How to Make a Quiet Book

Seasonal tree quiet book pages, via Serving Pink Lemonade.
One of the projects I'm considering making for my children this Christmas is a quiet book - you know, one of those fabric books with zippers to zip and buttons to button and Velcro to Velcro into neat pictures. At first, I thought my 7 year old daughter was probably too old to enjoy a quiet book, but a quick look around the internet proved otherwise. She will definitely enjoy dressing a little girl in different outfits or making her own fabric Mr. Potato Head.

And trust me, ladies, these books are wonderful for keeping kids occupied in the car, in church, at the doctor's office...The trick is to only let your children play with their quiet books during these special times. If you let them play with their quiet book whenever they want to, the book won't hold their attention for as long.

Happily, you don't need great sewing or drawing skills to make a quiet book. You can find free templates or patterns for quiet books online. If you want to do something more unique, you can also use cookie cutters or coloring book pages - or even paper dolls - as your patterns.

If you Google "quiet book ideas" or search for quiet books on Pinterest, you'll find a great wealth of ideas, from the simple and traditional to the highly creative and detailed. However, here are my favorite pattern templates, for those of us who don't want to invest the time to come up with our own:


* Monkey with colored balloons (a la Curious George), artist's palate (for teaching colors), seasonal tree (see the photo, above), barn, road for little cars, mailbox with letters, numbered flower petals, tennis racket and ball, dress up child, and a jig saw puzzle kite - all over at Serving Pink Lemonade.

* Another road template.

* Simple shapes, including a fish, duck, kite, leaves, squirrel, acorn, crescent moon, and snowman balls with carrot nose, all over at Martha Stewart Living.

* Bible-related, including: the Armor of God, Noah's ark, David and Goliath, Jonah and the Whale, and more at Laura's Thoughts.

* Socks in the laundry.

* Mr. Potato Head.

* "Put your hand in my mitten," telephone, dress a girl, tuck a child into bed, lace a football, zip up a tepee, clock, and more at Modest Maven.

* Shoe tying (plus about a gazillion sample quiet book pages to inspire you).

* Rocket ship.

* Dump truck.

* LED Robot.

* Cooking breakfast.

* Astronaut.

* Forklift.

* Robot and rocket.

Not sure how to go about beginning a quiet book project? Have no fear! There are many tutorials online, including those at:

* Imagine our Life

* Serving Pink Lemonade

* Utah State University Cooperative Extension

* Elisa Loves

* And this YouTube video



Happy crafting!

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4 comments

  1. What a great list of resources you've collected. Thanks so much for including me on it.

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  2. Great ideas! Definitely on my to-do list!

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  3. I dont have a sewing machine and have never sewed but i want to make a quiet book for my boys how can i make it without sewing.

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  4. Anonymous, you could use fabric glue for most elements and hand stitching for things that can't be glued.

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