The first step in creating a quiet book is preparing the page base for activities.
In these instructions, I describe the fabric page preparation procedure, using cotton fabric. This fabric page preparation is suitable for the basic quiet book binding.
If you are thinking about bias binding (binding with decorative edges – not for beginners), you should use the page preparation method described here.
If you just started planning your quiet book, I suggest you read the Essential Guide to quiet books, where you can read about the process of making a quiet book. You will understand the correlation between page preparations and busy book bindings.
The page preparation procedure when you use felt instead of the cotton fabric is different. This method is much quicker and simpler, but the pages look different than the fabric pages. Here you can find instructions for felt page preparation.
FABRIC PAGE PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS
These instructions are the same for the no-sew and sewing method.
The final base page dimensions in these instructions are 21×21 cm (8 ¼ x 8 ¼ in). If you want to adjust the size of your quiet book page, make sure that the cotton fabric is about 3 cm (1 ⅛ in) larger than the interfacing.
In these instructions, I will use the temperature, steam and time conditions for the fusible interfacing which you can find in our store. If you are using another fusible interfacing, follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
Place the cotton fabric sheet, 24×24 cm (9 ½ x 9 ½ in), face down. The face side (right side) of the fabric is the one with strong, vibrant colors and the design is clearly visible. The other side is paler and the color details are not clear (wrong side).
Iron the cotton fabric and make sure there are no wrinkles on the fabric. If you do not have an ironing board, you can place two towels on the table.
Put the light woven fusible interfacing, 21x21cm (8 ¼ x 8 ¼ in) on the cotton fabric sheet with the fusible side facing down. Try to place it in the exact middle of the fabric. Fusible interfacing has glue on one side (wrong side) and nice, soft cotton on the other (right side). Make sure you identify the fusible side with glue. You don’t want to iron on the wrong side of the interfacing, because your iron will get sticky.
Heat the iron to maximum temperature AND turn off the steam. Press down. DO NOT IRON, only press and hold for 10 seconds. Then lift the iron and repeat until you fuse the whole surface. Make sure you don’t miss a spot, otherwise the interfacing won’t stick on the cotton fabric.
Once you’ve pressed the entire surface with the iron, wait until the fabric page cools down to room temperature. This process is used to fuse the interfacing to the fabric.
Take a cardstock or equivalent material template, 21x21cm (8 ¼ x 8 ¼ in), and put it in the middle of reinforced fabric. Use the iron (max temperature, no steam) to fold the fabric across the template and create the edges. Be careful: don’t iron at one place more than 5s with the iron. When you are done, remove the template.
Prepare the double-sided fusible web strips. Each strip should be 21 cm (8 ¼ in) long and approximately 1 cm (3⁄8 in) or less wide. Open ironed edges and insert one double-sided fusible web strip. IMPORTANT: Double-sided fusible web strip should always be completely hidden under the fabric edge. Otherwise, it can clog the iron or the fabric can cling to the iron.
Close the fabric edge with fusible web strip under and Iron the edges again (max temperature, no seam), so that the double-sided fusible web sticks to the interface and the fabric.
Repeat the process for all three remaining fabric edges. Open ironed edge, insert fusible web, fold the corner, close the edge and iron it.
The quiet book activity page base is ready, you finished the fabric page preparation! Congrats! You can now sew or glue the activities on it.