"Busy Book" patterns/tutorials

[isaberg]

Anyone know of any patterns or tutorials for those great old fabric busy books? Is there another name for them? I've not been able to find anything, but I'm waiting for an adoption to go through and I'd like to make one for my little boy. Gotta keep distracted.

[Girlymomwithsons]

I have seen something similar, although I don't know what they are called. My friends mom made some for her grandkids. What she did was make a frame of very sturdy fabric, with some sort of thick clear plastic within the frame. So it's a 2 sided thing, but thick, am I making sense? Inside, she put small white foam beads, and a bunch of small objects, to make an I Spy game. Oh, that may be what it is called. Try googling that. It's not a book, but it's a good one because you can shake it up and see different stuff all the time, because the beads cover up a lot of the toys. It's a good talking game. Good luck with the waiting. I am excited for you to get your son!

[isaberg]

Ooh, the I Spy things sounds fun!

I found out these are largely called "quiet books." A Flickr search turns up some really great ones.

[slsurface]

I made one for my ds last christmas. I just used fabrics scraps from old T-shirts and other sewing projects. The only thing I bought was a small zipper. I used batting to make the pages a little firmer and give them a nice padded feel. The pages are 8-inch squares. There are 4 "activities": a zipper with heart inside, a pocket with a teddy face that stickes to velcro, a button flap with a picture under it, and a shoe with laces. The whole thing only took me a couple hours to make.

See this link for a photo of the finished project. http://archymommy.blogspot.com/2007/...-projects.html