I’m so excited to share this project with you because it is definitely one of my favorite creations thus far.  I love it because my daughter really loves it.  It’s totally one-of-a-kind, made with love for each specific child.  It’s definitely not something you can just buy in a store.  So here’s the story behind the book.

I thought of the idea back when Yuki was very young and a bunch of things kinda came together.  1. Although we loved reading her books, they didn’t stay nice very long.  Yuki would bite off pieces or rip them out with her hands.  Despite our best efforts, most of our books ended up looking like this . . .

Even the heavy duty board books would not withstand the powerful combination of saliva and baby teeth that Yuki would inflict upon it.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have a book that really wouldn’t tear?

2. Yuki loved looking at faces.  She loved photos of friends and family members and even strangers.  Babies just like looking at faces.  We also have family that doesn’t live near by, so wouldn’t it be nice to have pictures that she could look at to learn their faces?

3. I found this awesome color fabric book online at Homegrown Happy:

And there are a lot of other amazing fabric books out there too.  Clearly, fabric books were not an original idea, but I LOVED it.  A soft, durable, unique book with pages perfect for little fingers and the potential to become a treasured keepsake.  The possibilities were endless – a color book, a book of shapes, textures, a peek-a-boo book!  But first, a photo book.

The first book I made was with iron on transfers.  I’d used these several times before to make t-shirts and they seemed to hold up pretty well in the wash (a very important test for anything that will be around babies).  I chose photos of all of Yuki’s family members.  I printed them as 5×5 squares and ironed them onto white cotton.

The rest of the book was just kinda made up as I went along.  I cut strips of fabric and made borders around the photos.  I sewed all the pages together with an embroidered cover and a velcro closure.  It came out exactly how I imagined it to be.  I was so pleased!

The best part about it has been watching my daughter interact with it over the last year.  First she would just stare as we turned the pages.  Then she learned how to turn the pages herself.  We’ve seen the recognition on her face as she saw each familiar face.  Now that she’s learned to kiss, her favorite activity is flipping through the book and giving a kiss to all her relatives.  It melts my heart!!  And soon she’ll be able to start saying their names as she points to each smiling face.  I know that this book will stay with us for a LONG time.  Maybe even until she is an adult and can look back at her family as they were in 2011.

In that bottom picture she is leaned over kissing a picture of Hideko’s dad, who passed away over a decade ago.  She’ll never get to meet him, but she’s so familiar with his face because she looks at this picture of him all the time.  It’s very sweet.

The next photo book I made was for a friend’s son, Julian.  For this book I used printable cotton (instead of iron on transfers).  It’s fabric that feeds through your printer and you can print directly on it.  Then you can iron them on to something or sew them and they are permanent!  I really like the results.  The images are sharp and the fabric is very sturdy.

And that’s the story behind the fabric photo book!  Do you know a little someone who’d like one of these?  If so, this truly unique, one-of-a-kind, and long lasting gift could be in their precious hands by Christmas!  I’m taking ONE more order for a custom book before the holidays, then I’m totally booked like crazy with projects, so if you’re interested, buy NOW!  SOLD OUT!

After the holiday madness, I’ll be taking more orders again, so don’t stress if you missed it this time

Here’s the link!