DIY educational fabric books for children

One meaningful and enjoyable way to get kids involved in hands-on learning is by making DIY educational fabric books for them. Not only are these cuddly, vibrant books safe for young children, but they also foster the growth of critical abilities like problem-solving, hand-eye coordination, and sensory exploration.

Fabric books, as opposed to traditional books, can be customized with images of animals, numbers, and shapes to fit a child’s interests. By including features that promote the development of fine motor skills, such as buttons, zippers, and flaps, parents can make them interactive.

The whole family can enjoy a creative project like creating their own fabric book. It’s a fantastic chance to create something original and encourage a love of learning via play.

Step Description
Choose a theme Select a theme like animals, shapes, or numbers that your child enjoys.
Gather materials Get soft fabrics, felt, buttons, and thread to create the book.
Create pages Cut fabric into square or rectangular pages, depending on your desired size.
Design each page Add simple shapes, letters, or animals using felt and stitch them onto each page.
Add interactive elements Sew buttons, zippers, or Velcro for activities like buttoning or zipping.
Assemble the book Once all pages are ready, sew them together along one edge to create a book format.
Finish with a cover Create a sturdy cover with thicker fabric to protect the pages.

About the benefits of educational fabric books for children

Fabric books are frequently referred to as quiet because the baby is occupied "reading," which leaves the house quiet.

A baby can be engrossed in such a book for a considerable amount of time, allowing the mother to focus on herself or her schoolwork.

Unlike cardboard or paper, these books don’t break or deteriorate when they are crumpled, twisted, chewed on, or wet. The book can be cleaned and ironed if needed, and it will last a long time.

Various fabrics, like fur or felt, or fillers like cereal, rustling candy wrappers, or bells are used to sew books. This aids in the infant’s tactile sense development. A fabric book helps a child learn independence and fine motor skills because of its many intricate details, like buttons, zippers, linden, and lacing. The infant will eventually be able to tie a knot, button a shirt, and other items with ease.

When a page in a book doesn’t reiterate the idea from the previous one, it can have free content. You can teach your baby colors, counting, letters, seasons, "day-night," "big-small," geometric shapes, and much more with the aid of this fantastic educational toy. Everything in this situation will be up to your imagination.

Such a sensory book is portable and will keep the youngster occupied with helpful activities when calm behavior is required.

Children’s homemade educational fabric books are an entertaining and imaginative way to stimulate young minds and encourage play-based learning. Soft, long-lasting books that can be personalized with various colors, textures, and interactive features to support the early development of problem-solving skills, shape and color recognition, and fine motor skills. Making these books at home enables parents to customize the material to their child’s learning style and interests, giving children a useful and interactive educational resource.

From what age should you use it?

  • Children under 1 year old can only be offered options that do not have small fastening parts.
  • Starting from 1 year old, you can already place large parts on the pages that can be removed and attached back, for example, on linden.
  • At the age of three, the content of the pages can be expanded. There are already many more different fasteners and clasps here, simple games that can be played together, role-playing games in the form of a fairy tale may appear in the plot of the book.
  • Older preschoolers will like a more complex option that develops logical thinking. Here you can place a finger theater based on a specific fairy tale or cartoon, complex games and tasks.

Materials

Use natural materials such as felt, fur, leather, woolen threads, chintz, silk, linen, etc. when sewing a children’s book out of fabric.

Bright colors (red, blue, green, purple, white, black, etc.) are preferable since they draw the attention of kids, especially small ones.

Verify that the plot’s color matches actual color. A dog, for instance, cannot be blue, nor can the sea be yellow.

Select a fitting design for the fabric. If the balloons are able to be "flowered" or "polka dotted," then a plain green fabric is required for the spruce; a pattern would not be appropriate in this situation.

You might additionally require:

  • cardboard;
  • synthetic padding;
  • cotton wool;
  • threads of various thicknesses;
  • ribbons of different colors and widths;
  • different types of fasteners – velcro, magnetic snaps, zippers, buttons, etc.
  • fabric appliques;
  • beads;
  • laces of different colors;
  • rustling candy wrappers;
  • cereals;
  • small stones;
  • bells.

The layout of each page, which you created with your imagination, will indicate what else you need to purchase.

To find out what supplies can be used to sew instructional books, watch the video below.

Where to start working?

Prior to beginning to sew a book for your child, you must:

  • Think about the number of pages.
  • Show your imagination and work out in detail the plot of each page;
  • Think about what each page of the book will teach your little one, and what elements are needed for this.
  • Choose the shape and size of the future book. The easiest shapes to sew are a square or rectangle. For those who have sewing skills and are confident in their abilities, you can choose more complex shapes – a circle, an oval, a boat, a flower, a sun – it depends on your imagination, sewing skills, thematic content of the book.
  • Decide how the pages will be attached to each other – you can attach them with ribbons, strips of felt, rings or laces. The most convenient size is approximately 20 cm in width and 25 cm in length.

You won’t be able to fit everything you want on tiny pages, and when the child is looking at large pages, he will become disoriented, grow weary easily, and have fragmented attention.

  • Select or draw the patterns you need yourself. There is no need to look for any specific patterns for your book, you can even use children"s coloring books.
  • Calculate approximately how much material and various decorative elements you will need for sewing. Buy everything you need.
  • Choose your free time to create a unique book for your beloved child.

Step-by-step guide and basic principles

Sewing books from fabric follows the same general guidelines; the pages’ contents vary only:

  • In order to sew the pages, you will need to cut them out of fabric and sew them on three sides (if you have chosen a square or rectangular shape).
  • Next, fill the resulting pocket with a material for sealing – this can be thick cardboard, foam rubber or synthetic padding – and sew up the pocket.
  • It is more convenient to do the design of the pages and cover until you have sewn the pocket, t. e. on the felt cut out for the page. On it you sew appliques and various details in accordance with your idea.

  • At the decoration stage, attach various fittings, ribbons. Then two sheets of felt are sewn together so that the back side is hidden.
  • The algorithm for sewing a book cover is approximately the same. The difference is that you need to leave a supply of felt for the spine, the size of which depends on the thickness and how many pages you make. Do not forget that the cover should be denser than the pages. To do this, if you are sewing a book from felt, it can be folded in half.

Making educational fabric books for kids is a great way to incorporate learning and creativity. These handcrafted books give young children a unique learning tool that can spark their curiosity and development, in addition to giving parents a fun, hands-on activity.

Fabric books stimulate a child’s senses by combining various textures, colors, and interactive elements, enabling them to explore the world in an enjoyable way. These books are ideal for small hands because they are safe and long-lasting.

You can tailor a homemade fabric book to your child’s interests and developmental stage. A homemade fabric book can be a great tool for early learning, whether your goal is to teach letters, numbers, or shapes, or if you just want to promote creative play.

Video on the topic

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Soft educational book based on the cartoon Three Cats

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Book for a baby. Educational book made of fabric for children

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Svetlana Kozlova

Family consultant and family relationship specialist. I help parents build trusting relationships with their children and each other. I believe that a healthy atmosphere in the home is the key to happiness and harmony, which I share in articles and recommendations.

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