Sewing

In Depth Guide to Joining Quiet Book Pages - Part Two of Three

Kyra

Dec 14, 2017 •4 minutes to read

Welcome to my second post in the three-part series for joining the quiet book pages together. The last post went over how to prepare your page sheets before decorating them. I’m assuming at this point you have two designed sheets. For this post I had already completed a colorful animals sheet and an applique animals sheet and now we’ll go over how to join these two finished sheets together to have a finished page. The series will be continued next with how to attach the grommets and some of the troubleshooting I’ve gone through.

How I joined my two quiet book sheets together to get a finished quiet book page. This is the second post in a three part series.

Creating your page

To start with you need two decorated sheets to join together. For this example the one sheet was reinforced with fusible fabric while the other sheet (or side of the page) wasn’t reinforced.

Finished reinforced applique animals page.

Finished colorful animals page with no fusible fabric reinforcing it.

Attaching the pages together

If there are dangly bits on the page start by pinning those pieces away from the edges to make sure they won’t get sewn into the seam as the page is sewn closed. Lay the pages right sides together with the back of the pages facing out. Make sure that the grommet spaces are on the same side and will make sense after sewing and putting right side out. If you choose to add a crinkle aspect to the page (I used an empty diaper wipe refill bag in this example though I’ve read of others using empty cereal bags) make sure it’s not between the facing pages. I placed mine down first and then laid the pages together. Once everything is aligned properly pin around the edges to keep it stable while sewing.

Lay the optional crinkle element down first and then lay one of the pages down with the right side up so you can see the design.

Lay the second page overtop of the pile with the right side down so you see the back of the page. Pin the layers in place. This page wasn't reinforced so you can see the design through the fabric. — Lay the second page overtop of the pile with the right side down so you see the back of the page. Pin the layers in place. This page wasn’t reinforced so you can see the design through the fabric.

Sew along the three sides; leaving the side with the grommets open.

Trim away any excess fabric that you may have so the edges of the page doesn’t bunch up.

I used a rotary blade to trim the excess fabric; scissors also work fine.

And finally trim the side with the opening and where I'll put the grommets. — And finally trim the side with the opening and where I’ll put the grommets.

Put the page right side out and confirm everything looks great. If there’s a hole at any spot along the seam you can always put it inside out again and sew over that section once more. The blank space left on the side of the page is for the grommets. If you want to sew a margin for the grommets mark a vertical line about 2 or so inches into the page.

Measure and mark where you are going to sew to close the hole and mark the grommet placement.

Marked the sewing locations with a disappearing ink fabric pen.

Sew along the opening to close the quiet book page and sew along the vertical line to create the margins. To reinforce the end of the page you could sew over the end more than once and you could always add a decorative stitch.

If you want a more hidden seam you can leave a smaller space open while sewing around the edges and once you put the page right side out hand sew it closed with thread matching the fabric.