Learn how to make this sweet little DIY felt quiet book with a free printable pattern! This is a beginner-friendly project with simple sewing instructions. Quiet books are a great resource for helping little ones with fine motor skills, and they’re quiet! Who’s with me in wishing that all toys with sirens and loud noises be banished from the earth?! 😀
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I made this quiet book a few years ago for a friend. I recently found all the pattern pieces and I wanted to share them here for free!
This isn’t exactly a comprehensive DIY tutorial. Because this project is from a while back I don’t have pictures of the process. But I’d rather share this free quiet book pattern with incomplete instructions rather than not share it at all.
It should be fairly intuitive to assemble if you have some sewing experience but I’ll do my best to describe each page.
PLEASE READ: Disclaimer. There are beads and buttons sewn into this DIY felt quiet book. Make sure they are very secure or omit them altogether if your toddler has the strength to rip them out. They could be a choking hazard. Please supervise use of the book if you do include the beads and buttons.
DIY Felt Quiet Book
The idea behind quiet books is that they are tactile and interactive for toddlers to explore. So be sure you use a variety of different materials for little hands to discover.
Make sure you print the pattern at 100%.
For this book I cut out 4 ‘pages’ on the fold.
*note: I get all my wool blend felt from this shop.*
**another note: If you love crafting with felt, check out my many posts in the Felt Crafts section.**
Each page gets made individually then layered with another page and stitched all around the edges to contain the wrong side of the page.
For the cover page, I cut out the first initial, J in this case, of the name of the child the book was for. Then I stitched a layer of super-soft minky fabric to fill in the initial. The minky is so soft to stroke!
Free Quiet Book Pages
The ladybug page is very simple. Stitch the bug body to the page and use some mixed buttons for the spots.
The strawberry is double-layered. On the top layer, I stitched some seed beads very securely to mimic strawberry seeds. Then added the backing layer and stitched it halfway down on the page. I added a little butterfly under the bottom half of the strawberry.
This next page incorporates a few different skills. It encourages counting, shape and colour recognition as well as developing fine motor skills.
At the bottom of the page, stitch down one small square, triangle and circle, in different colours, and catch the end of a thin cord in the stitching. You may even want to tie a knot in the end of the cord before stitching it in to ensure it can’t slip out again.
Thread each cord with a different number, colour and size of beads.
Then stitch the matching shape at the other end of the page, catching the ends of the cords.
For the pear page, cut out two pears and use a blanket stitch to edge the inside of the holes. Machine stitch the two layers of pear all around the edges.
Cut out two caterpillars and stitch them together with the end of a length of ribbon sandwiched between them.
Stitch the leaf and stem to the page, then position the pear with the other end of the caterpillar ribbon coming out the top and machine stitch it right down the center.
The idea is that the two pear halfs are movable so that the caterpillar can be easily threaded through the holes.
This sun page is nice and simple too. 🙂
Stitch the sun circle down to the middle of the page. I made mine a little fancy with embroidery, but you don’t have to do that.
Punch 16 holes around the sun. A good hole-puncher should do the trick, but test it out on some scrap felt first.
Take 8 lengths of different ribbons. I used ribbons with metallic threads so they would be interesting to touch and also sparkly like the sun!
Tie a knot in one end and thread a bead onto the ribbon. Feed the ribbon through one punched hole, under the sun center and back up through the opposite punched hole. Add a bead and tie a knot.
The ribbons can now be pulled from end to end and the beads run along the lengths too.
Lastly I made this hot air balloon page.
I decorated the balloon with interesting metallic and scratchy ribbon and embroidered ric rac. Then stitched the balloon down and stuffed it lightly so it would pop off the page.
To finish off, I stitched the (brown) cover page to the (green) strawberry and ladybug page.
Then the (tan) pear page to the (blue) sun and balloon page.
Then layer and stitch a ‘binding’ seam down the center of everything.
That’s it! These are basic pages, but still so fun for kids to play with.
If you’re looking for more free quiet book patterns and ideas, I rounded up 45 templates and pages in this post.
Again, you can grab this pattern by clicking here.
Happy sewing!
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