busy books

After becoming totally enthralled with homemade by jill, I was so inspired to make quiet books (or busy books, as we like to call them) for my nutbars. I thought it would be perfect for church or on long car rides when they have to sit still for multiple hours. So I dusted off my sewing machine (that hasn't been used in about 4 years) and tried to figure out how to use it all over again:) I am definitely a beginner sewer and have only really ever made pillows in the past...but I was up for the challenge. I figured the hot glue gun would work for anything I couldn't or just didn't want to sew:)

I had a few bumps along the way...the sewing machine and I got into a few spats...at one point both my husband and I were trying to figure out why the bobbin kept popping out of place every time I would start to sew(he is such a genius and figured it out)...but after two weeks of working on it, almost every night after the kids went to bed, I FINALLY finished them!

My daughter absolutely loves hers. I tried to make the pages with things appropriate for what she is into right now...like learning how to braid, tie shoe laces, etc.

She was so excited to bring it to church that she didn't want to bring anything else to play with. I said, "Are you sure you won't need anything else for the whole two hours to play with?" she replied, "No mom, I've got my busy book." As it turned out, she did play with it for quite awhile, but ended up playing with her brother's toys too:)

She loves arts and crafts and when she saw felt for the first time...she was ecstatic! She is now using the scraps to create her own artwork...it is very cute and neat to see her imagination going crazy! I think she will like sewing in a few years and I hope that I will learn more so I can actually teach her:)

My boy likes his too...but he's two...so he plays with his a bit differently. After playing with it for about three minutes, he was on to something else. He is totally obsessed with cars/trucks right now, so I thought for sure he would love the car page. I guess he would much rather have the real deal and not just flat pieces of felt to play with:)

Since some pieces do come off, like the shapes, he assumed (and rightly so) that ALL the pieces would come off and spent most of the three minutes just trying to rip the felt apart.

I think he will like it better as he gets older...I think...I hope.












All in all, I am so glad I made them. It gave me some much needed sewing practice and inspired me to do more projects in the future (I will take a break for now though:)

It feels good (and I totally recommend it) to make something homemade...even if it looks completely homemade:)