wish you supplied a conversion chart.
This “noisy toy”, would be cute to make for a cat toy – like a butterfly.
Do you mean for inches / cm conversion? If so there is a conversion calculator in the side bar.
Hi
Love the look of these baby books and keen to have a go!
Would they be washable with the florists wrap inside?
Best wishes
Jane
Thank you! I hand-washed mine many times with no problems, but it would likely depend on the type of wrap used. Maybe test washing your wrap inside a pillowcase before giving it a go?
Are the books washable? They need to be for Daycare.
Yes, just on a low temp – too high and you’ll melt the plastic in the middle. If you aren’t sure, just sew up one page and wash as a test or leave the plastic out.
That is such a great idea! I’ve made little square toys that make noise (using the plastic bags inside cereal boxes!), but it never occurred to me to make a book! Awesome! 🙂 Lisa
Thank you so much Lisa. It’s been a really popular idea with my little ones. Plastic bags inside cereal bags sounds like a great tactile noisy filling!
I am going to try this for a friend whose baby is due Christmas time.
May be l could some Christmas fabic as well as normal fabric.
You tutorial was very clear and will be easy to follow. Thank you for allowing us to use it.
Thank you for the lovely comment. I think it would be such a lovely idea to add some Christmas fabric too. I’d love to see how it turns out 😀
Love it!
I used the inner bags from the cereal, snacks and even potato bags. Depending on the thickness of the bag they sound different
Now that is a smart idea!!!! I wish I’d thought of that!
Can they be washed if using cereal box liners?
I hand washed mine with no problems but I wouldn’t put it in the washing machine.
Cute Idea Linda! My kids loved those books when they were little. Love all the large clear photos too, great tutorial ♥
Lovely idea and so nice for babies to have the sensory stimulation too. And it would make a really nice little gift for someone, for Christmas or anytime really.
That’s a great idea, and easy to follow tutorial. N’s some way past this stage, but he would have liked a book like this back then
Oh my gosh what an amazing idea! I’ll definitely be trying this in the new year!