Tales of a Quiet Book, Braids Page - UPDATED

This page is perhaps the most friendly of all the pages as the smiling face waves hello. The inspiration came from two places. The face and hair came from Craftalicious, but the waving hand came from a pirate page at Orange Crafts. If I were to make this over again, I might add a little pocket to the shirt that would hold hair ties.

For more pages and some tips visit my Quiet Book page.

Materials Needed:
* Fabric (remember to pre-wash all fabrics)
* Felt for the face and hand
* Steam a Seam
* The template to lay out the page cut from card stock
* Pattern for this page (remember, when printing patterns UNCHECK THE FIT TO PAGE BOX)
* Ribbon for the shirt and for the hair
* Yarn
* Two buttons, one matching the flesh colored felt and another to anchor the hand from behind
* Eyelet/eyelet installation tools
* 9"x9" of reinforcement

Directions:
Cut the head out from the felt and the steam a seam. Place the felt head on the page and if you can see through it, cut another head from the felt. Embroider the face onto the felt. Here is a tutorial for how to embroider onto felt. I used a back stitch to create the face and filled the eyes with a chain stitch in a spiral.

Next, cut the shirt from fabric and steam a seam. Using the template, position the head and the shirt, then iron in place. Decorate the shirt however you like. I created the tuxedo shirt by first doing a basting stitch down the center of the ribbon, then pulling one of the strings to ruffle the ribbon. Then, I pinned and sewed each ribbon, one at a time.  Once you are done decorating, satin stitch first the head, then the shirt to attach to the page.

Cut the arm from the fabric and the steam a seam. Position and satin stitch into place.

Next you will attach the hair. Measure how long you want the hair (over shoot it), then just make it as thick as you like. To sew the hair to the page, I twisted the yarn bundle a couple times then placed it where I wanted the hair to lie and strategically sewed the hair in a few places. Give the girl a trim and add some barrettes (mine are just ribbons sewn on with a button).

Now to the hand. Cut one hand from felt and one from the reinforcement material, then sew the cut hands to another piece of felt. Install an eyelet in the lower middle of the palm. Attach the hand to the page by sewing the two buttons together through the eyelet.

Finish up by attaching a 1 1/2" binding.

For more pages and some tips visit my Quiet Book page.

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