Custom Fabric Photo Book

**I am no longer taking orders for these books.  Sorry!**

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!

**I am no longer taking orders for these books.  Sorry!**

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The Etsy Shop is now open!

It’s finally here!  The you & mie Etsy shop grand opening!  Well, it’s not that grand, but at least it’s an opening!  I had originally imagined I would create a stock of products and a whole line of children’s clothing, but I was being far too ambitious.  When the reality of just how much time I needed versus how much time I actually had sunk in, I decided to just post a few items at a time.

So I’m proud to finally share my first two products, the Custom Fabric Photo Book and the Fabric Color Book.  I’ve spent a lot of time developing these two books and I think they’ve come out really great.  They are definitely wonderful gifts for babies and young kids that will become treasured keepsakes.  I hope you take a look and like what you see!  If you know of anyone who might be interested, please pass on the links.  And remember, I will be adding a lot of other GREAT stuff soon, so check back often!

Thanks!

Sneak Peek: Fabric Books

I’ve been so absent from blogland this week 😦  But I’m still here and as busy as ever!  I wanted to show you a couple of things I’ve been working on.

I have two custom projects lined up for my friend Amy (yes, I’m taking custom orders – just email me!) and the first is a fabric photo book for her son, Julian.  She saw the one I made for Yuki and wanted one for Julian, especially he doesn’t get to see his family all that often.  I’m not done with it yet, but it’s coming together pretty nicely so far.  Here’s a few pics of the project in progress . . .

Hopefully I can finish this up by this weekend and start on the other project for Amy.  I’ll share about that one later.

And do you remember this sneak peek from FOREVER ago??  Well I was super psyched about this project back in SEPTEMBER and worked on it furiously for a few days and then it went into my “pending pile” to die 😦  But I’ve dug it out from the pile and I’m determined to give it new life!

That’s right, another fabric book, but this one is about colors!  And if all goes well, this will be available for purchase in the etsy shop!  It’s about half done now, but my goal is to finish them by early next week before the Thanksgiving madness.  Do you think I can I do it??