Tutorials

Friday, February 12, 2016

Quiet Books::Beads-On-A-String/ Shapes Matching

Beads on a String


My 18 month old got this beads-on-a-string page instead of tic tac toe. I used a few fused felt scraps from making letters for their name to make a 'bridge' to go under.  Next they go through a key ring that I just zig-zag stitched on.   Then a piece of denim for a tunnel.  If I were making this page again I would make it into three separate strings instead of one long one--it gets pulled way out of whack.  That and my string is too thick. It takes two hands to move the beads along--Gretta is not that coordinated yet.

Shapes Matching


The girls got a shapes-matching 2-page spread.  This one was fun to make too. I wasted used up a lot of time searching the internet for good shape patterns to print out until I finally decided that I could just draw up my own before I found ones that were the right size and shapes I needed. As you can probably tell by my asymmetrical stars. (notice the heart is missing its Velcro dot. use dots made to stick to fabric.)


To make Mariah's (5) a little more challenging she has to match the shapes to the words instead of the outline. Letter recognition!  I don't know if many 5 year olds know what a trapezoid is, but Mariah will! lol. I wasn't thinking about that when I made it. Perhaps a diamond or something else would be a better choice. 

For the pocket I just  cut out a large rectangle and with right sides together stitched around the edge leaving a 3-4 inch gap open along the bottom to turn right side out.  After the corners are pulled with a pin to make them sharp and the whole thing pressed, center your zipper along the top and with your zipper foot, stitch as close to the zipper as you can.  Then pin your pocket in place-the bottom of your zipper is now attached to the pocket. Topstitch all around the pocket and then around the top of your zipper.

Not only do you get shapes and color and letter recognition, but you get the zipper action with this page too!

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