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Anticipated craft time: 4-5 Hours
This quiet book is recommended for children ages 4-8.

*Warning – This book contains small parts that may present a choking hazard for children under the age of 3.

The “My First Old Testament Book” includes instructions to make the following pages:
• A front cover for the book
• A “Match Up The Creation Days” page, with 7 snap on circles
• A “Help Style Queen Esther’s Hair” page, with hair strands and hair clips to braid or style the hair
• A “Help Jonah Escape The Big Fish” page, with a whale with a zippered mouth pocket and a Jonah finger puppet
• A “Help Noah Gather The Animals” page, with an ark with a peek-a-book door and a pocket as well as three finger puppet animals (An elephant, giraffe, and a zebra)
• A “Help Ruth Gather The Wheat” page, with 3 strands of wheat and 3 hook and eyelet pairs.
• A “Help Weave Joseph’s Coat” page, with 5 different colored ribbons to weave.
• A back book cover with a pocket for holding excess pieces when the book is not in use.

Supplies Needed:
• Printed fabric for the pages and pieces (Available for purchase through Spoonflower, I recommend the Cotton Canvas fabric for the best durability)
• Iron on fixative lining (For the smaller play pieces)
• Felt Lining (For the smaller play pieces)
• Ribbon (Thicker pieces work better, these will be for weaving Joseph’s coat and for holding hair clips)
• Hair Clips
• Cording or Yarn (for hair)
• Elastic (Optional – small piece needed if you want the book to fasten shut)
• A Button (Optional – helps the book fasten shut)
• A Zipper (5 inch, if it’s longer the end can be trimmed, for the whales mouth)
• 3 Hook and Eyelet Pieces
• 7 Sewable Snaps

• A Sewing Machine (Can also be hand sewn)
• A Needle
• Thread
• Sewing Pins
• Scissors
• Seam Ripper
• An Iron
• An Ironing Board or Ironing Surface
• A Candle
• Matches (to light the candle)

*Note* A few minor design updates may have been made to the fabric & movable pieces for better usability.

Step One:

Iron the printed fabric. Then take it and cut out the 4 large rectangular pages of the book, each section should have two pages still attached in the middle, and when they are cut out they should look like the image to the right.

Put pages aside.

Step Two:

Take the leftover fabric with the various smaller pieces for the busy book and make sure you DO NOT CUT OUT the individual pieces.

Follow the instructions on the iron on fixative lining to connect the smaller play pieces to the felt fabric for stronger durability.

Start by taking the fabric with the smaller busy book pieces and cut the iron on fixative lining and the felt to match the size and shape of the fabric.

Next layer the three pieces of fabric. Felt should be on the bottom, iron on fixative should be in the middle, printed fabric should be on the top with printed side out (not facing the iron on fixative) You may want a disposable cloth, or bit a excess fabric for the next part as any over hang of the iron on fixative will be sticky and will gunk up your iron or ironing board if they touch.

Set your iron to a medium setting and press it to the printed fabric holding for three seconds before removing and pressing the next section. Continue until the whole cloth has been ironed. Then flip your cloth over so the printed side is down, and the felt side is up and repeat the process (again you may want to use a cloth on this part to save your fabric and your iron if you have any overhang).

Step Three:

Take the fabric with the various quiet book pieces to your sewing machine and sew around each individual piece, keeping your thread just barely inside the line of the design.

Special Note: For the finger puppets you only need to sew across the bottom section of them right now as you’ll sew around them to keep the layers in place when you attach the front and backs together.

Special Note: Sew around the yellow rectangle of the crown on the left, top and right sides, and follow the line of the crown on the bottom side, as you’ll need the full piece rather than just the crown shape for the page. See Image for example of where to sew:

Step Four:

Separate your sew-able snaps, and hand sew one side of the backing on each of the different circles representing the days of creation. (Note: Make sure you sew the correct or snappable side of the snap facing out – test with the other half of the snap to see if they fit together if you are unsure which side is correct).
  

Step Five:

Cut out all the pieces of fabric you have just sewn around. Note: Leave a large margin around the whales mouth (just cutting a line through the white of the two pieces, not cutting off the white, as you’ll need it to attach the zipper) and leaving all the yellow rectangle around the crown rather than cutting out the crown.

Step Six:

Take the page with the title “Match Up The Creation Days”. Hand sew the other side of the snaps used in step four to the inside of each of the creation day circles. (Note: Make sure you sew the correct or snappable side of the snap facing out – test with the other half of the snap to see if they fit together if you are unsure which side is correct).

Step Seven:

Take your hook and eyelets. Hand sew the eyelet part onto the back of each of the wheat pieces, attaching it in the upper middle section.

 

Step Eight:

Take your hook pieces and sew them in a line across the middle top of the page “Help Ruth Gather The Wheat”, leaving at least an inch of space on the right for a sewing margin when you’re putting the pages together.

Step Nine:

Take your cording or yarn and cut it into strips, making each strip about 7 inches long.

 

Step Ten:

Light your candle, then take each of the cut strips from step nine and move the ends of them towards the flame (without actually touching the strands to the flame) just get close enough to melt the fiber at the end to prevent fraying. Repeat on both sides of the strand with each of the strands.

Step Eleven:

Take your finished strands from step ten and lay them out horizontally, so the middle of each strand is over the crown on the page with the text “Help Queen Esther Style Her Hair.”

Then sew a vertical line across the middle of the strands, where they lay on the crown, anchoring them in place.

Take the extra piece of fabric with the crown, and cut out the bottom curve under the crown.

Push Esther’s hair down and to the sides of her face then lay the cutout crown over the strands and align it with the crown on the page, then carefully sew around the crown and over the hair strands sewing them into place.

Step Twelve:

Take a strand of ribbon and pin the ribbon in place to the right of Queen Esther, going from the top of the page to the bottom. Baste or pin the ribbon in place with the end dangling off the page. They will be sewn into the book when the pages are sewn together.

Step Thirteen:

Cut out the extra piece of Noah’s Ark. Carefully sew around the outside of the white square with the “x” and again sew a square just inside of the white square with an “x”.

When finished take a seam ripper and cut between the door lines you just sewed on the left, right, and top of the square, creating a flap to peer inside the Ark.

  

Step Fourteen:

Now take the Ark piece and line it up with the printed Ark on the book page. Sew around the bottom curve of the Ark to anchor it in place, but leave the top curve unsewn so that the finger puppet animals can slip inside.

Step Fifteen:

Cut out all the finger puppets. Pair the front sides and back sides together and sew around the left, top, and right sides of them, leaving your previous stitch to hold the bottoms and allow for little fingers to fit inside.

  

Step Sixteen:

Get your zipper. Lay it zipper side facing up. Then lay the bottom part of the whales mouth print side down over the top of the zipper. Line up the strait side of the whale with the strait edge of the zipper. Also align them so that the front lip of the whale is right by the silver tab on the bottom zipper strand.

Pin it in place so the zipper teeth are facing away from the strait edge of the whale (the zipper will look upside down), then sew a strait line about a ¼ inch from the zipper teeth.

Then fold down the whale piece, so that the print side is on the same side as the zipper. Sew another strait line with the fabric print side up. This will help your zipper lay more flat in the quiet book.

Repeat this process with the top part of the whale.

When finished zip the whale closed and cut off any excess white fabric from around the whales mouth. Leave the excess zipper in place.

Get the “Help Johan Escape the Big Fish” page and lay your zippered whale over the whale on that page. If you have excess zipper hanging off by the whales nose (if they had a nose and not a blowhole…) bend it under and tuck it back on itself, or clip it off. Sew around the whale, including over the folded under end of your zipper, and the back overhanging zipper.

You can leave the excess zipper fabric hanging off the page for now. It will be sewn in place when the pages are attached and can be trimmed after that point.

Step Seventeen:

Take your ribbons and cut them so that six of the ribbons are about 4 ¾ inches long, and five ribbon pieces are 6 inches long.

Light your candle and repeat step ten (the process you used for melting the hair strands) with the ribbons. Be sure to melt both sides of each ribbon.

When finished, starting at the bottom of the page, lay the shorter strands vertically across the page. Leaving a ¼ inch gap between each of strands, and make sure the text at the top of the page is visable. Pin in place or use a baste stitch to keep them aligned. They will be more securely sewn into the book when the book pages are sewn together.

Repeat that process with the longer strips, laying them horizontally across with page with the ¼ inch gap between each section. Pin/and or baste along the right side of the fabric so they will be held in place when the book pages are sewn together.

 

Step Eighteen: (Optional)

Take the front cover of the book and sew a button onto the right side of the page in the middle.

On the opposite side of the page (the back cover of the book) pin the small loop of elastic with the loop facing the print on the page and the edges of the elastic pinned at the edge of the page.

Step Nineteen:

Take the front cover of the book, and lay the page “Match Up The Creation Days” on top of it, so that the printed side of both pages are touching. Pin the page into place.

Make sure the elastic end are hanging off the page and the loop part is tucked in next to the print. Also pin down the excess piece of ribbon for the Queen Esther page so that it will also be sewn in at this point.

Step Twenty-One:

Starting at the bottom of the book, sew around the pages about ⅜ inch from the edge of your quiet book. Leave a four inch gap in the bottom of the book from where you began your sewing to where you end it.

Step Twenty-Two:

Clip off the extra fabric in the corners of your book (This will allow it to lay more flat when you flip the book).

Step Twenty-Three:

Using the four inch gap you left in step twenty-one flip the page, so that the print side is out, taking special care to press out the corners of the page as much as possible.

Step Twenty-Four:

Iron your pages flat. Fold up the edges of your four inch gap, and pin them in place. Then sew around the outside of your book (about ¼ inch from the edge) Start and end your sewing in the same place so that your four inch gap is sealed shut.

Step Twenty-Five: 

Repeat steps for your other two book pages. Before you flip these pages cut off the excess piece of zipper.

Step Twenty-Six:

Line up the two sewn rectangular pages (that create the whole of your quiet book) and pin them in place so they completely overlap one another. Sew a straight line down the middle of your overlapped pages, securing the pages of the book together.

Step Twenty-Seven:

Add all of your quiet book pieces to the book and congratulations, you are done! 🙂

Thank you so much for your purchase of this quiet book kit, if you found any of these instructions to be unclear or difficult please email me at babymybookie@gmail.com I’d love to get them updated and clarified to the best of my ability.

Spot cleaning with a light detergent and a damp rag is the best way to clean your quiet book, but it should also hold up if you remove all the excess pieces from it and wash it in the washing machine on a gentle cycle. Air dry only.

Please let me know if you have any comments or additional questions.