Sew Pretty Dresses: Riley Blake's Happy Ever After!!!!

AKA The Easter Bunny Blog Hop!

It's MY turn on the blog hop and I am here to share with you how to make this fun little quiet book. Never heard of a quiet book? It's a book with manipulatives for a little one to play with when they need to sit quietly....like EASTER SERVICE!

Many families go to church that day. Many bring children to service. It is always nice to have something for them to do during the quiet moments! So whip up one of these and make sure it makes it in your special little friend's Easter basket and you will have one occupied child during service! Well at least for a while....=D

Supplies

1 Happy Ever After Princess panel
3-4 .5 yard cuts of coordinating fabrics
1 yard fusible fleece
4" x 24" piece fusible interfacing
1 button for your loop closure. May I suggest the Riley Blake Buttons? Just darling!
5 yards of ribbon for attaching to the princess and her wardrobe pieces

Let's get started

Cut and Fuse the Fleece to All the Panel Pieces

Cut out your motifs from your panel.

You will need:

a princess and clothing section
a bed and wardrobe section
a bed and wardrobe pocket section

Using your cut out sections as a template, cut out your fusible fleece and backing for the the pocket section.
Trim down your wardrobe section to the size you want your pages to be. This is now your wardrobe page and is your template for the size of your book.

Using your wardrobe page as a template cut out one more book page, piece of fusible fleece and backing which will actually be your cover.

Fuse the fusible fleece to each section you cut out.

After cutting and fusing these sections, cut ribbons that are a little bit longer than the width of the section. SET ASIDE THE BED AND WARDROBE sections!

Decorate the Interior and Exterior Pages

For the interior pages, I chose to keep it simple and make an indoor landscape with just the bunting and decoration but you could add an outdoor scene, a house, a castle, table and chairs, the sky is the limit!

For the exterior pages you could add a title, name or initial or leave it blank. It is pretty cute as it is with the coordinating print from this collection!

Prepare and attach handles and closure loop

Make the Handles

Next you want to add the book handles and closure loop to these pages.

Cut out a 4"x24" strip of handle fabric and fusible interfacing.

Fuse the interfacing to the handle fabric.

Iron the handle fabric in half long ways.

Unfold and iron down each edge .25 ".

With the handle fabric folded back in half with the raw edges folded in, top stitch the open edge closed.

Cut the sewn strip in half so that you have two pieces that are 4"x12".

Place the handles on the short ends of the page taking care that they are straddling the center with about 4 " in between.

Trim the handles down if you feel it is necessary.

Make sure the handles are inside the book, loops pointing toward each other, not pointing outside. They will be flipped out when you sew down the backing.

Tack down the handles with a few stitches near the edge of the book.

Make the Loop Closure*

Cut a 1"x6" strip of fabric.

Fold in half and iron.

Open and fold each edge in and iron down.

Fold the whole piece in so that your piece is approximately .25"x6".

Place between a handle on one side of the book and trim down the closure so that it will fit around your button.

Tack down your closure loop between the handles.

You want the loop to lay on the inside of the book, not outside.

* I chose to take a shortcut and use a loop of of Riley Blake's mini pom pom. You can also use ribbon too.

Assemble the Page

Take your outside fabric and lay it right sides together with the interior page. The handles and loop will be a little bulky. Just get the edges pinned together. Sew .5 " around the edges taking care to leave and opening for turning.

Turn your page right side out, slip stitch the opening closed.
SET ASIDE!.

Prepare your Wardrobe and Bed Page

Put a backing on your wardrobe panel by placing the backing fabric right sides together with the pocket panel.

Sew together only at the top!

Pin to the main bed and wardrobe panel taking care to match up the picture.

SET ASIDE!

Prepare the Clothing and Princess and Assemble the Page

Pin your princess and wardrobe pieces down to the scraps of your panel fabrics. You want to sandwich them so that they lay with the fusible fleece on the inside of the fabric panels. The edges are going to be left raw on this part so there will be no sewing and flipping right side out.

After pinning all your pieces down, take a ribbon and slip it between the sandwich pieces at the bottom of each motif, except on the hats pin them in on the sides. By doing this all your pieces will be attached and you will not be chasing dresses and the princess all around. You may have to cut some of your pieces out a bit to get to the bottom of the dresses. Just take care to leave as much fabric between the dresses as you can. You need wiggle room for sewing so don't cut too close to the design! When trimming down your design after sewing, take care to not clip the ribbons! Gasp! Did that...

After all the pieces have been sewn around the edges with ribbon intact, take all the ribbon pieces and pin them down to the middle of the bottom of the book.

Tack down with a few stitches.

Take all the ribbons and lay them flat stacked on top of each other, pin about 4 inches up from the edge. Put the motifs in the pocket center if you can. Just get everything away from the edges and the ribbon all together and going one direction.

Lay your backing fabric on top of all this. It will be bulky but remember you are just sewing down edges. Match the edges, pin and sew leaving and opening for turning.

Turn your pages right side out and slip stitch your opening closed.

Final Assembly

Stack your pages one on top of the other in the correct order and orientation. Find the center of the page on the top page which should be the bed and wardrobe.