Quiet Book Series: Page 1 - Summer Road Trip

Quiet Book Page Series: Page 1 - Summer Road Trip

Hello! This is Hannah from Homemade Heartfelt, bringing you this interactive road themed quiet book page tutorial. Busy books or “quiet books” are a long-standing staple for handmade children’s toys. I remember mine had zippers and buckles to help practice and get my fine motor skills ready for dressing myself in overalls and jackets. Now they have become that and so much more. The themes are endless! The basic idea is that the pages will entertain a child and they will be enthralled and possibly quiet (we can’t promise!). They are great tactile play books that are often reserved for playing with in the car, in waiting rooms, or during quiet church services.

 

Here on the blog throughout the year, I will be bringing you four individual page designs plus a quiet book cover to put them all in. I hope you will enjoy the first page: The Summer Road Trip page. 

The Road Trip Quiet Book page features a black road with yellow dashed lines on it, just like a real road. Children will be able to take the little car piece out of the house “pocket” and drive it along like they are going on a good ole’ fashion road trip. Traveling north of the red house they will see the curvy road warning sign, then approach the lake with cattails and go through the blue arch. 

Next, they will see the beautiful views of mountains, go through the green arch, and maybe even catch a glance of a bear! Oh my! By then it will be time to stop for some gas at the gas station. Children can pull their little car into the parking lot and pump gas with the mini gas pump that is secured with a ribbon.

Next, they’ll stop at the stop sign and pull in to get a car wash to clean off their windshield. On the last stretch of the trip, they’ll approach the intersection and obey the traffic light choosing to cruise home on the curved road, cut straight across town, or even drive through the grass. Can you hear your child making up imaginative stories as they play with this quiet book page? In much less time than taking a real road trip, you can sew this page, and maybe bring it along the next time your family hits the road. Let’s get started!

 

The Summer Road Trip Quiet Book Page

Size: Approx. 9x12 inches

Difficulty Level: Intermediate

 

Supplies to gather:

• Assorted Pack of 9x12 inch Craft Felt from thefeltstore.com
• Pastel Assorted Pack of 9x12 inch Craft Felt from thefeltstore.com
• Specific colors: Brown, Beige, White, Light Gray, Black, Yellow, Red, Apple Green, and Light Blue
• Grosgrain ribbon - approx.14 inches of 1/8 inch width (see mine in yellow). 
• Grosgrain ribbon - approx. 5 inches of 1/8 inch width  (see mine in yellow)
• Blue rick rack trim - approx. 6 inches length cut into 3 sections
• Polka dotted or striped ribbon of your choice - (2 pieces) approx. 5 inches in length (see mine in green and blue)

Note: You can find all kinds of ribbons and trim at your local arts and craft store. 

• Black and white sewing machine thread (optional: red, tan, and green)
• Sewing machine
• Iron-on Fusible Webbing (brand/style of your choice)
• Various buttons such as a car, road signs, bear*
• Super Glue (not pictured)
• Iron
• Rag or towel/washcloth
• Straight pins (optional) 
• My Summer Road Trip pattern printed out to your desired size

Downloadable Template here:

Summer Road Trip Quiet Page Pattern PDF

Instructions:

1. Cut out all pieces shown in the paper pattern. Pin the paper shapes onto the designated colors of felt. Cut around the edges. Please note that some shapes will need two pieces. Remove paper pattern and pins. Lay out your pieces, ensuring you know what each is and where it will go on the quiet book page. I like to lay mine out on a white 9x12 inch piece of acrylic craft felt, but you could use any base color you prefer.

Tip: When cutting out the two parking lots for the gas station, cut out the middle space in its entirety, then use the scrap piece you have removed as the boundaries for cutting out the two parking lots. This will ensure they will fit inside that area. There is no need to make the road and parking lots one continuous piece if it’s too difficult to cut.

 

2. Gas Station + Pump: Plug in your iron and prepare your ironing board or a Wool Ironing Mat from The Felt Store - they are a favorite amongst quilters and crafters alike!

a. Cut your fusible iron-on webbing down to the approximate size to use for the gray gas pump. Fusible webbing comes in a variety of styles and brands. You can use whichever you prefer, but I usually get the “HeatnBond” brand which is available at my local craft store. Follow the instructions on the fusible webbing package; for my mine, I iron the webbing onto the back of the felt shape, protecting the acrylic felt from direct iron heat with an old washcloth towel. Hold the iron down firmly, without moving it around and check it often to ensure it’s adhering properly. You may want to put a towel under your felt shapes as well, since often the webbing can shift and will gum up your ironing surface. It is melting after all!

b. Then I peel off the paper side of the webbing revealing another side of fusible webbing. Sandwich the small 5 inch piece of 1/8” yellow ribbon in between the gas pump shapes and iron again, protecting with the towel.

c. Some varieties of fusible webbing require a damp towel for this second step. Trim up the gas pump if it moved during ironing so the shape is clear and neat.

3. Road lines: Iron more fusible webbing onto some yellow acrylic felt and cut into small strips for the road lines. Line them up on the black road piece and work in sections applying them onto the road with the towel and iron. Double check to make sure the part with the fusible webbing is facing down, otherwise it will stick upwards onto your towel. I prefer not to have to sew all those little road lines down later, but if you would rather sew them on, you could eliminate this step. Additionally, some people like to do both the webbing and the sewing.

4. Preparing to stitch the road in place: Prepare your sewing machine with black thread and bobbin. I recommend using the zig zag stitch so that the edges of the felt are protected but if you prefer the look of a straight stitch, you can certainly do that instead. I find the zig zag stitch gives me more camouflage for crooked or messy stitches. Shorten the width of the zig zag stitch down from the default size. On my sewing machine that is from a 5 down to 3.5. At the beginning and end of each stitch, you should secure the threads by sewing backwards and forwards several times (AKA back tacking). This ensures when you go to trim your threads, that none of your stitches will fall out.

 

5. Pinning is optional. You can pin the road down onto the 9x12 inch sheet of white felt, but I find that I don’t need to pin felt to felt as often as with other fabrics, because it has a built-in friction, acting sort of like a hook and loop onto itself (that’s why felt boards are a thing!).

6. Sew around the outside of the road, keeping in mind where you want to insert the blue and green ribbon arches. I placed the blue arch near the lake and the green arch near the mountains. Initially, I forgot to do this and went back later to add them in, so if you don’t want to forget, pinning the ribbon in would be a blatant reminder! Simply tuck the ribbon under the road, with the design facing outward, stitching along the edge of the road and thus securing the ribbon on either side. Remember to sew backwards and forwards (back tack) to get a good hold, especially when inserting ribbons that children will ultimately be pulling on during play.

7. Change your thread and bobbin to white (I choose white for light colored felt because I don’t mind it, but you certainly could use white, blue, and yellow for these shapes if you want all matching threads and felts). Sew with the zig zag stitch around the edges of the mountains, gas pump, traffic light background, yellow traffic light, and lake.

8. Sandwich the gas pump ribbon in between the layers of the gas pump and gas pump pocket.

9. Since the lake is designed to look as if it is going off beyond the edge of the page, you do not need to sew the outer edge if you are going to sew this page onto the back of another quiet book page. I find it looks neater later on when I leave it off in this step.

10. For the car wash, simply tuck one edge of the rick rack under the gray rectangle and let the other end dangle like a real car wash.

11. Change the thread and bobbin to red. Use the zig zag stitch to secure the grosgrain ribbon – approx.14 inch long,1/8” wide down in the center of where the red house rectangle will be. Then sew around the left, bottom, and right side of the rectangle, leaving the top open as a pocket for the car. Also sew the red traffic light piece in place.

12. Change the thread and bobbin to tan and use the zig zag stitch to sew the tippy-top of the tan rooftop felt shape, so that it can be used like a flap to open the house. This way little children can reach their fingers into the house to get the car out.

13. Select the basic straight stitch. Sew the cattails onto the outer edge of the lake, carefully holding the flower head in place so it does not get pushed off the stem. I usually need to lift my presser foot several times during this process to ensure it is in the right spot, but of course, if you pin it then you don’t have to worry about this.

14. Change the thread and bobbin to green and return to the zig zag stitch to sew the green traffic light and the bottom edge of the grass shape. This leaves the grass the ability to be moved around (like waving in the wind) and be more fun and interactive. 

15. Trim all stray and excess threads on the front and the back of your page if you haven’t already. If you have any 3D buttons that you are going to use, hand sew those on now. I prefer to use 4 strands of embroidery floss and sew each button on at least 3 times for a secure hold.

16. Tie your car button onto the end of the long ribbon coming out of the house. Double knot it and add some super glue to your knot. Let it dry. You may prefer to make your own car out of felt which would be great! Use the same sandwich and fusible webbing technique as we did with the gas pump in step 2.

 

17. Trim the edges of your rickrack, which may have frayed. Apply super glue, clear nail polish, or any anti-fray supply you may prefer. 

18. Lastly, you may need to "stretch" the pocket of the gas pump by inserting a pencil or popsicle stick to widen the area so you can fit the gas pump in the little pocket. What a great feature of felt that it can stretch!

That's it - thank you for coming along for this journey. You now have your first page of what will be your own little quiet book complete!

If you make this page, please post it on social media and tag both @the_felt_store and @homemadeheartfelt – we’d love to see your work!

Also, stay tuned for my next quiet book page tutorial that can then be sewn onto the back of this one. If you have any questions or problems during your sewing, please feel free to or reach out to me and I would be happy to help you through it.

Important Note: Sewing on additional buttons is a personal decision, as this can pose a choking risk to children who may still put things in their mouths. Please use discretion. Children should always be under adult supervision while playing with any toy containing small pieces.

Happy Crafting!