I wasn’t going to post anything this week for Fat Quarter Friday but I found a tutorial for a fabric i spy book that I made about 6 months ago and never posted. At the time I had seen a few bloggers making their own i spy books by setting up a scene and then taking pictures of them. Those seemed a little too high tech for me, so I came up with these i spy books made of fabric and filled with some fun little items move around. The kiddo’s ended up loving them and they make a great little book to use in the car or the doctors office.
Fabric i spy book {tutorial}(allow 1-2 hours to complete)
Materials Needed:*small-med sized fabric scraps or a few fat quarters (see cutting instructions below for exact sizes of scraps needed)
*iron-on interfacing or batting
*little i spy items (see my below)
*make a 7×5 & a 16×6 template out of card stock
Cut out the follow pieces:*Cut out three pieces of plastic 4″x4″, or to your desired size
*Cut four pieces of fabric 8″x 6″ (pages of book)
*Cut two pieces of fabric 17″ x 7″ (cover of book)
*Cut two pieces of interfacing or batting 8″ x 6″ (pages of book)
*Cut two pieces of interfacing 17″ x 7″ (cover of book)
**Switch to a Teflon foot.** It will make sewing on top of the plastic much easier. Now take one piece of the 8x 6 fabric and one piece of plastic. Sew the plastic in place on one side, then place a few of the i spy items under the plastic. Now sew the other three sides. Just take your time sewing the plastic on and move the items around if you need to. The fabric will stretch slightly whereas the plastic wont, so just take you time at this point. Add embellishments to the fabric if you want to. I didn’t on this piece, but wish i would have.
Now take another 8×6 piece of fabric and iron on the interfacing. If you are going to use batting then just pin it onto the wrong sides of fabric. Now add some ric-rac or embellishments to the piece of fabric if you want. Now take the two pieces of fabric and place them right sides together. Make sure the piece of fabric with the interfacing is facing up. Take your 7×5 template and trace around it onto the interfacing.
Sew directly onto the marks you just made from your template, but make sure you leave a 3″ opening for turning right side out. Trim those edges, except where the opening is.
Turn right side out and iron flat. Be careful around the plastic, you don’t want to melt it. Top stitch around outer edges.
This is what the back of the page looks like.
Repeat with the other two pieces of 8×6 fabric. This time I added more embellishments to the fabric pieces before sewing right sides together.
Now that you have your two inside pages it is time to make the cover of the book. Take the two 17×7 pieces of fabric. Iron on your interfacing to one of the pieces of fabric or pin your batting onto the wrong side of the fabric. Now embellish the pieces of fabric however you would like. Have fun with it. Once finished embellishing, place the two pieces of fabric right sides together, with the one with the interfacing or batting on top. Now trace the 16×6 template onto the interfacing.
Sew on top of marks while leaving a 2″ opening for turning right side out. Trim excess fabric.
Turn right side out and iron flat. Top stitch around outer edges.
Back side looks like this.
Now lay the two pages inside of the cover like shown below.
Fold the cover over and make sure all of the pages are lined up on the inside and none of them are sticking out.
Sew in place on the left hand side. Make sure all of the pages were sewn in.
I wouldn’t suggest adding more then two pages to the book or you wont be able to sew the book shut. Just a little tip.
**Please feel free to use this tutorial for your personal sewing projects. You may link this to your blog and use any photo’s. Just please be kind and give credit where credit is due.**
Any questions or comments please do not hesitate to contact me. If you make one using this tutorial, please add it to my flickr group. I would love to see it!
Just a quick note to let you know that a link to this post will be placed on CraftCrave today [13 Aug 01:00am GMT]. Thanks, Maria
How darn cute is this? Thanks for sharing, Christina!
Christina… AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMGOsh, I am featuring this.. I am pinning this… I am MAKING this! Just need my sewing machine to get here! I just LOVE it!!!! Thanks for such a fab idea. And thanks for sharing this at Sun Scholars!
Wow- love it! Adding it to my list of things to do now. 🙂
I love this. I'm putting it in my favorites to come back to and make after I complete some projects I've already started.
It's really perfect. I'm definitely going to make one of these when our next baby comes along. It's just the right amount of pages and goes together simply. I guess you can tell I'm catching up on my reading and thumbing through posts. I love this one.
This is adorable! It is so important to stimulate a little ones learning by reading or naming things together. However, be cautious that this book is only used when mamma or daddy is around, never know when the small pieces might escape.
Thanks so much for this. My boys are too little for this yet, but It's a perfect start to make my own photo book. Same basic concept!!
Just love this idea. I’ve added it to NZ Ecochick’s homemade kiddies gifts ideas. I can’t wait to make one of these. Please check out this post on: http://www.nzecochick.com/2011/11/homemade-kiddies-gifts.html
I don’t even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was great. I do not know who you are but definitely you are going to a famous blogger if you aren’t already 😉 Cheers!
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Thanks for this sweet idea – I can’t wait to get started! You have so many great projects – hope to visit often!
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These are so darling! I made one for my toddler as a “test run,” and that went so well that I made one for my toddler niece for Christmas. (You can see the result here: http://jrmaddy.blogspot.com/2013/12/post-christmas-post.html) Thanks for the great tutorial!