Lets make one thing clear. I never sew. I don’t own a sewing machine and my sewing kit well… lets just say I’m too embarrassed to take a picture of it.
In fact, I think this is the first time in well over a year it’s seen the light of day. Regardless I had it in my head that I wanted to make Mister C something out of all the felt that was piling up in our art closet. He’s been into naming shapes a lot lately so I thought something along those lines was in order. My first thought was to do a felt board of sorts with cut out shapes but I really wanted to expand on that a little further and I wanted something portable. In the end, I put together this little Felt Book of Shapes.
It’s fairly rudimentary but it works. It’s all sewn by hand so if you are needle and thread challenged like I am, I’m willing to bet this is something even you can make if you were so inclined.
I started off with 8 pieces of felt. One in each color of the rainbow along with brown and black. I figured we might as well have some good color conversations while we were discussing shapes.
Now before I get going with how I did this, let me reiterate… This project is a little out of the scope of the type of thing I usually do and I was creating as I went. That said, if I was doing this again I would probably do things in a slightly different order (like sewing the felt shapes on the pages before tying the book together…duh, right Jen?) but hey, you live and learn right?
I folded the felt into quarters and cut out the book’s pages that way. Sorry, no fancy measuring here. Then I went through and cut out felt shapes. Star, heart, circle, rectangle, square and triangle. Again, all by hand except for a couple shapes that I used cookie cutters to trace. I decided on cutting out two of each shape from any given color so that not only would the little Mister have a book of shapes but he could do some matching too.
I hand stitched the shapes onto the pages, leaving enough room for Mister C to find and place a matching shape on the same page. Using a fabric marker I wrote the name of each shape on it’s corresponding page.
I put the pages in rainbow color order using the black for both the cover and back of the book. I used the brown felt to make a page with a pocket at the end of the book, to store the extra felt shapes.
I punched a hole in the upper left hand corner of all the pages and tied the book together with yarn.
For finishing touches I tried to get a little fancy on the front and hand stitched some shapes and used fabric markers to give the book a title. So…..what do you think? Will the little guy like his Felt Book of Shapes?
Simple and educational – I love it! Such a cool little project that I think even I can do. Thank you for sharing 🙂
I love this! Simple, yet entertaining. Great for travelling too!
Hinna recently posted…“Mommy, Somebody Needs You.”
do you use anything on the back of the shapes to make them stick, or is it just a put it on and take it off before changing the page?
Nope, the felt just sticks to itself 🙂
Just had to stop and say this is fabulous! What a great idea, especially as a quick take along toy. Thanks!
I just made this. It’s so easy and absolutely adorable! Hoping to make many books like this. I’m so glad I came across your site! What great ideas you have.
Thank you! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Glad to have you following along 🙂