embroidery stitches

Busy Book Pages 1 & 2

Ok, so since I got a little bit of interest from readers to see more in-depth how I did Little Man’s Busy Book I decided to give you some more details, 2 pages at a time.

Here are the first two pages, the window and the squirrel.

I made stencils for almost all of these pages, the same way I do for the appliques on clothing. I also used a sewing machine for most everything, but it’s possible to do this without one. It will just take a lot more time.

Let’s start with the window, shall we?

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Busy Book

Sigh.

I had grand plans, guys. I was totally going to have 2 posts this week. But it’s already Thursday and tomorrow is booked, so it seems unlikely that it will happen. I hope you forgive me. Hubs took Monday and Tuesday off this week, so we had a little vacation. Today I feel like I’m on turbo trying to catch up on laundry, household chores, and blogging. So I think instead of telling you intensive details about this busy book, I’ll mostly just show you pictures.

Scroll to the end for links to detail pages!

I started this book before my mom left, so late May/early June. And I didn’t finish until just before Little Man’s birthday. So 4ish months. Not counting the 2-3 months I spent thinking & planning. In reality, this wasn’t particularly difficult, and probably could have been done in a week or two, if I didn’t have, you know, a 2-year old.

I used mostly felt for this book, with patterned cotton accents. I threw in a little faux fur, craft foam, and various fasteners. Without further ado, here it is!

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New Sewing Machine

So I’ve been working on this project…

I started it while my mom was here, and I haven’t gotten as much done on it as I’ve wanted. This thing has been in the works for a better part of the year (It’s August already?? You’ve got to be kidding me!) and I’m just not able to spend as much time on it as I want.

It’s something I’m making for Little Man. Who is 22 months old. Which means that pretty soon this thing I’m making for him will be obsolete because it’s taken me so gosh-darn long to do it. Luckily it’s not clothes or I’d be completely out of luck. So far the parts of it that I’ve made he’s still been interested in, but I’m seriously pushing things here.

Anyway. The only thing that’s made it even sort of possible for me to do is my new sewing machine. I’ve talked to you before about how much I hate sewing machines. I’ve always hated sewing machines for as long as I can remember, and I assumed I always would. If you’ve noticed, the vast majority of fabric crafts on this blog are hand-sewn. So, imagine my surprise when I found a sewing machine I actually enjoyed using.

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