Quiet Book Cover

Hello! I'm Shannon's sister, Tori. When Shannon invited me to be a contributor on her craft blog, I began to hyperventilate. Then when the euphoria wore off, I came back to solid ground and began sewing! You see, Shannon is my hero and all my life I've been trying to be like her. Annoying, yes, but any of you who know her can understand why I'm obsessed with this gal.

A group of friends and friends-of-friends here in St Louis joined forces to create quiet books for our kids. This post is for the 14 girls working on this project that's due on the 30th of November. Here's my quiet book cover!

It was super easy to make, and here's what I used to make it:

• 1/2 yd. of prequilted fabric (catch this on sale at JoAnn's or use a 40% off coupon)
• scraps of coordinating fabric (for inside spine and handles)
• 3 yards of bias tape (wide single fold)
• thread
• button
• sewing machine

Assume a 1/2" seam allowance...

Step 1: For the book, where it's pages are 10.5" x 14," cut the prequilted fabric 25 3/4" x 14"

Step 2: Cut coordinating fabric 14"x 2". Fold and finish edges. ("spine")

Step 3: Cut coordinating fabric (two times) 12" x 1.5." Fold and finish edges. (handles)

Step 4: Fold prequilted fabric in half lengthwise, and iron crease to find middle of the book for the spine.

(sorry this picture is flipped- I don't know why it kept downloading it this way. This picture shows the green "spine" that the book rings will loop around to anchor the pages.)

Step 5: Attach "spine" binding to the inside of the cover, by stitching at the top and the bottom of the book (see above picture).

Step 6: Sew on binding strip, around the entire edge of the cover.

Step 7: To attach handles, lay bookcover open with with back of cover facing up (inside is facing down). On each 14" side of the book, measure 7" to find the middle. Then, measure 1" from either side of the 7" middle mark, and pin edges of finished 12" x 1.5" strip to cover. These are the handles! The handles should be topstitched to the outside of the book.

Step 8: Sew on remaining binding strip to 7" x 1.5" piece of prequilted fabric piece. (strap)

Step 9: Attach button to book and create button hole on strap.

You're done!

I hope this made sense. If it doesn't, please email me or make a comment...

Good luck!

dtcox04@gmail.com