Making an ABC book I

We threw my friend Faye a baby shower and of course that called for a suitably fun shower activity to keep people entertained. She nixed playing "guess how big around the pregnant lady is" because, let's face it, it's just mean. After at first deciding on decorating onsies with paint pens and then moving on to tie-dying onsies, we at last settled on making a baby's first ABC book. (not tie-dyed)

So... to the Internet!

My first google hit was a great post on making a paper book and then I found this one that was more of a cardstock affair. But I couldn't find any that were made from fabric. And I'm a fabric kind of girl. So my plan is to come up with something new and daring (I know, but after the helicopter flight, I felt like my adventure blog just doesn't have anywhere to go). So here is my very first ever tutorial. I'll skip all the unnecessary reasoning that went into each decision (such as why I chose sharpies - cheaper than paint pens) and instead stick with just the step by step.

Step One

You'll need about 2.5 yards of white cotton fabric. (nope, don't care what kind you use but make sure it's 45 inches wide)

15 sheets of 9x12 inch white felt

.25 yard of a fun contrasting fabric for the binding/cover

Permanent Color Markers (I used sharpies)

Scissors

sewing machine or thread and needle

Step 1

Wash your white fabric on the hottest setting, dry them, and then iron nice and flat.

Step 2

On your computer, create page of alphabet letters and "Baby's First ABC Book" and "Made with Love by:". Or you can cheat and use this PDF that I created.

Step 3

Cut 13 7x15 inch rectangles out of the white cotton.

Cut 26 6x6 inch squares out of the white felt

Step 4

Use the printed alphabet you've made to trace the letters onto each page. Opposite letters go together. So, for instance, A goes with Z, B goes with Y and so on and so forth. Make sure that you start with A on the right side of the page and B on the left side of the page, alternating as you go down the alphabet.

Step 5

Cut a 6 inch square guide out of cardboard or paper and trace the square on the out edges of each rectangle of white fabric leaving 1/2 inch seam allowance. In the picture below you can see that I folded the sheets in half and the markings bled through so I only had to do this 13 times instead of 26. These are the guides to ensure that guests do not draw into the seam allowance.

Step 6

Create an instruction sheet for guests (or you can cheat and use mine).

Step 7

Set out markers, pages, and box for completed pages. For your less inspired guests, you might have a few ABC books laying around nearby for "inspiration". I used pieces of cardboard cut from an old box and binder clips as clipboards. Sharpies bleed right through fabric so I don't recommend using just any old hard surface.

See Making an ABC book II for instructions on putting it together.