Learn How To Make Sensory Book For Babies

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Inside: If you were thinking about making a quiet book for your baby, here is how to make a little sensory book for babies easily and quickly.

If you just welcomed a new baby or expecting one, and you just happen to love making things, there is no better toy than making a little baby sensory book. Also called a baby quiet book, sensory books for babies are filled with different materials that encourage baby’s development and sensory exploration.

Nevertheless, encouraging a baby’s development from an early age with a simple toy will pay off later. You see, teaching your baby through play and will have a deep impact later on and decrease raising problems with the use of electronic and screen time.

What makes the baby sensory book so special

Babies explore the world around them with touch and get to know objects by feeling it. Quiet books for babies are filled with materials that encourage sensory exploration rather than activities to play with.

A quiet book filled with activities to learn and practice fine motor skills is great for young kids to play. Yet, you will have to wait a little bit before he really starts to play if you give it to a baby younger than 12 months. She will rather pull pieces or try to place them in her mouth.
A much better and age-appropriate book is a little sensory book, smaller in size than a quiet book for toddlers, filled with vivid colours and materials that are different in touch.

Little sensory baby book best fits babies between 6 months up to 18 months old. After the age of 18 months, you may start making a real busy book.

Reasons why should you start with a simple baby sensory book instead of activity quiet book:

quiet books are most appropriate for toddlers, while sensory books focus more on baby’s current milestone stage
if this is your first quiet book, it is much easier to make a small sensory book for babies with simple appliques than complicated learning activities
it makes great practice for you to get a concept of how it looks to make a quiet book – the easy way
you can use scraps and materials you already have (because you don’t need many materials) and start with a ridiculously low investment in a book
baby sensory book is a perfect personalized gift for a baby and a lovely keepsake for life

Read: Sewing hacks and inexpensive materials for making a baby quiet book

Baby books are usually very small, about 5 inches which make them easy to hold and explore.

Two main things you need are cotton fabric for pages and batting for inside pages. Sometimes I use fusible fleece to reinforce pages, but for baby books, I prefer quilting batting for a few reasons:

it reinforces pages so they don’t flip over
gives thickness to the pages so babies can easily grasp them
give extra softness to the pages and whole book

Instead of purchasing new materials, here are some ideas what can you use from your home and what can you repurpose for making a baby quiet book:

fabric scraps from old projects
felt scraps
repurpose old clothes that have interesting colours and textures (like old sweaters, coats, scarfs, baby clothes, baby blankets…) – you need just a small piece
ribbons
recycle old toys
keep interesting packaging bags (vinyl, plastic, foil)
buttons, snaps
wooden rings for teething

NOTE: Don’t forget to prewash and clean all the materials that will come in touch with a little one. Also, it is very important to secure all small pieces, especially buttons, that are choking hazards.

Little hacks for making a sensory baby book (coming soon …)

Making a sensory book for babies is easy

The other thing I like is its simplicity. Babies don’t know much yet. Everything you find around yourself is new to them and it will occupy their attention. If you pull out different textured fabrics you have a perfect ingredient for a baby book.

You may use premade pattern and make a themed book, or if you are going for a really simple (and inexpensive) project you may just cut shapes out of different materials and sew them onto fabric pages.

Here are some ideas.

For example, simple sensory books to learn colours made of scraps in different colours.

‘Things That Go’ is also a fun book where I used scraps and materials from households. I just finished this book for my 9-month old and he loves every single page. I’ve also created a sewing pattern with step by step instructions for each page. (Click for a pattern here).

And here is a simple book inspired by nature, animals, and fruits. (You can get the pattern here).

As you see, all these books are simple to make but yet so beneficial for babies. And, have to admit, totally cute. I have made some themed baby books in the past as a baby shower gift and they were a real hit.

My daughter is a preschooler now but still has her baby book in bed next to the pillow. When she wakes up at night she puts her ear on a little soft book to her story that the book tells and she falls asleep again. I just love how her story turned out.

A simple way to make quiet book pages and bind a quiet book in 6 steps

1. Start by cutting fabric rectangles in the desired size.
For a finished 5″ sized book, you have to cut cover page fabric in 11” x 5.5” size. You need two of these for cover pages.

2. For inner pages make slightly smaller rectangles, also two the same in each size.

3. Fold and iron on each rectangle in half, so you get two pages. This ironed line will help you arrange the center of pages and bind the book.
If you want stiffer pages iron-on fusible fleece on the back of the fabric, before sewing objects on pages.

4. Make objects for pages using different fabrics and materials.
If you are using a sewing pattern, the easiest way to transfer patterns is with freezer paper. (Read 3 Simple And Less Known Ways How To Transfer Pattern).

When all objects are sewn on pages you may start putting your book together.

Place the first two rectangles right side facing together, pin in place and stitch around the rectangle’s perimeter using 1/2″ seam allowance. Stitch all the way around, leaving a 3” opening in the lining for turning. Turn the pages inside out and stitch the opening. For thicker but soft pages add quilting batting between pages in this step.

NOTE: Leave an opening on both sides, right and left, it will be much easier to turn it on the right side.

5. Repeat with the rest rectangle pages using the same steps.

6. Finally, stack up all sewn pages and bind them together. Ironed crease marks are where you need to sew the book together. Use reinforced stitch.

And here you go. You get a perfect baby keepsake gift.

Hope this was useful to you. However, if you need sewing patterns with more detailed instructions (and step by step photos), you may get them with one of my baby book sewing patterns:
Nature baby book and Things that move.