This Biniboo Quiet book Mouse & Cheese activity page is excellent for fine motor skills and also for understanding the principle of causality.
You can make this Quiet book Mouse&Cheese page in the no-sew method, as long as you are willing to make some hand-stitches to fasten the cord.
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.
If you want to use the no-sew method, I kindly suggest reading an article about gluing before you start, to find out if your glue is suitable for making no-sew quiet book activities. Also, do a test and make sure your hot glue doesn’t melt the felt.
If you will make a sewn quiet book, make sure you know how to sew felt in quiet books correctly.
In these instructions, I use the temperature, steam, and time conditions for felt and fusible interfacing, which you can find in our store. If you are using felt or fusible interfacing from somewhere else, follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
I suggest you always try on a small felt piece if there are any changes when ironing.
QUIET BOOK MOUSE & CHEESE PAGE
NO-SEW & SEWING INSTRUCTIONS
STEP 1
If you haven’t already, first, create a fabric page base (sewing method) or felt page base (no-sew method). Download and print the FREE PDF Quiet Book Mouse & Cheese pattern for this activity and cut out all the shapes. You can find the pattern at the bottom of the page.
Put the paper pieces on a stiff felt, transcribe them, and then cut them out from felt. If you don’t want to waste hours searching for all the materials you need and transcribing and cutting the felt, check my DIY store where you can buy a pre-cut DIY kit for this activity page.
Do You Like This Activity?
Save plenty of time creating it by including it in the custom pre-cut DIY Kit. All materials included!.
Check if you have everything you need to make this quiet book activity page.
STEP 2
Iron on a piece of stiff interfacing to one of the felt of mouse-body. Use the maximum temperature and turn off the steam. Press and hold for 5 seconds.
STEP 3
Using a persistent textile pen on both mouse body felts, mark the spot for the eye. Make sure you draw your eyes on the outside of the combined pieces, as shown in the picture. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for a persistent textile pen.
OPTIONAL: If you don’t have a persistent textile pen, you can embroider the eyes. If you embroider the eyes, just put a piece of interfacing not only on one but on both back sides of the felt mouse – body.
STEP 4
Insert ear-felt piece and the grey cord between the two body-felt pieces. Glue (sew) everything together. IMPORTANT: At least 1 cm (3⁄8 in) of the cord must be glued inside the mouse. Make sure, you twist the cord.
No-sew method: Before gluing, make a small hand-stitch to fix the cord. Start the stitch on the cord, then go through stiff interfacing, then through the felt, and back. When gluing, squeeze two mice felt pieces together really hard. This way, the cord will be firmly fixed.
Sewing method: You can pre-fix the cord and the ear-felt piece with a drop of felt glue and then sew around.
STEP 5
Glue (or sew) two pieces of cheese together.
STEP 6
Place the cheese on the page. Put a glue (or sew) on the places that are marked with straight red lines in the picture. Do NOT glue the spot marked with the circled area. You will attach the mouse here, so leave it for now.
No-sew method: Make sure the cheese is glued well. Pull it away a bit to check if you fixed it well enough.
STEP 7
Make a mark with the erasable marker at the edge of the cheese in the circled area. At the end of the cord, make a small loop and place it on the page where you made a mark. The loop must not look beyond the mark.
STEP 8
No-sew method: Before gluing, make a small hand-stitch to fix the cord. Add a piece of the stiff fusible interfacing to the back of the page under the cord loop to strengthen the seam. Start the stitch on the cord, then go through felt, then through the stiff interfacing, and back. Glue the remaining edge of the cheese to the page to cover the attached end of the cord.
Sewing method:
Move the needle to the center and set the stitch length to 2 mm (1/16 in). Add a piece of the stiff fusible interfacing to the back of the page under the cord loop to strengthen the seam.
Sew the cord along the inner mark. Make several seams back and forth to secure the cord. You can pre-fix the cord with felt glue for easier sewing.
Move the needle back to the left and set the stitch length to 2,4. Now sew the remaining edge of the cheese to the page to cover the attached end of the cord.
You finished Biniboo Quiet Book Mouse & Cheese activity page. Congrats!