Mental and physical health child is the main task of parents, educators and other specialists. From birth, the baby’s development occurs continuously and every second. To increase the efficiency of this process, you need to do the world varied, vibrant and educational. To do this, it is necessary to create certain conditions. One option is to make educational books with your own hands.

Types of educational toys

The leading activity of a child from birth to three years is play. This fact must be taken into account and actively used in the development and education of the baby. It is impossible to imagine any game without toys. But they must be useful for the child and correspond to his age characteristics.

It is not necessary to buy a toy or educational book that is useful for development in a store for a lot of money. You can easily make it yourself from scrap materials. There are many ways and step by step instructions, how to make a toy or how to sew an educational book with your own hands.

Such items can be divided into several categories:

• books;
• cubes;
• panels and rugs;
• pillows;
• stands;
• houses;
• animal figures, etc.

This article will talk about how to make educational books with your own hands. We will also consider the purpose of such toys.

What types of educational books are there?

As a rule, such educational toys are intended for children aged one year and older.

According to their purpose, they can be divided as follows:

Why do you make soft educational books with your own hands? They stimulate development fine motor skills hands This has a positive effect on the child’s mental development, as well as on the formation of speech.

Materials for making educational books

People often think that making an educational toy or book requires expensive materials and special skills. Not at all!

In order to make educational books with your own hands, all you need is a desire. Here you can use various available materials, such as:

• paper and cardboard;
• fabric, including felt, fleece and even knitwear;
• artificial fur;
• leather or leatherette;
• threads different thicknesses;
• ribbons;
• Velcro;
• buttons;
• beads;
• cords;
• buttons;
• bells, bells;
• rustling cellophane wrappers;
• cereals (rice, peas, buckwheat);
• ready-made applications.

Educational books made from fabric are very interesting. You can combine it with your own hands different kinds: cotton and felt, silk and knitwear and the like.

Book made of cardboard and paper

This type of product is intended for children from one year old. The book may contain information about one animal, color or shape. You can do it using a photo album, files, cardboard and plastic rings. Let's look at how to make a paper educational book with your own hands. A master class on making this type of book is described below.

Necessary materials:

Manufacturing stages:

1. For a book using a photo album or files, you need to fill each page (file) with cardboard the same size as the file. To do this, cut out cards from thick paper to fit the page. If the book consists only of cardboard, without files and an album, then you need to cut the pages from thick double-sided material of the same size.
2. So, we are making a developmental book with our own hands. You can cut out photos from magazines, coloring books, or simply draw them yourself. You can also find pictures online and then simply print them out or take pictures of the items you need and then paste the photos into an album.
3. Options for placing images on the page:

• one large picture on one page;
• one large photo and several small ones;
• image + poem or short story.

4. Insert pictures into an album or file. If the book does not have files or an album, you need to connect the cards together using plastic rings, after making holes with a hole punch.

To make a cardboard book last a long time, you can laminate the pages before binding.

DIY cardboard and fabric educational book: master class

This type of product is similar to the previous one. It is suitable for children from one year old.

Necessary materials:

Manufacturing stages:

1. A cardboard and fabric developmental book begins with preparing the base. We make patterns with our own hands from separate sheets of thick cardboard of the same size.
2. Next, we cut out a blank from the fabric in the form of two horizontally located pockets. The size of one part is equal to the size of the cardboard blank. We sew along the edges and in the middle. We get two identical pockets.
3. Then we insert a cardboard blank into each of them and sew it up using a typewriter. The base is ready!
4. We add developing elements consisting of threads, buttons, lacing and other types of sewing accessories.
5. We put the blanks with pictures and educational elements together and sew them in the middle on a typewriter, thereby connecting them together and forming a book.

Felt books

Do-it-yourself educational books made from felt are very popular with children due to their bright colors and soft texture of the material. Making such toys is in many ways similar to making products from cardboard and fabric. Their topics can be very diverse and depend on the tasks assigned. This book is suitable for children from 6 months (without using cardboard) and from 1 year (with cardboard).

Necessary materials:

Manufacturing stages:

1. Formation of pages. To do this, you will need felt, which must be cut into rectangles of the same size. Next, we sew two rectangles together using a blanket stitch either by machine or by hand. If the base is cardboard, then it needs to be placed between layers of fabric, and only then stitched.
2. We decorate the finished pages of the book using appliqué, threads, sewing accessories, lacing, based on the theme of the book and the assigned developmental tasks.
3. Connecting the pages. When making educational books for children with your own hands, there are many ways to secure the pages:

• alternate stitching by hand.
• securing the pages with a kind of felt binding. To make it, you will need a strip of fabric: the length is equal to the length of the book page, and the width is the total thickness of all pages plus the distance between them. For convenient opening and closing of the book, the distance between the pages should be 0.2-0.5 cm.
• If there is cardboard at the base, then it is better to make double pages (spreads), and they should be stitched in the middle, according to the principle of fastening sheets in a regular notebook.

It’s easy to make soft educational books with your own hands. They amuse kids a lot, arouse interest and thereby stimulate their development. Let's look at several options for making pictures for educational books.

Sun

To make a sun figure you will need:

• yellow fabric;
• threads, cords;
• scissors;
• needle and thread.

Cut out two circles of the same size from the fabric. Between them at the edges we add threads and cords of different thicknesses, sizes and textures. These will be rays. We sew the resulting blank and fix it on the page of the book. You can weave braids from rays or tie them into ponytails, and make eyes from buttons.

This option is perfect for studying color, shape, and the concepts of “day” and “night.”

Octopus

In order to make an octopus, you need:

• cardboard for stencil;
• textile;
• scissors;
• buttons for making eyes;
• small cereals or bells;
• threads with a needle.

We begin creating an octopus by making a stencil. For this you will need cardboard and a pencil. On cardboard we draw the body and tentacles of the octopus, and then cut out the stencil along the contour. We apply it to the fabric, first bending it in half, tracing it, and then cutting it out. It turns out two identical blanks. We sew them together.

We add cereal to the tentacles or sew bells on the bottom. We install buttons in place of the eyes and attach the octopus to the page of the educational book.

This option promotes the development of fine motor skills, which has a beneficial effect on the child’s mental development, as well as on speech development. In addition, with the help of an octopus, you can form concepts such as color and sea inhabitants.

Butterfly

To make a butterfly you will need:

• stencil cut out of cardboard;
• felt;
• textile;
• scissors;
• threads with a needle.

Place the stencil on the felt and trace along the outline using chalk or a pencil. Cut out the resulting blank. From fabric of the same color as felt, cut out a square slightly larger than a butterfly. We sew the fabric to the page of the book in the form of a pocket in which we hide the butterfly.

Using the same principle, you can make several multi-colored pockets and butterflies, and then place them on the page of an educational book. You can also hide not one, but two butterflies of the same color, but different sizes, in one pocket.

This option is perfect for developing a child’s concepts of color, size, and insects.

Velcro applications

To make applications you need to prepare:

• felt;
• scissors;
• Velcro;
• needle and thread.

First, we cut out from felt the figures needed for the book: animals, trailers, trains, cars, etc. Using a needle and thread, we attach Velcro to the figures. On the page of the book where the figures will be attached, a thematic background should be selected, that is, a railway for a train or animal houses and the like.

This option can be used to develop thinking, familiarize yourself with the world around you, and dramatize your favorite fairy tale.

Lace applique

Children love to lace up something, so this passion can be used to advantage. As an idea, you can use an applique consisting of boots with laces. How is such an educational book made with your own hands? Its patterns are very simple, and the result will greatly amuse the baby.

To make such an application you will need:

We make boots from fabric or felt using a stencil. We make holes for the laces and decorate them with fittings. We sew the shoes to the page of the educational book and tie the laces.

Thanks to such an applique, a child can easily learn what kind of shoes there are, develop fine motor skills, learn to pull, stretch, and lace.

Whatever version of the product is chosen, it will always be of interest to the baby. And educational books made with your own hands will bring the child not only double benefit, but also joy, since they will also contain a piece of maternal warmth. And this is one of the most important components of the development of a little person.

A soft educational book will help your child improve and learn new things. Mom will sew it from scraps, braid, and beads left over from needlework.

Developmental book design ideas

1. Try to keep the pages of different colors so that the child can distinguish between them from infancy. It would be good if there were inscriptions with the name of the color. Then he will remember how these words are written.
2. So that your child can develop fine motor skills and thinking, come up with tasks for him. So, the pages may have elements that are attached to the base using Velcro or buttons. For example, vegetables that need to be “planted” in the garden, apples and mushrooms, will be attached by the child to the hedgehog. Having removed the element with buttons, the child will see something interesting behind it. By unzipping the zipper, the baby will reveal the ladybug's wings.
3. On some pages you need to sew pockets so that the child can put objects there suitable shape and size. On others, sew a sneaker made of leather or fabric so that the child learns how to tie lacing, thereby gaining the necessary skill.
4. So that he can braid his hair, sew several ribbons nearby. Show your baby how to do it.
5. To help your child learn to count, number the pages by sewing a specific number onto each page in order.
6. Each page of the book is dedicated to something. For example, one is garden-themed, another is animal-themed, the third is rainbow-themed, and the fourth is marine-themed.

How to make a cover for a soft educational book?

Its dimensions depend on what you want the soft educational book to be. Take fleece or felt with your own hands. These fabrics are soft and hold their shape. You can use both canvases at once, one for the top part of the binding, the other for the inside.

The rectangle should be of such a size that you can still add a 1 cm seam allowance and a 5 cm allowance on the central fold. If you will have appliques on the cover, then sew them on the front side first. Then fold the two sheets of the page so that the wrong side is at the top, stitch along the edge, leaving 15 cm free on the small side. Through this hole, you turn the workpiece right side out, insert into it a rectangle of padding polyester smaller than the cover.

Another option is to make separate pages, make holes in them with a special tool, attach rings here so that the pages can be laced together, connecting them.

You can combine them with a flap, one edge of which you sew to the first page of the binding, the second to the last. This flap needs to be basted to each page so that from the binding side they look like an accordion.

DIY soft book - master class

Now you know how to make a binding for it. Here's how to design one of the pages. Ask your child to place fruits and berries in the vase; they will be attached using buttons and Velcro.

You will need to make the page:

• rectangle of fabric;
• pieces of canvas;
• large buttons;
• needle and thread;
• buttons;
• Velcro;
• thin padding polyester.

Master Class:

1. From thick fabric, cut out all the parts that you will sew onto the page. It's better if they are paired.
2. Sew both layers of round berries using a zigzag stitch, also use a sewing machine to make a loop in the center and cut it. Sew a strawberry. Attach a green tail to it.
3. Cherries can be crocheted in the round. On the reverse side, sew buttons to them, paired elements of this fittings, as well as buttons to the page of the book.
4. Take a piece of fabric measuring 20 by 20 cm, and apply the same on it. These parts are placed right sides together and stitched along the edge, leaving a gap through which the resulting bag is turned right side out. You need to smooth out its seams, then insert a sheet of padding polyester inside, which is 1 cm smaller than the page on all sides. Sew up the gap on the arms.

Now the child will be able to attach berries to an improvised vase using buttons or Velcro.

If you want him to know the seasons well, then for such a soft book for babies, make 4 pages. To create them, you will need:

• base fabric;
• bright threads;
• scissors;
• tape measure;
• pins;
• needle;
• braid;
• threads;
• beads.

To create books, you can use the most unexpected materials, for example, fabric napkins, household rags. If they have a pattern, turn them over to the wrong side.

Cut out Christmas trees from a green napkin. Since they all year round have a color to show the winter landscape, cut out snowflakes, decorate the trees with multi-colored balls from napkins of a different color.

If a child spends the summer at the dacha, there is probably a fish pond there. Transfer this theme to a textile book by cutting out algae, fish, and aquatic vegetation from napkins or felt.

In spring, the ground is covered with bright green grass and flowers bloom. Tell all this to your child by making the appropriate application on the page.

In autumn, clouds appear more often, but the sun still shines. You can also sew a braid here to make it rain.

If you are satisfied with all the elements, then you can sew them directly onto the pages of the book. Sew large parts on a sewing machine, and sew small ones on your hands.

Where there is an autumn landscape, sew a thin braid on top, and firmly tie beads to these ribbons from below.

Since soft books for children contain quite a lot of small elements, attach them firmly, but do not move away from the child while playing with such an object.

If you want a car to drive across the cover of the book, then make small vertical slits in the center and insert a ribbon here. Sew the car to the base. Secure the edges of the tape on one side and the other of the cover.

This is what a soft educational book looks like from the inside.

It will be enough to tie it with a ribbon and you can close the book.

It will be interesting for kids to insert various objects, so sew pockets on the book in the shape of a steam locomotive. Make various animals out of felt. Let the child put these passengers into open carriages. Sew buttons in the shape of wheels and you can send the train on the road.

To help your child develop fine motor skills, sew threads in the form of a cobweb onto a book page and sew plastic rings here. Let your child thread the ribbon through them, creating a web.

Cut out a sneaker from fabric or leather, sew rings vertically in the center so that the child can thread a lace through them and learn to tie shoes. These skills will be very useful to him, as well as zipping.

For this book page you need to take:

• textile;
• lightning;
• wool threads.

Cut out the jacket and sew it onto a book page. Place a zipper in the center so that the child can fasten these clothes, and at the same time learn to fasten his jacket.

For kids, we can recommend one more page, which will have a soft educational book. Children will be able to dress dolls with their own hands, thereby learning this simple activity.

To do this, a doll made of a thick base is sewn onto the book, and Velcro must be attached to it. Cut out the clothing items for this toy. Place a cabinet in the form of a pocket nearby. Put the doll's clothes there, on the back of which you will sew Velcro in advance. Let the child put on the doll in the correct order.

Kids can be advised to make one more page of the book. Sew a thin elastic band here, pull it over beads, balls, buttons, securing them tightly. The child will probably like the proposed toy.

Playing with the first book in his life, the baby will learn to assemble a pyramid according to height and color. To do this, take:

• textile;
• filler;
• Velcro;
• needle and thread.

Cut out rectangles from fabric of different colors, sew them along the edges, leaving a small end free. Place the filling through it, then sew it up. On the reverse side, sew Velcro onto the resulting sausage, and attach their paired parts to the book. Let the child assemble the pyramid, first with the help of his parents, then on his own.

He will probably enjoy putting the bear to bed and covering it with a blanket. With such a toy, the child will soon fall asleep with company.

So that he knows that evening is coming and it’s time to go to bed, make a figure of the month on the next page. When the baby wakes up, he will look with pleasure at the sun, which will smile kindly at him.

DIY educational book for baby boys

Young gentlemen have loved cars since childhood, so use them to create a soft educational toy.

Take:

• colored fabric;
• buttons;
• small household sponges;
• markers.

Use scissors to cut cars out of sponges, glue large button wheels to them, and paint the cars. Make pages for a book from fabric and sheet filling. To help your child learn the numbers, sew them one by one on each page in the form of a pedestrian crossing.

We sew only on the right pages, the left ones will become a garage. Attach Velcro here, as well as on the back of the cars, so that the child can park his vehicle at night.

If children are small, it is better not to attach buttons to the lips, but to draw wheels. Or you need to constantly monitor children during such a game so that they do not harm themselves with small objects torn off.

For another baby boy book, use fabric in bright colors. Your child will love playing the fireman you create from fabric.

Let his car have a rising boom, this can be done by securing two elements with two buttons. Make a gate with a Velcro lock so that, if necessary, a child can open it and get into the building that is on fire. The braid will turn into a firefighter, the boy will enjoy playing with such objects and feel like a fireman.

Soft books on the theme of home farm and vegetable garden

You can also make soft books on this topic. This is a wonderful experience for kids; they will learn the names of animals and know how to care for them. You will tell us what vegetables can be grown, how to collect and store them.

Let's start with the home farm.

The chicken and duck are cut out of felt, and other items in the book are made from the same material. Let the door in the house open, to do this, sew a button on it, and next to it an elastic loop. The window will also swing open; secure it with two ribbons.

A fence is made from rectangular strips of fabric; turn the green fabric into grass and into a tree crown. Edge the pages with folded strips of fabric. After which the soft book is ready, you can buy it, of course, but it is very expensive, and your own can be created from leftover material.

After all, to create vegetables for the garden you need very small scraps. Cut out triangles from orange ones, sew them in the form of cones, fill them with filler through the top hole, and sew green fleece tops here. Now the carrots are ready. To “plant” it in the garden bed, place the braid horizontally and sew it so that the root vegetables fit between the seams. Attach a large pocket nearby, this is where the child will put the harvest.

Place a bunny nearby, let the baby know that this animal really loves carrots. Also in such a book you can sew a flower in the form of a pocket into which a bee will fly and collect nectar.

The butterfly flutters over the flowers, so it would also be very appropriate here. You can sew a zipper between its back wings; when you close it, it will turn into a semicircular bug. By unfastening the snake, you will transform it back into a butterfly.

If you want your child to know that caterpillars appear first, and after pupation they turn into butterflies, then make the body of this insect separately in the form of a sausage. The child will insert it into the ribbon between the wings, thereby turning the caterpillar into a butterfly.

The bee is made of yellow fleece, black strips of braid are sewn across the body, and a ribbon needs to be attached to it.

The child will learn about the vegetable garden, pets, if the next book is made from fabric.

Sew characters from felt and attach Velcro to them on the back side. Then your beloved child will place them in the right order, gradually learning how to do this. At the same time, you will get acquainted with the fairy tale Repka.

Make secret corners in the book so that the baby gradually finds them. Let the hedgehog live in a mushroom house, only by opening the door will you be able to discover this animal, to the great joy of the child.

Children learn that chickens are children of hens by opening the hen's wing.

Tell the children how apples grow in the country. Make a fabric applique like this in the book and place the fruit here using Velcro. Let the baby tear them off, place them on the hedgehog’s needles, and secure them in the same way.

Apples on the tree can be arranged in another way by sewing buttons onto it and loops on them. The fruits themselves are made of red or yellow felt or other similar material.

Educational toy for girls

It's done in the same way, but it's a little different. The baby will probably enjoy dressing the doll, this was mentioned above. She will also be interested in hanging laundry on a line and taking it off.

To make such a book, you will need:

• felt;
• fleece;
• thin elastic band;
• clothespins;
• hairpins

From felt, cut out a rectangle measuring 40 by 20 centimeters, from the same material, but of a different color, make the same one. To the first one you need to glue a green leaf in the form of grass, sew on the fabric, cutting it in the shape of a basin. This is where the girl will get her laundry to hang it on the line. Use a thin elastic band for this.

Cut out various items of clothing from fleece and felt. Let the child hang them on a rope using real clothespins and bobby pins.

The next textile book is made in pink tones that girls like.

To make one, take:

• textile;
• beads;
• button;
• wax pencils;
• threads;
• beads.

Sew the pages of a book from the main fabric; if it is thick, you don’t have to put padding polyester or interlining inside. Attach a cat applique to the cover, tie a bow, and embroider the child's name.

You can sew a ladybug inside by making a slit in the center so that the baby insects can enter here. For a girl to learn how to weave a braid, on the next page there will be an applique of a young lady with long hair from yarn.

So that the girl learns neatness from infancy, attach an organizer for pencils and a handkerchief on the next spread. Velcro flowers next to the vase will hint to her that she needs to place them in this container. The linen closet stores doll clothes that the child will be happy to put on them. But you read about this earlier; the young housewife will also like this kind of entertainment.

Perhaps she would like to become a doctor if she opens the next page of the soft book. The pockets here contain various animals made of felt; on the other side there is a cabinet, upon opening which the child will find objects simplest help, learn to provide it.

Learning to count using a soft educational book

Just like that, in passing, the child will remember how the initial numbers are written, if you don’t forget to number the pages. To help him learn to count, make the following soft educational book. To create it you will need:

• base fabric;
• laces;
• large beads;
• marker.

You will make pages from thick fabric. By making holes with an awl or other similar object, you will fasten several laces horizontally, having previously strung beads of a certain color onto each.

As you move them along, count with your child. To help your child learn to draw numbers, make appliqués from fabric. Sew a pocket where the chalk will be stored. Then the child will be able to take it out and circle the numbers, thereby learning to draw them.

In the same way, you can introduce children to some letters, then make syllables and short words from them.

This is how, in a relaxed atmosphere, while playing, a child can develop and improve, learn new things. It is very important for parents to show him how to handle certain objects so that a soft educational book really becomes one.

To make it easier for adults to make it, we suggest watching a fascinating story.

You will learn how to make a page for boys so that they know what kind of transport exists in the following video.

The girl will be happy to play with a book made in the shape of a house, put the doll to bed, wash it in the bath, and wash things in the machine.

Valentina Rodyukova

As the basis of the book, I took an A4 sheet and cut out fabric of different colors and textures to a given size, sewed loops on the side using a machine at the same distance so that I could tie them together later, and placed padding polyester inside so that the sheets were soft. Here are the pages with assignments I ended up with.

“On the seabed”: the octopus has 10 tentacles, each of which has a bead attached (we learn to count to 10, there are fish hidden in the waves and grass (they can also be found and counted, besides the fish there are other sea inhabitants that you can introduce your child to The page is based on blue flannel, the seaweed is made from felt, and the waves are made from cleaning napkins; button fish.

On back side- “In the clearing.” Here the child is not only recognizes the main colors of the rainbow, but also feels by touch how the rain rustles (there is an oilcloth inside the cloud, tastes the sun with beads sewn on it. The cloud can be moved aside and the sun will peek out (this is how we introduce the child to weather phenomena).And on grass made from fleece, you can grow flowers (count to three, sticking them on Velcro.

On the next page, made from bright silk material, a child learns to tie a bow or sew on a button. (both options are possible).A button is a circle stuffed with foam rubber, stitched along the edges, with slots for ribbons (in my case, 2.5cm tape).Another task is to string pieces of fabric of different textures onto a ribbon (the baby learns to fasten buttons and develops tactile sensations).

On the back of this sheet there are zippers that can be unfastened and fastened, thereby the child gets acquainted with the elements of clothing, and also gets acquainted with new colors and counting to 4.

On the page “A Little Train is Riding,” the child learns to count to 5 and correlates the number with the number of objects on the train. The carriages are made of felt, with Velcro sewn on the back side, so they can be swapped and confused so that the child remembers the order when counting. The wheels are made of buttons with different numbers of holes, the road is made of tape.

On the back of the page there are 3 flowers with a button in the middle. Here you can swap the petals (child develops fine motor skills through working with buttons, learning to combine colors, fantasy develops In addition, there are 2 heroes on the page - a butterfly and a bee, they can be planted on a flower according to design (on the largest, on the smallest, etc., thus the child learns the size (big small).

Purple page (gabardine fabric) with the task - show the way to the butterfly flower (development of fine motor skills and thinking)

And on the reverse side there is an abacus where you can move the beads and count to 10.

On the next page, the task for the baby is to put the mouse to sleep, covering him with a blanket (it is made with buttons on three corners (learning a new type of fastener)

My next task is to assemble a pyramid (it is made with Velcro).The child studies the colors of the rainbow, learns what a segment is, learns to correlate the size of a segment (short-long, develops fine motor skills. Nearby there is an abacus with moving beads (10 pieces)-studying counting to 10 and the relationship with the number of elements on the pyramid (more less).

Well, extreme (but not the last one) page - “Dress up the Christmas tree”. You can place a garland on the Christmas tree in different ways if you run the beads through the labyrinth.

The Christmas tree is made of felt and sewn into the base of the sheet.

I hope that The book will be useful not only for kids, but also for older children, because it doesn’t fine motor skills are just developing by touching details, but also many tasks with a mathematical bias, as well as development visual perception. Don't judge strictly, this is my first experience. And tasks with such a book You can come up with a lot, if only you have the desire, because every page can be played out and told to your child a fairy tale. There are many ideas for continuing the book, so the work does not stop. Goodbye!

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A year ago I received an order to sew an educational book. I thought about it for a while (I’ve never sewn books!), but agreed - it was interesting to try. And the customer Olya made me another offer that I couldn’t refuse :) She offered to publish in the Scrap-Info magazine a story about how the book was created - with details, tips and illustrations.

The article was published in the 6th December issue of the magazine last year. This issue was dedicated to the synthesis of scrapbooking and other handicrafts and turned out to be very interesting! On the pages of the magazine I met many familiar faces and names :) According to the editor’s terms, for the time being I did not have the right to publish the story on my blog. But now it seems possible :)

How I sewed an educational book: from idea to implementation

I have long dreamed of sewing a soft educational book. I admired the creations of other craftswomen, collected ideas, and studied master classes. But somehow everything didn’t work out - either there was no time, or the complexity and painstaking nature of the work frightened me. And then one day I received an order from Olya to sew a crocodile and a pig for a bottle. In addition, Olya asked if I would undertake to sew an educational book for her daughter. I doubted it a little, and then agreed - when, if not now?

I must say right away that this work turned out to be quite difficult and lengthy for me, but interesting and exciting.

Stage 1. Tasks and ideas

Taking into account Olya’s wishes, I decided that the book would include various game elements for the development of fine motor skills, materials of different textures would be used for a variety of tactile sensations, in addition, as the baby grows up, with the help of the book she will be able to learn basic colors and counting from one to ten.

Thus, it turned out that the book should consist of ten spreads. Each of them must be one of the colors of the rainbow, plus “black”, “white” and “rainbow” spreads. In addition, each spread will be dedicated to one number - from one to ten. This means that the number itself should be depicted there and contain tasks related to counting, as well as finger training.

And the book must also have a cover. On the front cover I decided to make a little girl’s face, a little like my little mistress, and write her name, and on the back cover I decided to sew a pocket where I could put removable parts so they wouldn’t get lost.

In her favorite “ideological” album, she began to sketch out sketches of pages.

Then it turned out that collecting other people’s ideas is both useful and harmful. The first thing that came to mind were ideas that were well-known and widely used - a ladybug with movable wings and legs, a snail with a bead inside, a child's face, etc. But some of them fit well into the concept of the book, so I was a little tormented by remorse, but still decided to use them, consoling myself with the fact that, firstly, I would still change these ideas a little to suit my idea, -secondly, the book itself will be more complex and multifunctional, and thirdly, my personal ideas will also be in it. For example, the idea of ​​turning lights on and off in houses at night. Honestly, I didn’t see it anywhere! :)

I spent the longest time with the orange spread with the number 4. I just couldn’t connect the color, the number and the plot. But in the end, four red squirrels playing hide and seek autumn tree, were tortured :)

By the way, at first I generally tried to connect the number series with the color sequence: 1 - red, 2 - orange, etc. about hunters and pheasants and one-two-three-four-five, but this turned out to be a completely impossible task for me, so I decided to leave this thought.

Stage 2. “White” sketches and thinking through details

At the very beginning, Olya and I discussed the size of the book and how to connect the pages together. After the rough sketches, I proceeded to life-size sketches, simultaneously thinking and writing down what fabrics of what texture and what accessories would be used, what in the book should be movable and what should be tightly sewn so that little hands could not tear anything off, what parts should be removable , what tasks should contain pages, etc.

Stage 3. Selection of materials from personal reserves

The easiest and most interesting stage. I love digging through rags, ribbons and buttons! I dumped out all my supplies of fabrics, ribbons, beads, and accessories. I sorted through, selected, applied and got a buzz, while at the same time writing down what else I needed to buy in order to implement my plans. Despite the fact that I have considerable supplies, the list of everything I need is impressive.

Stage 4. Purchasing materials

With this impressive list, I went shopping. Naturally, it couldn’t be done in one go. It’s one thing to come up with an idea, but quite another to purchase exactly what you need. Therefore, I had to abandon several ideas and change something, but there were also several insights - for example, when I came across rainbow buttons, the idea of ​​​​a multi-colored caterpillar made of circles fastened with these same buttons immediately arose; velvet was perfect for a black-night picture (“velvet night”, however), etc.

Stage 5. Patterns and stencils

Having drawn life-size plots of the book, I transferred them to tracing paper and cut out all the necessary details that needed to be cut out for appliqués and removable parts. For the numbers and letters on the cover, I selected a font, enlarged it to the required size, printed it on plain paper and cut it out to create stencils.


Stage 6. Uncover

I started with the pages of the book: I cut out squares taking into account seam allowances from the main fabrics, as well as squares of the same size from thin and voluminous non-woven fabric.

I cut all the squares in one fell swoop - it’s faster and more convenient for me. When cutting, I used a special ruler and a patchwork mat and a circular knife. I don’t understand how I managed without them before?

Using the prepared stencil patterns, I cut out all the necessary details for the appliqués and volumetric parts. Here the “one-size-fits-all” technique didn’t work - I cut out a part for each plot separately, otherwise I would have gotten confused - there were too many small details. I transferred the contours onto the fabric using a special felt-tip pen - the lines from it disappear on their own within a few hours or immediately after the fabric is slightly wet. When working with small details and appliqué, this tool is simply irreplaceable!

By the way, initially I transferred the contours onto thin non-woven fabric, then cut it out and glued it onto the desired fabric and cut it out again, finally preparing the part for sewing. I cut out all the details with scissors - a painstaking, long and tedious task, I must tell you, taking into account double work.

Stage 7. Sewing

Each square-page was glued first with thin non-woven material, then with voluminous one. I was still afraid that the pages would turn out too thin and would not hold their shape, so I decided to thicken some pages with thin ironed synthetic padding, but as a result, I overdid it, the pages turned out to be too thick, which affected the thickness of the book itself, and I had to tinker with installing the eyelets. Small parts, as I already said, were also all glued with thin non-woven fabric.

Then the fun part began - the actual sewing. First, I sewed layer by layer, after pinning large ones to the base and basting small details that served as the background (grass, wood, lace snow, etc.), as well as the main details (snails, ladybug, squirrels, elephant, numbers ), along the way, sewing in voluminous and moving parts (bush, blades of grass from ribbons, wings, legs and horns), some of which first had to be sewn separately, decorated and filled with beads (ladybug wings, pocket waves, elephant ear, etc. .).

I usually sew appliqués along the contour with a thick zigzag stitch - this seems neater and more reliable to me. I sewed some small felt parts with a regular stitch.
During the sewing process, naturally, I had to constantly iron the parts and pieces, seams and seams so that the final picture looked neat.

Then I started sewing the removable parts.

Stage 8. Handmade

It turned out to be a lot when sewing a book self made. Sewing on numerous buttons, snaps, installing eyelets, embroidering mouths and eyes, and even crocheting “apples.”

Initially, I planned to sew apples from felt, but they turned out to be too small, I was overcome by laziness and immediately had the happy thought of tying wooden beads with cotton threads. Volume and new tactile sensations from touching a knitted surface! One BUT, but very important! The apples are very small and the child must carry out all manipulations with them under the vigilant supervision of mom and dad. I tried to sew all the other details tightly, especially the buttons.

Stage 9. Assembly

Ugh! Finally all the pages are ready! Now you need to start stitching the pages into sheets and connecting the sheets together. The work is no longer creative, but rather technical. Having laid out the squares in order, with the right sides facing in, I stitched around the perimeter, leaving an opening through which I then turned the pages inside out.

To get even corners, from the wrong side I cut the corners diagonally close to the stitching.

Having turned it inside out, I steamed the pages; I did not sew up the hole with a hidden seam, but stitched along the top only along one side of the square, the one where the “hole” was.

Then I installed the eyelets, as I already said, “with a little trouble” because of the thickness of some of the pages, and connected all the sheets with a cord.

When we initially discussed the book, Olya and I said that we could connect them with rings. But, firstly, the book turned out to be too thick, such large rings were not on sale anyway, and, secondly, even if such a diameter had been found, they were all detachable and I would have been afraid that the baby might get her fingers pinched.

For the future, I noted for myself that to compact one sheet of a book, it is enough to use a thin interlining for each page plus between them - one layer of bulk interlining or thin padding polyester. Instead of eyelets, you can sew loops into each sheet and then connect all the sheets with a cord. I like the connection using a cord because the pages of the book can be separated at any time, changed places, played with individual plots, pages with numbers or colored pages arranged in order by color.

But will I dare to sew a book like this again? Eeeee... Probably yes! But only after some break :)

In order to sew an educational textile book for a child, you need to stock up on bright plain cotton fabric, thin padding polyester, felt of different colors, beads, buttons, snaps, ribbons, cords and other interesting little things that every needlewoman probably has.

Almost everyone can make toys with their own hands. To do this, you need wish, step by step master classes with a photo, and preferably, patterns)

Also for work you will need: a transparent plastic lid for yogurt or mayonnaise, transparent quick-drying glue, a magnet in the form of a thin plate, rustling film, a bell, a small carabiner, soap or chalk for drawing lines on fabric, cutting scissors, household sewing machine, iron.

Making a developmental book includes 3 stages

Stage 1. Preparation of pages

First of all, you need to cut out the pages of the future book from fabric and padding polyester. The most convenient size for children is a book size of approximately 20*20 cm. So the pages should be cut out in size 22*22 cm.

The fabric page must be placed on the padding polyester and a fastening machine stitch must be laid around the perimeter 3 mm from the cuts.

After the required number of pages has been prepared, you can begin stage 2 of working on the book.

Stage 2. Design of book covers and pages

In an educational book, not only the pages should be interesting, but also the covers. You can, for example, depict a large bright flower on the cover, the core of which will be made of a transparent plastic cover. You can place multi-colored beads under it. Flower petals can be made from hard felt in different colors. The background of the cover will be harmoniously complemented by colored buttons. Thundering with any movement, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow - such a cover will not leave any child indifferent.

The subject of the pages can be anything. When working on a developmental book, it is important to adhere to simple rule, - thanks to the artistic design of the book, the child should acquire and develop new skills and abilities, broaden his horizons, and train his memory.

A variety of technical techniques will come to the rescue here. You can attach elements to pages using buttons, buttons, or magnets. You can put a piece of rustling film inside the characters sewn onto the page.

You can intentionally “hide” some elements so that the child looks for them. So, for example, you can place a bee inside a flower, a ladybug under a leaf, a piece of candy in a felt envelope. Other elements, on the contrary, should be large, bright, immediately catch the eye and call for action, for example, a butterfly “flies” on a thin cord, on a snail shell there is a bright button that needs to be moved in a spiral under a fine mesh stitched on top.

Little children love different sound effects. Therefore, you can place a plastic squeaker or bell under an element on the page, for example, under the cap of a mushroom house. A window in the house, behind the curtains of which someone’s face can be seen, and a door that can be opened by unfastening the carabiner can also arouse additional interest in the little reader. And behind the door there could also be someone who lives in this forest house.

You can switch the child’s attention from the natural world to familiar toys, cubes, pyramids, and balls made of felt. They can be attached to the page using adhesive tape.

The back cover of a textile book can also give a child a surprise - just make a simple pocket on it and put candy or even cards with riddles about the characters in the book.

When all the invented pages are designed, you can move on to last stage working on a book.

Stage 3. Book installation

Covers and pages must be sewn together sequentially and in pairs. To do this, they are folded face inward and stitched along the edges, leaving a small hole somewhere for turning them inside out. At the same stage, loops and ribbon ties are provided and sewn in. Using the loops, the pages can be gathered together onto a ribbon, and the ties will serve as a kind of clasp for the book. The stitched pages are turned inside out, ironed, and the hole is sewn up. Then all that remains is to assemble the textile book into a single product.

Based on materials from http://masterclasso.ru/ - COLLECTION OF FREE MASTER CLASSES FROM AROUND THE WORLD