Quiet Time Activity Book

There are times when I just want Little Miss to be quiet and content. You know what I mean, right? Like on long car rides, maybe in church, or at a restaurant... just be calm. That's when her Quiet Time Activity Book comes in very handy!

It's a cloth book that I sewed for her. It is full of pages of little activities to keep her occupied.

And she loves it!

First I saw a bunch of inspiration on Pinterest. But basically you just create some pages that your kid will enjoy. I know Miss loves opening and closing things, like buttons, snaps, and zippers. So I just went from there. Using a few things I had around - like fabric scraps and ribbons and beads,  I created a book for her to enjoy.

I sewed mine, but you don't need to sew it if you don't want to or don't know how. You could use felt and cut it up and use glue, or fabric and iron-on adhesive, or whatever works for you. 

I started with sewing the cover of the book. I took a piece of fabric and cut it to 22 inches long by 12 inches wide. I turned the ends over and stitched a straight line to create a little hem all the way around. 

Then I took two lengths of this cotton ribbon stuff (I don't even really know what it is supposed to be for, it's like a trim or something), each about 6 inches long and sewed a small piece of Velcro to each end. This will create the "rings" to hold all the book pages in place. Sew them to the cover an inch above and below the middle. Think of it like a soft binder at this point. 

Now start on the activity pages. I had made some baby quilts so I had leftover flannel in various prints. I cut each page at about 10 inches square. I cut out 10 pages. The colours and patterns are all kinda mixed up but that's okay, it keeps it a bit more interesting. Now you have a stack of blank pages to work on. 

This page has buckle rings on it, I sewed them down with a short length of ribbon and then sewed another piece of ribbon to weave through the buckle. 

These are just beads strung on a piece of yarn. I cut 10 lengths of yarn and stung 1 bead on the first, 2 beads on the second, and so on. Them I just sewed them at the top and bottom of the page. You don't need to measure it out and pin them down in place to make it perfectly spaced....unless you want to. I didn't and it came out pretty even just eyeballing it. 

The idea is that she will count them, 1 to 10. But right now she just likes to slide them up and down. 

These are the snap closures off two outgrown diaper shirts. I just cut the bottom section off the shirts and sewed it in place. Only sew the top and bottom edges here, so the snap section can open and close easily. 

This is a little bead track page. The white ribbon is sewn at each end creating a "tunnel" for the beads on the string to go through. These are just some wooden beads strung on a length of embroidery cotton (it's really just a thick, strong thread). Miss likes to call this the "Train in the Tunnel" page. 

Here is a sunshine page. I had a bunch of bright ribbons and I cut various lengths of each colour. Then I sewed them all down, I kind of sewed in a circle to first secure them all down to the page. Then I cut the red fabric circle out and sewed it over top. Now you can't see all the mash up of ribbons and stitches that are underneath the sun. It just looks like a bright exploding sun

This is my favorite page! I cut out some flower-like shapes and stitches around the edges. Then I sewed a button hole in the center. I cut "flower stalks" out of the green fabric and sewed them down to the page. Then I sewed the buttons to the top of the "stalks" creating "flower centers". Now Miss gets to button the flowers to the stalks!

Just sew a bunch of old zippers to the page! She likes to open and close them 

Miss doesn't use this page. She just doesn't seem to like it. I thought it could teach her to tie a knot and a bow and maybe make a braid. Nope, she's not in to it. At least not yet. 

All I did here was cut a few lengths of fabric and sew them together down onto the page.

She does like this page, though. She loves to pet the hair. I cut a circle out of a neutral fabric and drew a face on it, then sewed around the edge to attach it to the page. The black yarn is all cut to the same length and then one piece wraps around securing it all together, and it makes the "center part" in her hair. Then I used the under pieces of yarn in the hair bundle and sewed back and forth a few times to secure the hair to the page. The little pouch I had already so I just sewed the sides and bottom to the page and filled it with hair accessories. 

Ok! Now all the pages are done!

 Figure out the order you want them in and lay them right sides together. Sew most of the way around but leave enough space to turn them right-sides out. Then just turn the edges of the open area under and top stitch all the way around.  Remember this will give you a front and a back to a page, not a spread. Does that make sense? Just be sure to lay all the pages out first so you can see how they will have to be sewn together. 

This makes a front and a back to a page:

And this is a spread:

But see how each counting bead page is sewn to another page? Not to themselves?

Once all the pages are sewn front to back, make two button holes in each page, about an inch above and below center, to line up with the rings sewn to the cover. And then you can put all the pages in the binder. DONE!

Here we are headed out on a road trip. Miss is happy to begin with....but I have the Quiet Time Activity Book to offer her when she starts getting crabby and bored. 

Oh, ya, notice that the book cover and the car seat cover match? I'd like to say I planned that, but I didn't. I just had the leftover fabric from sewing the car seat cover, so I used it for the book. 

Happy with the zippers! 

Happy with the counting beads! 

 Happy Miss makes Mom happy too!

~Jessica