Baby Picture Cloth Book - Free sewing patterns

Make a treasured possesion for a new baby with this bright cloth picture book. Full of simple shapes in fresh colours, each page has a tactile element with the use of felt, ric rac and gathered lace. The middle page also has a piece of florist’s cellophane wrap inside it to make it sound crackly to appeal to baby.

Essentials

Fabric, cotton: spotted, blue, two, yellow, pink, 19cm x 35cm for each; patterned, seven types, 5cm x 19cm each; various prints, scraps
Felt: yellow; red; green; orange
Wadding, lightweight
Ric rac: red; blue; green; orange; silver
Lace trim
Cellophane wrap, 19cm x 35cm
Interfacing, fusible, ightweight

Dimensions List

17cm square

Make a baby book

Download the templates for this project. Using the templates provided on the pattern pages, cut out all the picture pieces from felt and cotton fabrics of your choice. Back the cotton fabrics with interfacing. Each page follows the same format, with a simple coloured background and coordinating side panel, ric rac trim across the bottom and a different coloured trim along the join of the side panels.
Cut a pink spotty fabric, 19cm x 35cm, and stitch a length of cotton lace across it, 3.5cm from the bottom edge. Cut out two fabric side panels, 5cm x 19cm, which contrast but are in the same colour palette. Pin them to both short edges, right sides facing and stitch close to the edge. Iron on the reverse and then topstitch a length of ric rac to cover the join.
Pin the pieces for the flower and apple on each side, so when the fabric is folded, the apple will be on the front and the flower on the back. Machine stitch around all the raw edges and write ‘apple’, ‘flower’ and ‘My First Book’ in navy thread. Iron on the reverse. Repeat for the next pages using a blue spotty fabric as the background and stitching on the heart and house motifs.
Cut wadding, 19cm x 35cm, and lay the pink and blue pages on top, right sides together, then stitch around with a 1cm seam allowance. Leave an 8cm gap at the bottom for turning. Trim the excess fabric across the corners and excess wadding close to the stitching, then turn right sides out. Close the gap and press. Finish the pages by stitching all the way around, 3mm in from the edge.
Follow the same process for the middle pages, adding the duck and boat motifs to a blue background fabric and the tree and bird pieces to a yellow material. Stitch and embellish as before. Iron on the reverse of both pieces.
This time, when pinning the two sides of the pages together with the wadding, insert cellophane wrap, 19cm x 35cm, in between the wadding and fabric before stitching. Turn out as before. To finish, lay the pages on top of each other and stitch down the middle.