Cloth counting/quiet book for a mystery baby!

Within the span of about an hour on Friday night I went from having an idea for a cloth counting book to sketching out a plan and cutting the fabric.    So here’s a peek at the finished product.  I’m so hyped!!! I can’t believe how well it turned out.  Or how sad I am that I made it as a gift and have to give it away!!  Now I’ve started to work on one for my son so I can keep it around.  I personalized the cover so had to hide the name so the wonderful mom who reads my blog doesn’t discover what I’ve made her child for Christmas.

Embroidered cover.

This was my first attempt so there’s some things to iron out but I’m totally impressed with how it turned out!! Plus, in my opinion, the little things that make it imperfect are just fun details that come from a totally handmade gift crafted with love!  I added a loop to attach some links for the stroller etc.

Here’s a glimpse at what I put on each page.

Page 1 and 2.

I only bought one thing and that was yellow thread so I could machine sew the sun.  Other than that, I made the entire project out of things I already had on hand, which I thought was pretty frugal and resourceful, but my husband said it means I have way to much stuff.

Pages 3 and 4.

I started with 3 little mice and then realised how cute it would be to tie in some fairy tale reference, so there it is.  Their tails are yarn and freely flop around.  the tail on the kite is thick pink rick rack.  The mice and the number 4 are made out of super soft minky fabric.

Pages 5 and 6.

I used Steam a Seam and fused the handprint on, cut from pink flannel. The flowers are from my scrapbooking supplies, with button centres and embroidered stems.

Pages 7 and 8.

This page was a bit finicky.  I used ribbon, again what I had on hand, for the rainbow.  For my next book I think I’ll purchase thick ribbon for this page, it was a bit tricky to work with the thin ribbons.  However, the lumps and bumps here and there in the rainbow give it character!  I was a but stumped for page 8 and was going to use butterflies when I thought of stamping instead.  I was trying to vary the textures and colours in the book so this was a good opportunity to use something different.

Pages 9 and 10.

This is the super 3D double spread!  The buttons were a piece of cake.  The bows were a little more involved, tying them was one adventure and then sewing them on to make sure they weren’t going to undo was another!  I wish I had made the number 10 a little bit bigger but oh well.

Backcover with my label.

My labels, which I finally got around to making, which I suppose is another post.  This book was great fun to make and I made it in a about 3 sessions at the machine, started Friday night done Sunday noonish.  Working on a tutorial to post soon.