Handmade fabric book ideas: a wonderful gift for babies
Many of you may have made one during pregnancy.
Cloth books are popular as toys for babies and are often given as gifts.
In this article, we introduce handmade ideas for cloth books.
There are many types of cloth books: interactive ones that promote finger development, story-style books, and those that help children learn colors and numbers.
We also share a variety of ideas here, so please use them as a reference and try making one.
It will surely become a memorable gift.
Handmade Cloth Book Ideas: A Lovely Gift for Babies (1–10)
Cloth Picture Book “Picture Matching”
This is a cloth picture book where you can enjoy matching fruit pictures.
Each page is divided into three sections that can be flipped.
Turn one piece at a time to complete the picture.
When the picture on the left page is aligned, the right page shows the fruit’s name in hiragana, katakana, and English, making it a great choice as an educational toy.
It’s a highly recommended idea for anyone thinking of creating an interactive picture book.
Besides fruits, you could also try making versions with popular characters or vehicles that children love.
Cloth Picture Book: Kuma-chan’s Day
This is a cloth picture book featuring a little bear as the main character, and it teaches daily routines from waking up to bedtime.
After waking up in the morning, wash your face and brush your teeth; after going to the toilet, it’s time to get dressed.
Eat a meal, do the laundry, take a bath, and then go to sleep in bed.
Many children who receive cloth picture books are still quite young, but this one is highly recommended because it helps them learn many important parts of daily life.
There are many pieces to make, but it’s a book that can be enjoyed for a long time, so please give it a try!
Cloth picture book “Nursery Rhymes”
This is an idea for a cloth picture book that expresses the world of children’s songs.
The pages are divided into spring, summer, autumn, and winter, and on each page you can enjoy several nursery rhymes that match the season.
For example, for spring, the book depicts a scene with cherry blossoms, tulips, and rapeseed flowers in bloom, and you can move a butterfly attached with a ribbon on the book while singing songs like “Tulips” and “Butterfly.” Because the scenery of the songs is right in front of them, children can more easily imagine the world of the lyrics, which may deepen their understanding of the nursery rhymes.
It’s also nice that there are features that let kids use their fingertips.
A play-and-learn pop-up book
This is a pop-up book packed with activities you can enjoy.
From threading a mouse through a holey cheese, to an animal puzzle, brushing a hippo’s teeth, and hands you can play rock-paper-scissors with—it’s full of fun ideas! You can even go fishing, which is a big hit with kids.
With just one book, your child is sure to be completely absorbed in play! It might be a bit of work to make, but once it’s finished, it’s an idea that will keep them entertained for a long time, so definitely give it a try! If making everything is difficult, you can just pick your favorite ideas and make those.
Cloth Picture Book: The World of Ghibli
Studio Ghibli, known for many works beloved by children like My Neighbor Totoro and Ponyo, is the inspiration for this cloth picture book.
It expresses the world of Ghibli, and since it incorporates motifs from most of their child-friendly works, it’s a picture book that’s fun to look at on its own.
But it also includes features that let children use their fingertips: opening windows, winding a soot sprite with a string around a button, moving beads, and more.
There are also puzzles, a train play set, even finger puppets! With so much packed in, kids are likely to stay engaged without getting bored.
A fabric picture book you assemble
This is a fabric picture book you can assemble.
What that means is, when you turn the page you’ll see felt shapes that don’t look like much at first, but if you put them together in the right order, they become a bag, a cup, or a lunch box! It’s a picture book, but the 3D, hands-on play is what makes it so fun.
You can put a cake on a plate and drink juice from a cup, or pack sausages, vegetables, and fruit into a lunch box—perfect for pretend play.
You can also swap out the cake and foods with your own creative ideas!
Cloth picture book “Anpanman”
It’s a cloth picture book featuring the popular children’s character Anpanman.
Kids can experience brushing their teeth, eating, getting dressed, tidying up, taking a bath, and more together with various characters.
It satisfies children who want to do things by themselves and also nurtures their desire to try doing things on their own.
Since there aren’t many parts, I think it’s a relatively easy idea to make.
Also, this one comes as a tote, so it’s nice that children can carry it themselves when going out!