Recreating a Vintage Vogue Quiet Book

The Vogue 1959 It’s a Zoo Quiet Book

My friend Sarah came across this Vintage Vogue Pattern, and dropped it off for me, not realizing that it’s for the same Quiet Book that my mum made for me when I was a baby. The pattern was published in 1978, the year I was born and now, 45 years later, I’m making my own.

The Turtle Page

Creating a quiet book is all about the little details! 🐢💕 I had so much fun incorporating different textures and fabrics into this turtle page. I had an idea to add a pocket to the inside of the shell, and fill it with button flowers.

The reader can replace the flower that the turtle is holding, and tuck the extras away into his shell pocket. Creating the pocket was very simple. I folded a piece of Petal Signature Cotton in half and lined up the fold 1″ from the inside shell pattern piece before cutting, I then basted the pocket to the inside piece of the shell before assembling. I took out one of the 4 snaps to accommodate the extra bulk created by the flowers. (the flowers are stuffed with fleece to make them a little poofy, and easier for little hands to hold)

The background is my ‘Pearl Diver e1eee6‘ solid – one of my favourite green undertones.

I used a combination of my own fabric design samples, cotton remnants and salvaged upholstery swatch books.

The key to using mixed materials for a project like this is to interface each piece really well. I alternated between SF101 fusible woven and a medium weight fusible non-woven polypropylene and added fleece wherever I wanted extra volume and stability.

For the applique I basted each piece in place at a scant 1/8″ before machine embroidering over the edges. I used a domestic Mason, with the stitch length set to almost zero, and the width set to 5. This technique uses a lot of thread, so be sure to check that your bobbin is full before each pass.

The back of the page is made from Spoonflower Recycled Canvas in my ‘New York State Flower Roses‘ design in Coral and Sage. For this piece I used 2 layers of SF101 and a layer of fusible fleece (cut to fit inside the seam allowance) The binding piece is my ‘Macadamia Tree‘ in Peach on Spoonflower Cotton Poplin, also with 2 layers of SF101. This is where the grommets will be installed at the end of the project.